William Byron capitalises on late wreck, wins Goodyear 400

Ross Chastain just can’t avoid drama.

The NASCAR Cup Series‘ Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway went from being a goodday for Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Larson, to a badday. The trio combined to lead all but 28 of 293 laps, only for Truex to crash while racing Chastain before the latter wrecked with Larson as they battled for first.

Truex won the pole and dominated the first half as he claimed the first stage and led 145 laps, only for his day to come to an end on the final lap of Stage #2. He had been pursuing Chastain for much of said lap before Truex got into his left-rear bumper in turn three. Chastain bounced off the wall and collided with Truex, causing the latter to spin down the track.

While he avoided damage, Truex never led again as he was forced to make up lost ground. He succeeded for the most part as he was running fifth with fourteen laps to go but was turned in turn one after driving up into Joey Logano on the ensuing restart and triggering an eight-car stack-up.

“There was plenty of room there, but he just came off the wall and hit me,” said Truex of Chastain. “Like I said, knocked the tow out in the right front. Pretty crappy from there and then on that restart I guess I just got real tight and I don’t even know who I squeezed into the wall, but I apologise to them. Probably my fault, just got real tight and couldn’t stay down the track.”

The wreck resulted in Chastain and Larson’s nearly identical demise when they ran side-by-side through the first corner. Like Truex, contact between the two caused Chastain to get sideways in front of Larson, sandwiching the latter with the wall. Ironically, Larson had won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race after very similar contact to the Truex/Chastain clash occurred with John Hunter Nemechek coming to the finish.

Larson and Chastain had tangled earlier in the season at Dover and Talladega, prompting Larson’s team owner Rick Hendrick to say Chastain is “going to make a lot of enemies” with his driving style. Indeed, Chastain’s aggressiveness resulted in a feud with Denny Hamlin throughout the 2022 season while contact with Noah Gragson in last week’s race at Kansas resulted in a post-race fight on pit road.

While Hendrick had plenty of reason to be frustrated with Larson’s exit, he couldn’t be too upset overall as William Byron still brought home the win. The Chastain/Larson incident resulted in overtime, from which Byron led both laps and held off Kevin Harvick to win for the third time in 2023.

In the spirit of Darlington’s throwback weekend, Byron won in a special livery resembling Jeff Gordon’s #24 “Chromalusion” car that he raced in 1998. Fittingly, Byron’s win was also the 100th for the #24 car in the Cup Series.

“My granddad passed away on Thursday, and I wish my family could be here,” said Byron. “Just things have a way of working out, honestly. It just worked out that way today. We didn’t have the best third stage. We just kept battling, and things just kind of come back around.

“Want to wish happy Mother’s Day to my mom. My sister just graduated school, so big day. Definitely didn’t expect this. But just thankful for a great team, and things have a way of working out.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	295	Running
2	20	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	295	Running
3	21	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	295	Running
4	10	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	295	Running
5	2	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	295	Running
6	14	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	295	Running
7	12	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	295	Running
8	22	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	295	Running
9	11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	295	Running
10	27	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	295	Running
11	24	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	295	Running
12	8	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	295	Running
13	3	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	295	Running
14	16	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	295	Running
15	32	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	295	Running
16	13	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	295	Running
17	31	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	295	Running
18	15	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	295	Running
19	25	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	295	Running
20	7	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	295	Running
21	17	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	295	Running
22	9	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	295	Running
23	30	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	294	Running
24	34	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	293	Running
25	28	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	293	Running
26	29	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	293	Running
27	33	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	293	Running
28	26	51	Ryan Newman	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	291	Running
29	5	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	287	Accident
30	23	48	Josh Berry*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	286	Running
31	1	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	280	Accident
32	35	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	226	Steering
33	19	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	200	Accident
34	6	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	199	Accident
35	18	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	196	Accident
36	36	15	Brennan Poole*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	39	Transmission

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