Cup Series struggles to pass as William Byron wins Martinsville

Martinsville Speedway is a much beloved circuit on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but Saturday’s race was generally considered a letdown. Due to factors like colder track and tyre temperatures, rain washing away rubber accumulated on the racing surface, and perhaps the Next Gen car itself, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 was a very tame event with just five lead changes, all of which came during cautions or pit cycles. Hendrick Motorsports team-mates Chase Elliott and William Byron led all but six of the 403 laps, with the latter doing so for 212 circuits en route to his first win at Martinsville and second of 2022.

Elliott won the pole ahead of Aric Almirola, but Almirola and much of the field were non-factors. Save for a rain delay, the first two stages were completely free of incident as Elliott led every lap to win both. Byron beat Elliott out of the pits on lap 186 to finally mark the first lead change of the race.

Ryan Blaney finally broke the Hendrick stranglehold on the lead when he inherited the lead from a pitting Byron on lap 304. He pitted himself five laps later and Byron reclaimed the lead before Denny Hamlin brought out the caution after falling off pace. Austin Dillon got to lead a lap under yellow before Byron re-assumed the top position.

Almost as if a last-ditch effort by the racing deities to spice up the race, Todd Gilliland slammed into the wall with five laps remaining to set up overtime. Byron and Logano led the field to start the session, and the former had the run on the inside to clear Logano though Logano remained close after Byron briefly ran wide. Despite a shot to Byron’s rear on the final lap, Logano could not get by him.

Byron, who won the Camping World Truck Series race on Thursday, is the first Cup driver of 2022 to win multiple races after triumphing at Atlanta in March. He also continues a decorated legacy for the #24 at Martinsville; current Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon has nine wins at the track with the number.

“I couldn’t ever relax,” said Byron in his post-race press conference. “I saved tyre by just not sliding the tyres, but I never could back up and save tyre and things like that. But I think it’s just really cold temps. Anytime it’s below forty degrees (Fahrenheit), I’d say the tyres don’t even lay rubber. That was definitely a factor all night.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	5	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	403	Running
2	14	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	403	Running
3	23	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	403	Running
4	12	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	403	Running
5	27	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	403	Running
6	18	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	403	Running
7	11	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	403	Running
8	2	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	403	Running
9	19	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	403	Running
10	1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	403	Running
11	13	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	403	Running
12	15	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	403	Running
13	24	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	403	Running
14	6	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	403	Running
15	4	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	403	Running
16	21	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	403	Running
17	9	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	403	Running
18	22	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	403	Running
19	8	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	403	Running
20	7	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	402	Running
21	3	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	402	Running
22	20	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	401	Running
23	34	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	401	Running
24	36	16	A.J. Allmendinger*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	401	Running
25	16	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	400	Running
26	29	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	400	Running
27	28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
28	25	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
29	30	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	399	Running
30	10	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	399	Running
31	17	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	398	Running
32	26	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	397	Running
33	35	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	394	Running
34	32	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	392	Running
35	31	77	Josh Bilicki*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	391	Running
36	33	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	132	Handling

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Cup points