William Byron rallied from a difficult start to his 2026 Chase during last weekend’s Chase opener at Darlington Raceway to post a top-five result in the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday, September 13.
The two-time Daytona 500 champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, took the green flag during Sunday’s event in Madison, Illinois, in 24th place. After steering clear of four caution periods that spanned 16 laps through the first 32-scheduled laps, Byron, who was among a handful of competitors who strategically pitted prior to a Lap 32 restart, managed to navigate his way to post a 15th-place result at the conclusion of the first stage period.
Restarting in fourth place for the start of the second stage period on Lap 52, Byron remained on the track and raced inside of the top-five mark before he pitted with a majority of the field under caution just past the Lap 60 mark. After being shuffled back towards the bottom half of the top-10 mark for the next restart on Lap 69, Byron eventually got shuffled out of the top 10 and settled in 15th place for a second consecutive stage period when the latest stage concluded under caution. By then, however, Byron was unable to accumuluate any stage points during the event’s first two stage periods.
Restarting in 14th place for the third and final stage period with 100 laps remaining, Byron’s event went south when he ran into the left front of a spinning Bubba Wallace after Wallace had gotten loose and spun both himself and Chase Briscoe from contact through the first two turns. The hit into Wallace’s left-front area along with teammate Alex Bowman bumping into the rear of Byron’s No. 24 Phorm Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry sent the latter spinning towards the backstretch’s infield. In the aftermath, Byron managed to nurse his damaged entry back to pit road for repairs and rejoin the track within the top-30 mark for the next restart with 94 laps remaining.
As the final stage period progressed, numerous Chasers that included Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott, the latter of whom is Byron’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, would be involved in on-track carnages that would eliminate them from race-winning contention, with Elliott being eliminated from finishing the event following his hard accident with Briscoe entering the first turn with 27 laps remaining.
Amid the incidents, Byron, who dodged the carnages, spent a majority of the final stage period racing within the midpack region. Following a late four-tire pit stop under the final 40 laps with the field during a caution period, Byron took the green flag during the next restart with 35 laps remaining in 14th place. Within the final 20 laps, he navigated his way into the top-10 mark and was racing in fifth place when a late caution period with seven laps remaining sent the event into overtime. Through a pair of overtime attempts, Byron managed to work his way up to fourth place and retain the spot when he crossed the finish line and took the checkered flag in his respective spot.
With the result, Byron, who was part of a Hendrick Motorsports’ 1-2-4 finish that included race winner Kyle Larson and runner-up Alex Bowman, notched his fourth top-five result of the 2026 season, his first since he finished fourth at Chicagoland Speedway in early July and his 11th top-10 result overall this season. He also notched his second top-10 result in five total starts at World Wide Technology Raceway in a Cup car.
Prior to Gateway, Byron was mired at the tail end of the Chase standings in 16th place and trailing the points lead by 114 points. This was due to the Charlotte native finishing 37th of the 38-car field from last weekend’s Chase opener at Darlington Raceway for the Southern 500 due to a late spin and engine failure. After Gateway, Byron continues to trail the points lead by 114 points, but he gained a spot to 15th place in the standings.
Despite being pleased with the rally, the top-five result and Hendrick Motorsports’ race victory with Larson, Byron emphasized his focus in utilizing his momentum from Gateway towards the remaining eight Chase races to draw himself back within championship contention and contend for his first title.
[We] Worked our tail off for that [result],” Byron said on USA Network. “We had a lot of nose damage when [Wallace] spun and got into him. [The car] looked like [it] still had a hole in the nose there at the end. Just proud of our team, but proud of Hendrick Motorsports as a whole. Great to see Kyle [Larson] win, the No. 5 team. They did a great job. They were fast all day. We competed really hard and tried to continue to put ourselves in position. Just kind of a grind it out day. Just got to keep going and we don’t quit. We’re just going to keep moving foward and this is a good shot in the arm to get a good result and some good restarts at the end.”
William Byron’s 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship resumes this upcoming Saturday, September 19, at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennesssee, for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
