William Byron erased a season-long winless drought by notching a dominant NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, November 1.
The two-time Daytona 500 champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, led three times for a race-high 362 of 500-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in eighth place, strategically pitted under green flag from sixth place with a host of competitors on Lap 65, and utilized his fresh tires to carve his way back up the leaderboard and assume the lead for the first time on Lap 125 before he secured the first stage victory five laps later.
Byron proceeded to lead every lap of the second stage period that was mired with four caution periods en route to the latest stage victory. He then maintained the top spot for the start of the final stage period with 238 laps remaining. Despite surrendering the lead twice throughout the final stage period to make his scheduled pit stops under green, Byron cycled back to the lead on both instances, including his final cycle atop the leaderboard with 74 laps remaining. From there, he held off teammate Chase Elliott to notch his first elusive Cup Series victory of the 2026 season and win for the first time since winning at the fall Martinsville event a year ago.
With on-track qualifying determining the starting lineup on Saturday, October 31, Denny Hamlin secured his sixth Cup pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap of 98.492 mph in 19.226 seconds. Teammate Ty Gibbs started alongside Hamlin on the front row and in the second-place starting spot with a lap at 98.241 mph in 19.275 seconds.
Prior to the event, Cody Ware dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to his No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Denny Hamlin, who elected to start on the outside lane, bolted his No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead of teammate Ty Gibbs, with Hamlin quickly transitioning to the inside lane through the first two turns. With the field of 37 competitors filing in two-by-two formation for a full cycle, Hamlin motored away to lead the first lap. After leading the second lap, however, Hamlin had a shift that did not go into gear. This caused the latter to go wide through Turns 3 and 4 as Ty Gibbs moved his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE entry into the lead on the third lap.
Gibbs led Hamlin by half a second on the fifth lap, and the former retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over the latter while Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry followed suit, respectively. Behind, Tyler Reddick occupied 11th place in front of Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland, Austin Hill, Connor Zilisch, Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar and Brad Keselowski, respectively, as Gibbs continued to lead Hamlin by three-tenths of a second at the Lap 25 mark.
Through the Lap 35 mark, Gibbs stabilized his early advantage by half a second over Hamlin while third-place Preece trailed by one-and-a-half seconds. Behind, Larson and Logano both trailed by two seconds apiece in the top-five mark and Byron trailed by three seconds in sixth place. Gibbs’ advantage over Hamlin then shrunk down to three-tenths of a second on Lap 40 and by a tenth of a second over the next five laps before Hamlin reassumed the lead on Lap 47.
By Lap 50, Hamlin led teammate Gibbs by half a second before Preece assumed the runner-up spot from Gibbs six laps later. Hamlin’s advantage increased by more than a second over Preece on Lap 60 before Bell pitted under green a lap later. More names that included Noah Gragson, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger and Zane Smith would then pit before Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland pitted by Lap 64. Byron, Cindric, Elliott, Reddick and Chastain would all pit by Lap 65 along with Austin Hill, Shane van Gisbergen, Ty Dillon, Cole Custer, Bubba Wallace and Josh Berry while several, including Hamlin, remained on the track and opted to stretch their tires to the first stage’s conclusion.
By Lap 75, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon pitted as Hamlin led by two-tenths of a second over Preece. With Logano, Larson and Briscoe racing in the top-five mark, Preece overtook Hamlin for the lead nine laps later. As Preece stretched his lead by nearly two seconds over Hamlin on Lap 90, only seven competitors were scored on the lead lap amid the mix pit strategies between the competitors who elected to pit and those who remained on the track to stretch their tires to the first stage’s conclusion. By then, the leaders were mired in lapped traffic while those who pitted started to reel in and un-lap themselves from the lead lap competitors.
Just past the Lap 100 mark, Preece extended his lead up by five seconds over Hamlin while Logano, Larson, Byron, Briscoe, Gibbs, Buescher, Bell and Bowman followed suit, respectively. By then, 13 competitors were scored on the lead lap. As the laps proceeded, Hamlin started to fall off the pace with his worn tires. By Lap 110, he was overtaken by Byron for the runner-up spot before he would be overtaken by Logano a lap later for third place. Hamlin dropped to sixth place on Lap 115 before he was mired back in 13th place on Lap 120. Meanwhile, Larson was strapped in 16th place, and Briscoe was in 18th place while Bell, the latter of whom pitted, was up to fourth place.
