William Byron put on an absolute clinic at Martinsville Speedway, sweeping both stages of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Chase race in brutal, messy fashion. The Xfinity 500—the ninth of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1—turned into a wild afternoon of yellow flags and battered machinery, but Byron simply checked out at the front, leading every green-flag lap in Stage 2 after taking four fresh tires and fuel under a yellow.
Behind the dominant No. 24 machine, Chase Elliott grabbed second in Stage 2, followed by Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain, and Joey Logano. Bubba Wallace, Josh Berry, Todd Gilliland, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell rounded out that top 10. But getting there was an ordeal. The afternoon's first caution for an incident dropped on Lap 199 when Carson Hocevar spun exiting Turn 4 as Byron cleanly put him a lap down. Bell got caught speeding on pit road during that cycle, sending him to the tail end of the field.
Things went properly sideways on Lap 215 when Joey Logano made contact with Bell entering Turn 1. That shoved the No. 20 Toyota right into teammate Denny Hamlin, sending both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers—who entered the day second and third in points—around in a frightening tangle. Thankfully, neither suffered major damage. Right behind them, Kyle Larson was caught in the free pass position, though he had to pit a second time under the yellow to tighten a loose wheel.
The carnage continued when the green waved again. Ryan Preece went for a spin and lost a right-rear wheel just three laps later, a brutal end to a stellar run that saw him lead 41 laps and run inside the top five. Then, with eight laps remaining in the stage, Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry banged doors inside the top 10. That left Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske Ford with heavy front-end damage before he spun in the next corner, bringing out the caution that prematurely ended Stage 2 with Byron safely out front.
Earlier in the day, the opening 130 laps ran entirely caution-free, though the racing was fierce from the jump. Hamlin grabbed the pole and led the first two laps before missing a shift on Lap 3 in Turn 3, handing the lead to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs. Gibbs controlled the next 43 circuits until traffic allowed Hamlin back past on Lap 45. Pit cycles shook the order wide open, and Ryan Preece eventually powered past Hamlin to lead by over seven seconds before fresher tires hunted him down.
Byron sliced past Preece with just six laps to go to capture the Stage 1 win. In the closing moments of that opening frame, Byron even managed to lap his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson—dropping the No. 5 driver a lap down before Stage 2 even began. Larson entered Sunday holding a 73-point advantage over Hamlin for the series lead, keeping his championship sights firmly in view despite the traffic troubles.
