Byron Avenges 2002 in Dramatic Darlington Finish

(DARLINGTON, SC – MAY 14, 2023 – RIS) William Byron scored his third season win and first win for Hendrick Motorsports at Darlington in eleven years – since Gordon was 14 years old. After his grandfather's passing this week and his sister's college graduation this weekend, Byron’s family are all in New York so his family celebration will have to wait. “Yeah, it's pretty amazing,” Byron said after the race. “My granddad passed away on Thursday, and just man, I wish my family could be here. Just things have a way of working out, honestly. It just worked out that way today. We didn't have the best third stage. We just kept battling, and things just kind of came back around.

It took Martin Truex Jr a couple of laps to cement the lead from fellow front row qualifier Bubba Wallace at the start of the race, the pair opening a gap of over two seconds over third-place William Byron by the tenth lap.

Fluid on the track brought out a caution on lap with the leaders all pitting for fuel and tires, Truex exiting the pits in the lead and William Byron’s crew getting him off pit road just ahead of Wallace with Ross Chastain fourth and Kyle Busch up to fifth from starting twelfth.

Truex leaped out to the lead on the restart with Byron and Wallace battling for second before Wallace pulled ahead to resume the pre-caution order. 

Kyle Busch moved around Chastain into fourth place, with the top ten running in a 14-second spread until Byron got around Wallace for second about ten laps before the end of the first stage with Truex, Byron and Wallace the top three.

Truex, Byron, Keselowski, Chastain and Kyle Busch led the field to the restart. Wallace’s car had a problem with the right rear wheel not seated properly on his stop and he dropped to 19th after the pit stops.

By the midpoint of Stage Two, Truex had a lead of about three and a half seconds over Byron, who held a half second gap ahead of Chastain. Pit stops under green meant the first time Truex was not leading, with Dale Blaney inheriting the lead over Wallace until the younger Blaney pitted to send Truex back to the lead ahead of Byron.

Ross Chastain easily passed Truex for the lead on lap 150, settling into a lead of about seven tenths of a second while Kyle Busch moved in on Byron to take third place on lap 162 with Kyle Larson getting around his Hendrick teammate a few laps later.

On the final lap of the second stage, Truex made an attempt to pass Chastain for the lead but spun after contact with Chastain, dropping to tenth as the yellow flag ended the stage. Kyle Busch followed Chastain across the line, followed by Kyle Larson, William Byron and Brad Keselowski.

Kyle Larson overcame the earlier pit stop problem to lead at the restart but a multi-car crash entering the back straight when Erik Jones’ car had a right-rear wheel fall off, spinning the No. 43 in the middle of the pack and collecting numerous other cars. Some of those involved were Austin Cindric, Todd Gilliland, Noah Gragson, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon. Larson was scored as leader ahead of Chastain at the time of the caution, with Kyle Busch just ahead of William Byron and Kevin Harvick fifth.

The post-caution restart looked like a replay of last week’s final lap as Chastain and Larson raced side-by-side for the lead. Chastain prevailed and Kyle Busch, followed by William Byron, got around for second and third.

Ricky Stenhouse spun on the apron with a flat left rear tire for the fifth caution in the race. Exiting his pit stall, Ross Chastain pulled across pit road and kept both Kyle Busch and William Byron from getting around him, with the trio followed by Larson and Keselowski as the top five approaching the restart.

Kyle Busch put a “Darlington Stripe” on the right side of his car, dropping to fourth, then Ty Gibbs brushed the wall. Green flag pit stops let Harvick lead briefly, followed by Bubba Wallace, Hamlin and Larson led then Bell and Chastain moved into third and fourth. Hamlin, on older tires, was lapping some two seconds slower than Larson. Hamlin pitted, ceding the lead to Larson, Christian Bell, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. William Byron’s slow pit stop, at 11.5 seconds, dropped him to the back of the top ten and he got to seventh with 20 lap to run.