On Lap 125, Byron overtook Preece for the lead. Despite being in heavy lapped traffic as Gibbs motored his way into the runner-up spot, Byron lapped Larson on Lap 129 as Larson faded outside the top-20 mark. By then, Hamlin and Briscoe had also plummeted towards the top-20 mark as Gibbs reeled in and intimidated Byron for the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 130, Byron fended off Gibbs and motored his way to his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Gibbs followed suit in second ahead of third-place Preece while Bell, Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott were scored in the top 10, respectively. With seven Chase contenders (Byron, Gibbs, Preece, Bell, Cindric, Reddick and Elliott) racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Chasers that include Wallace, Blaney, Logano, Hamlin, Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, Larson, Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar were scored in 11th, 13th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 26th and 27th, respectively. By then, Suarez, the first competitor scored a lap down in 22nd place, was awarded the free pass over 23rd-place Larson as the latter along with Hamlin and Briscoe did not accumulate stage points.
Under the event’s first stage break period, 21 competitors scored on the lead lap and led by Byron pitted, including Hamlin. Following the pit stops, Byron retained the lead by exiting pit road first over Gibbs, Bell, Preece, Bowman, Cindric, Elliott, Berry, Chastain and Reddick followed suit, respectively. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired in 15th place while Larson was ranked in 24th place and a lap down.
The second stage period started on Lap 141 as Byron and Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Byron used the inside lane to motor his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead of Gibbs and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. Byron led the next lap and he proceeded to lead between two-tenths and three-tenths of a second over Gibbs between Laps 145 and 150 while Bell, Preece, Elliott, Bowman, Chastain, Cindric, Berry and Wallace followed suit in the top-10 mark, respectively. By then, Hamlin was scored in 14th place in front of Joey Logano while Larson was scored the first competitor a lap down in 24th place.
At the Lap 160 mark, Byron was leading by half a second over Bell. The former increased his advantage by a second over the next 10 laps before the advantage stabilized at a full second on Lap 175. With Bell remaining in the runner-up spot over Gibbs, Preece and Elliott, Hamlin was racing in 15th place behind Logano, Briscoe was in 17th place and Larson was still ranked the first competitor a lap down in 23rd place.
As Byron led by one-and-a-half seconds on Lap 185, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Erik Jones and Riley Herbst pitted their respective Toyotas. Chris Buescher pitted on Lap 189 before a host of names that included Noah Gragson, Suarez, Hamlin, Briscoe, McDowell, Cindric, Berry, Wallace, Blaney, Reddick, Logano, Zane Smith and Bowman pitted at and just past the Lap 190 mark.
As the pit stops continued, the caution flew on Lap 198 when Hocevar, who was battling the leader Byron, spun in Turn 4. The caution flew just as Bell was on pit road for service, but he would then be penalized for speeding on pit road. At the time of caution, only six competitors led by Byron were scored on the lead lap. The lead lap field would pit during this caution period as Byron retained the lead.
For the next restart on Lap 206, Byron motored away from Preece, Elliott and the field for a full cycle. As the field fanned out and bumped while jostling for spots, Byron retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Elliott on Lap 210. Meanwhile, Austin Cindric sustained heavy damage to the front of his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry after he rammed into the rear of Hocevar when the latter brake-checked the former following repeated bumps and contact. The damage would sideline Cindric from further contention.
Then on Lap 214, the caution flew when Logano bumped Bell into Hamlin and sent the latter two spinning up the track and towards the outside wall in the first two turns, though both managed to continue without sustaining any significant damage to their respective entries. The incident by Hamlin and Bell served as a big break for Larson, who was mired in 15th place, but was awarded the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap. During this caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field of 14 competitors led by Chastain, including Hamlin and Bell, pitted while the leaders Byron, Elliott, and Preece remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 222 only lasted two laps when Preece, who was having a stellar run at the front and was racing in fourth place, spun through the first two turns after he got loose and lost a right-rear wheel, which caused the rest of the filed, including Gilliland, to scatter and jam on the brakes to avoid hitting Preece’s entry. By then, Byron retained the lead over Elliott and Chastain while Bell, Hamlin and Larson were scored from 12th through 14th, respectively. The following restart on Lap 232 featured Byron driving away from Elliott and the field to retain the lead. Byron’s lead stood at two-tenths of a second on Lap 235 before it stabilized on Lap 240.
At the halfway mark on Lap 250, Byron retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Elliott. Two laps later, the caution returned when Blaney, who was racing in eighth place, spun his No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry through the first two turns as he nearly collected Gilliland. Prior to Blaney’s spin, he ran into the rear of Berry and sustained heavy front nose damage. The incident caused Blaney to take his entry behind the wall with a busted radiator, which also effectively terminated his 2026 championship hopes.
