MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The winless streak has ended for Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron after a career-best night at Martinsville Speedway.
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The North Carolina native led a career-high 362 laps at the Virginia short track on Sunday afternoon, and he scored his first win of the season. He snapped a winless streak dating back to Oct. 26, 2025, when he dominated and won the fall race at Martinsville.
"Man, it's been a fricking long road this year," Byron said after the race. "This team's worked really hard. Yeah, just appreciate them. We had our struggles. But man, today feels damn good."
What a dominant showing by @WilliamByron!
He just set a new personal best for laps led in a Cup Series race, shattering his old record of 304 from this exact race last year 🔥
(via @NASCAR)pic.twitter.com/habhydSqIW
— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) November 1, 2026
Early in the race, Byron did not have appear to have the car to beat. He qualified eighth and raced inside of the top 10, but the top drivers battling for the lead included Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, and Ryan Preece.
The situation changed, however, when the majority of drivers in the field decided to split stage 1 and make a pit stop. This included Byron, who joined Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland heading down pit road on Lap 65.
Hamlin, Preece, and championship leader Kyle Larson all stayed out hoping to just lock up the top three spots in the stage despite having older tires. Only Preece accomplished this as he finished third.
Hamlin finished the stage in 17th. Larson finished the stage in 23rd. Byron, who took the lead on fresh tires, lapped his teammate before winning stage 1.
"Yeah, obviously didn't capitalize today on Larson not getting any stage points and stuff like that," Hamlin said, referencing the ongoing championship battle. "Yeah, just the first stage. The first stage was the killer for us that set us back.
"At the end of the first stage, not only that, we had to restart last because we had to wave around. It was just a lot of unfortunate timing of some things."
Once the strategy put Byron in control of the race, he had the opportunity to show a car that had the balance and speed he needed. He continued to lead laps at the short track while also winning the second stage.
Teams tried to use pit strategy during the final stage to gain position, but none could leapfrog Byron. He continued to lead over the final 230-lap green flag run, the longest green flag run at Martinsville since 1957 when the race had a 277-lap run.
The only challenger to Byron was teammate Chase Elliott, who finished the race in second place and 2.049 seconds behind.
"Chase is so good at managing his tires," Byron said. "I felt like I was going to have to do a really good job just to keep my tires happy through lap traffic.
"Last two runs everyone's car gets a little bit better towards the end, makes it harder to pass lap cars. Yeah, it was fun."
This win, the 17th of Byron's career, is not enough to put him back into championship contention. He entered the night 14th in the standings. Now, he is ninth, but he still has more ground to gain in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