Ryan Newman spun by himself off of the fourth turn, setting up a late series of pit stops with Larson edging Chastain on exit, setting up a late restart. Christopher Bell drove back to the pits with a suspected loose lug nut, sending Larson to the lead position, flanked by Chastain, Truex, Logano, Elliott and Keselowski. Truex spun on the restart after slipping into Logano, triggering a second multi-car crash. Truex was unable to continue, with Reddick, Logano, Harvick, Elliott, Keselowski, Almirola and Blaney all involved in the incident but able to continue.

Chastain went to the inside for the restart with Larson to his right. William Byron lined up fourth, with Elliott fifth and Keselowski next to Harvick.

With seven laps to go at the restart, Chastain and Larson got into the wall on the restart when Chastain seemed to move up on Larson who had no room to move to his right. William Byron took the lead as the pair crashed, with Chase Elliott third and Brad Keselowski fourth as the pack re-formed. Byron is the only race winner this season in the top eight, with Kyle Busch running ninth.

Harvick and Byron restarted cleanly, with Byron pulling ahead of the damaged No. 4 Ford to take his third race of the 2023 season, the hundredth for the No. 24 car and the 296th victory for Hendrick Motorsports.

Chase Elliott took third, with Keselowski, Wallace, Harrison Burton, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher the top ten.

“My sister just graduated school, so big day," said Byron. "Definitely didn't expect this. But just thankful for a great team. Just things have a way of working out, and to come back here to Darlington and have it go exactly the other way.”

Byron described his development as a driver: “I was too young at the time I feel like, but growing up, maturing and just having a great team around me and being able to build the core that we have. I have a great group of guys - Rudy (Fugle, crew chief), Brandon McSwain, Tyler (Jones, car chief), everybody on the team does a great job preparing good cars, and we work hard at it. It's nice to see it go our way once.”

“I wanted to squeeze him,” said Chastain after the race, admitting that he spun himself in the final incident.

Kevin Harvick “had a good car all day. We just could never get up toward the front. Our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang struggled in traffic today, but we were really good at the second half of the run and just struggled at the beginning of the run. We had good track position and then had a bad pit stop under green, but had everything work out at the end. I didn’t have anything for William. The front is tore up pretty good, but they did a great job and just kind of kept ourselves in the game and you never know what’s gonna happen.”

Chase Elliott said “I feel like our car was plenty good the whole day – I just did a terrible job getting up there all day. I just need to try to improve – I certainly have a long ways to go.”

“We had a lot of strength all weekend – just needed a little bit more speed. The last few restarts I picked the top lane and everybody wrecked up top,” said Keselowski.

Rick Hendrick: it’s really special because the car we’ve got like that back in the museum is faded so now we have a fresh one.”

Bubba Wallace lamented that: “unfortunately we had that one bad pit stop that set us behind, but this team never gives up. It feels good to rebound fifth. I keep looking at that pylon and I’m still pissed off. There are a couple cars up there that were in a wreck that got put back in front of us,” he said, adding: “I thought we were a second-place car to the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.). All in all for Dr. Pepper, Toyota, this 23 team, proud of our guys, proud of the pit crew for rebounding and giving us a shot with a good points day.”

Martin Truex commented: “When we got into (Ross) Chastain there at the end of the second stage going for the win in that, it knocked the toe out so we were tight from there on out. Just an unfortunate deal. There was plenty of room there, but he just came off the wall and hit me. Like I said, knocked the toe out in the right front. Pretty crappy from there and then on that restart I guess I just got real tight and I don’t even know who I squeezed into the wall, but I apologize to them. Probably my fault, just got real tight and couldn’t stay down the track.”