The latest caution period for Blaney’s incident concluded the second stage period as Byron was awarded his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season and second of the event. Elliott settled in second ahead of Gibbs, Chastain and Logano while Wallace, Berry, Gilliland, Reddick and Bell were in the top 10. Only seven Chasers (Byron, Elliott, Gibbs, Logano, Wallace, Reddick and Bell) accumulated stage points during this second stage period while Hamlin and Larson were mired in 12th and 13th, respectively, thus leaving the latter two with no stage points for the latest stage period while Bell managed to secure one by finishing in 10th place.
During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field of 14 competitors led by Byron pitted. Following the pit stops, Byron exited pit road first over Elliott, Logano, Gibbs, Chastain, Wallace, Berry, Gilliland, Bell and Reddick followed suit, respectively.
With 238 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Byron and Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, Byron fended off Elliott to lead the next lap just before the caution quickly returned due to Cody Ware spinning through Turns 3 and 4. The next restart with 230 laps remaining featured Byron mirroring his launch from the previous restart from the outside lane to drive away from Elliott, Logano and the field to lead for a full cycle. Byron proceeded to lead by four-tenths of a second with 220 laps remaining before the advantage slightly grew by half a second with 210 laps remaining. As Elliott, Logano, Gibbs and Chastain pursued in the top five, Bell was in eight while Hamlin was mired in 14th.
As the event reached its final 200-lap mark, Byron’s advantage stood at seven-tenths of a second over Elliott, with Logano, Gibbs and Chastain trailing in the top five ahead of Wallace, Berry, Bell, Gilliland and Bowman. Behind, Reddick, van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Austin Hill were in the top 15, respectively, while Larson was mired in 16th place. Briscoe trailed Larson by three spots in 19th place as Byron added an additional two-tenths of a second to his advantage (up to nine-tenths of a second) over the next five laps. Despite having his advantage shrink back down to seven-tenths of a second with 190 laps remaining, Byron retained the top spot over Elliott.
With 175 laps remaining, Byron stabilized his lead by a second over Elliott as Logano, Gibbs and Chastain continued to occupy the remaining top-five spots. Wallace, Berry, Bell, Gilliland and van Gisbergen occupied top-10 spots over Bowman, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Larson, respectively, as Byron continued to lead by more than a second with 165 laps remaining.
A lap later, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Herbst pitted. Amid the pit stops, Byron pitted from the lead with 158 laps remaining before he carved his way back to the lead 11 laps later. With the lead back in his possession, Byron led by four-tenths of a second over Elliott before the advantage grew by eight-tenths of a second with less than 130 laps remaining. By then, Logano was mired a lap down in 17th place after he made an extra pit stop to have a loose wheel addressed while Briscoe, who was leading and tried to stretch his fuel tank before he pitted, was mired back in 20th place.
Down to the final 125 laps, Byron was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Elliott while Gibbs, Wallace, Chastain, Bell, Berry, Hamlin, Reddick and Larson were scored in the top 10, respectively. Byron’s late advantage grew by more than a second over the next 10 laps before he added another second to the lead for the next 15 laps. By then, Bell slipped to seventh place while Hamlin raced in ninth place ahead of Larson.
Then with 85 laps remaining, a final cycle of green-flag pit stops commenced as Bell pitted. Hamlin would also pit along with Bowman before Byron pitted with 79 laps remaining. As the pit stops cycled through, Briscoe cycled to the lead before Byron reassumed it with 74 laps remaining. As Byron led by two-and-a-half seconds with 70 laps remaining, his advantage slightly shrunk by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Elliott down to the final 60-lap mark as Gibbs, Berry, Wallace, Hamlin and Bell followed suit, respectively, with Larson in 10th place.
Down to the final 50 laps, only 10 competitors were scored on the lead lap as Byron continued to lead by more than a second over Elliott. By then, Larson was the last competitor scored on the lead lap in 10th place while Hamlin and Bell were in sixth and eighth, respectively. Over the next 10 laps, Larson would be lapped as Byron maintained the lead by nine-tenths of a second.
As the event reached its final 30-lap mark, Byron stretched his late lead back up by more than a second over Elliott. Byron’s advantage stood beyond a second with 20 laps remaining before it grew by more than two seconds with 10 laps remaining. By then, Hamlin was in sixth place while Bell was racing in front of Larson in ninth place.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron remained in the lead by more than two seconds over Elliott. With Elliott unable to reel in his teammate, Byron smoothly navigated his entry around Martinsville for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch for his first elusive checkered flag of this season.
With the victory, Byron notched his 17th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his fourth at Martinsville, second in a row at the fall Martinsville event and. Byron, who extended his current Cup race-winning streak to seven consecutive seasons, achieved the sixth victory of 2026 for Hendrick Motorsports, the organization’s 33rd win at Martinsville and the 10th victory of this season for Chevrolet.
Despite having his championship hopes for 2026 evaporated, Byron’s Martinsville victory, which boosted the driver of the No. 24 entry from 11th to ninth in the Chase standings, left him ecstatic at achieving a race victory to this season’s column amid a roller coaster stretch.