Unofficial Results: Goodyear 400, May 14, 2023 - Darlington Raceway
Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 4, William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Throwback Chevrolet, 295, 2, 4, 2, 7, 5, 56, Running
2) 20, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 SunnyD Ford, 295, 8, 7, 2, 5, , 42, Running
3) 21, Chase Elliott, No. 9 LLumar Throwback Chevrolet, 295, , , , , , 34, Running
4) 10, Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Castrol GTX Ford, 295, 6, 5, , , , 44, Running
5) 2, Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Dr Pepper Toyota, 295, 3, , 3, 3, , 40, Running
6) 14, Harrison Burton, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford, 295, , , , , , 31, Running
7) 12, Kyle Busch, No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet, 295, 5, 2, , , , 45, Running
8) 22, Justin Haley, No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, 295, , , , , , 29, Running
9) 11, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford, 295, , 8, 2, 4, , 31, Running
10) 27, Chris Buescher, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford, 295, , , , , , 27, Running
11) 24, Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Serial1.com E-Bikes Ford, 295, , , , , , 26, Running
12) 8, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Federal Express Toyota, 295, , , 1, 9, , 25, Running
13) 3, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger/Country Crock Chevrolet, 295, 7, 9, , , , 30, Running
14) 16, Christopher Bell, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota, 295, 10, 6, , , , 29, Running
15) 32, Ryan Preece, No. 41 United Rentals Ford, 295, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 13, Ty Gibbs #, No. 54 Shriners Children's Toyota, 295, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 31, Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford, 295, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 15, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 295, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 25, Austin Cindric, No. 2 Freightliner Ford, 295, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 7, Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Throwback Chevrolet, 295, , 3, 3, 29, , 25, Running
21) 17, Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 295, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 9, Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Forward Together Toyota, 295, 9, , , , , 17, Running
23) 30, AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 BTS Tire & Wheel Distributors Chevrolet, 294, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 34, Corey LaJoie, No. 7 NationsGuard Chevrolet, 293, , , , , , 13, Running
25) 28, Erik Jones, No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet, 293, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 29, Noah Gragson #, No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevrolet, 293, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 33, Ty Dillon, No. 77 Honest Charley Speed Shop Chevrolet, 293, , , , , , 10, Running
28) 26, Ryan Newman, No. 51 Biohaven/Jacob Co. Ford, 291, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 5, Ross Chastain, No. 1 Worldwide Express/UPS Chevrolet, 287, 4, 1, 4, 93, 1, 25, Accident
30) 23, Josh Berry(i), No. 48 Ally Throwback Chevrolet, 286, , , , , , 0, Running
31) 1, Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota, 280, 1, 10, 2, 145, 1, 17, Accident
32) 35, BJ McLeod, No. 78 The Daily Down Force Chevrolet, 226, , , , , , 5, Steering
33) 19, Michael McDowell, No. 34 StageFront.VIP Ford, 200, , , , , , 4, Accident
34) 6, Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Quaker State Chevrolet, 199, , , , , , 3, Accident
35) 18, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, 196, , , , , , 2, Accident
36) 36, Brennan Poole(i), No. 15 Macc Door Systems Ford, 39, , , , , , 0, Transmission
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Race Length: 295 Laps -  402.97 Miles
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 23 Mins, 23 Secs.
Average Speed: 118.88 MPH
Margin of Victory: .781 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 19, 24, 23, 1, 8, 6, 47, 4, 45, 20
Stage 2 Top 10: 1, 8, 5, 24, 6, 20, 4, 12, 47, 19

Comments: William Byron has won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, his seventh career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Prior to the start, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reason(s) indicated: Nos. 7, 15 (Unapproved adjustments)

Cautions: 8 for 47 laps;
Laps: 39-43 (Fluid on track [16]);
92-98 (Stage 1 Conclusion [17]);
186-193 (Stage 2 Conclusion [41]);
195-201 (Nos. 2, 38, 42, 99, 43, 51, 34, 3, 54 Incident Backstretch [17]);
211-215 (No. 47 Spin Turn 3 [31]);
277-280 (No. 51 Spin Turn 4 [54]);
282-287 (No. 19, 45, 22, 4, 9, 6, 10, 12 Incident Turn 1 [47]);
289-293 (Nos. 1, 5 Incident Turn 1 [2]).

Lead Changes: 19 among 8 drivers;
M. Truex Jr. 0;
B. Wallace 1;
M. Truex Jr. 2-138;
R. Blaney 139-141;
B. Wallace 142;
M. Truex Jr. 143-150;
R. Chastain 151-189;
K. Larson 190-202;
R. Chastain 203-247;
K. Harvick 248-251;
R. Blaney 252;
B. Wallace 253;
D. Hamlin 254-262;
K. Larson 263-276;
R. Chastain 277;
K. Larson 278-279;
R. Chastain 280-287;
W. Byron 288-292;
K. Harvick 293;
W. Byron 294-295.

Unofficial Points: Goodyear 400 - Darlington Raceway
Rank Driver        Car   Starts        GL     Points        Ldr    Nxt    Race Wins  Stage Wins Playoff Pts
1)      Ross Chastain      1       13     0       429    0       0       0       5       5
2)      Christopher Bell   20     13     0       402    -27    27     1       0       5
3)      Kevin Harvick       4       13     2       400    -29    2       0       1       1
4)      Denny Hamlin      11     13     0       393    -36    7       1       2       7
5)      William Byron      24     13     4       387    -42    6       3       6       16
6)      Martin Truex Jr    19     13     -3      385    -44    2       1       1       6
7)      Ryan Blaney         12     13     0       381    -48    4       0       0       0
8)      Tyler Reddick       45     13     -2      371    -58    10     1       2       7
9)      Brad Keselowski   6       13     1       365    -64    6       0       1       1
10)    Kyle Larson 5       13     -2      363    -66    2       2       2       12
11)    Kyle Busch  8       13     1       353    -76    10     2       0       10
12)    Joey Logano         22     13     -1      334    -95    19     1       2       7
13)    Chris Buescher    17     13     0       329    -100  5       0       0       0
14)    Ricky Stenhouse Jr       47     13     0       325    -104  4       1       0       5
15)    Bubba Wallace     23     13     3       293    -136  32     0       0       0
16)    Chase Briscoe      14     13     1       275    -154  18     0       0       0
17)    Alex Bowman                10     -2      270    -159  5       0       0       -5
18)    Daniel Suarez       99     13     -2      262    -167  8       0       0       0
19)    Ty Gibbs #  54     13     0       260    -169  2       0       0       0
20)    Austin Cindric      2       13     1       248    -181  12     0       1       1
21)    Michael McDowell 34     13     -1      241    -188  7       0       0       0
22)    Todd Gilliland      38     13     1       240    -189  1       0       0       0
23)    Corey LaJoie        7       13     -1      238    -191  2       0       0       0
24)    Justin Haley         31     13     3       225    -204  13     0       0       0
25)    Erik Jones  43     13     -1      221    -208  4       0       0       0
26)    Aric Almirola        10     13     -1      221    -208  0       0       1       1
27)    AJ Allmendinger   16     13     -1      214    -215  7       0       0       0
28)    Chase Elliott        9       7       1       212    -217  2       0       1       1
29)    Ryan Preece 41     13     -1      201    -228  11     0       1       1
30)    Harrison Burton   21     13     1       176    -253  25     0       0       0
31)    Austin Dillon        3       13     -1      166    -263  10     0       0       -5
32)    Noah Gragson #   42     13     0       138    -291  28     0       0       0
33)    Ty Dillon     77     13     0       110    -319  28     0       0       0
34)    BJ McLeod  78     9       1       70     -359  40     0       0       0
35)    Cody Ware           7       -1      65     -364  5       0       0       0
36)    Travis Pastrana             1       0       26     -403  39     0       0       0
37)    Jenson Button              1       0       19     -410  7       0       0       0
38)    Jordan Taylor                1       0       16     -413  3       0       0       0
39)    Jimmie Johnson            2       0       11     -418  5       0       0       0
40)    Ryan Newman      51     1       0       9       -420  2       0       0       0
41)    Conor Daly           2       -1      9       -420  0       0       0       0
42)    Kimi Raikkonen             1       -1      8       -421  1       0       0       0
43)    Jonathan Davenport               1       0       1       -428  7       0       0       0
44)    Josh Bilicki(i)                2       -2      0       -429  1       0       0       0
45)    Josh Berry(i)        48     8       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
46)    Riley Herbst         2       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
47)    Jj Yeley                9       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
48)    Zane Smith          4       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
49)    Chandler Smith             1       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
50)    Austin Hill           1       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
51)    Brennan Poole(i)   15     3       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
52)    Anthony Alfredo            2       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
53)    Matt Crafton                 1       -1      0       -429  0       0       0       0
 -Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series