“We’re always pretty good here,” Byron said on the frontstretch on USA Sports. “Man, it’s been a freaking long road this year. This team’s worked really hard, and I just appreciate them. We’ve had our struggles, but man, today feels damn good. Thanks to Mr. Hendrick and thanks to everyone working really hard at the shop. Man, we never quit. There’s something to be said about that. It’s always a really unique and important opportunity when you drive for Hendrick Motorsports to come here and try to do well. It just all came together for us. Pretty happy.”
Amid Byron’s race victory, Denny Hamlin finished in sixth place while Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell both finished a lap down in ninth and 10th, respectively. As a result, Larson will enter next weekend’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 67-point advantage over Bell and 70 over Hamlin as the latter three will square off against one another for the 2026 Cup Series championship.
“I’m happy, but I’m also bummed because there’s just a lot of opportunity there in the stages,” Larson said. “We were just on the wrong side of the strategy…was just struggling for grip there about the last 50 laps. Unfortunately, [I] went down a lap there right at the end. That hurt the second stage. Thankfully, we were able to get back to the lead lap, though. It all could have been a lot worse tonight, so look at the positives from that. Go to Homestead next week with a comfortable gap, but still not locked up. [I] Would love to get a couple good first stages and then pound it in the third stage.”
“It just really came down to Stage 1 with us running the no stop strategy,” Hamlin said. “[We] Lost all of our track position there. Once we lost our track position, it’s hard to drive back to the front. Nobody else did. [I] didn’t capitalize today on Larson not getting any stage points and stuff like that. The first stage was the killer for us that set us back…It was just a lot of unfortunate timing of some things, but for us, this weekend, it was about everything to gain, nothing to lose, and we just didn’t gain enough to make it realistic. I feel confident that I’ll be able to go [to Homestead] and contend. I’d love to get another win before the end of the year. I thought it was going to come today, but we’ll have to get one more shot at it next week and see if we can’t get just one more win.”
“All in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up,” Bell said. “It was a really hectic day, and it is what it is. [Homestead]’s just another race, another opportunity to fight for a win. I think we know.”
Chase Elliott, who won at Martinsville in April, settled in second place ahead of Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry and Shane van Gisbergen. Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace finished seventh and eighth, respectively, as Chase contenders Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric ended up 12th, 14th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 24th, 28th, 35th and 36th, respectively.
The penultimate Cup Series’ Chase event of the 2026 season at Martinsville saw 11 lead changes among six leaders, and six cautions over 47 laps. In addition, only seven of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
- William Byron, 362 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
- Chase Elliott
- Ty Gibbs, 44 laps led
- Josh Berry
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Denny Hamlin, 40 laps led
- Austin Dillon
- Bubba Wallace, one lap down
- Kyle Larson, one lap down
- Christopher Bell, one lap down
- Ross Chastain, one lap down, seven laps led
- Tyler Reddick, one lap down
- Alex Bowman, one lap down
- Chase Briscoe, one lap down, six laps led
- Todd Gilliland, one lap down
- Michael McDowell, one lap down
- Connor Zilisch, one lap down
- Joey Logano, two laps down
- Zane Smith, two laps down
- Austin Hill, two laps down
- Carson Hocevar, two laps down
- Ty Dillon, two laps down
- Ryan Preece, two laps down, 41 laps led
- Chris Buescher, three laps down
- AJ Allmendinger, three laps down
- Noah Gragson, three laps down
- Brad Keselowski, three laps down
- Daniel Suarez, three laps down
- Erik Jones, three laps down
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., three laps down
- John Hunter Nemechek, four laps down
- Riley Herbst, five laps down
- Cody Ware, six laps down
- Cole Custer, 13 laps down
- Ryan Blaney, 59 laps down
- Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident
- Josh Bilicki – OUT, Clutch
After the ninth Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the standings by 67 points over Christopher Bell and 70 over Denny Hamlin. The rest of the 16-car Chase field is displayed below, with the remaining Chasers starting with fourth-place Chase Briscoe being mathematically eliminated from championship contention.
Chase Standings:
- Kyle Larson
- Christopher Bell -67
- Denny Hamlin -70
- Chase Briscoe -84
- Joey Logano -103
- Tyler Reddick -125
- Ryan Blaney -133
- Ty Gibbs -160
- William Byron -166
- Chase Elliott -201
- Austin Cindric -206
- Carson Hocevar -210
- Bubba Wallace -212
- Ryan Preece -255
- Daniel Suarez -259
- Chris Buescher -270
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to conclude next Sunday, November 8, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, where a champion will be crowned. The event’s broadcast is slated to commence at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
