William Byron wins second straight overtime dash

In 2022, William Byron recorded his first multi-win season in the NASCAR Cup Series after eight races. In 2023, he only needed four races to achieve that.

After winning at Las Vegas last week in an overtime finish, déjà vu probably washed over Byron in Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway as he scored yet another victory in overtime.

Byron dominated the first stage by leading every lap but the first, which was by his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Kyle Larson, to win the segment. He fell back in Stage #2 due to a poor pit stop and had to work back through the order.

At the front, Larson dominated the second stage to win before Kevin Harvick took the lead on lap 269. Unfortunately for Harvick, he could not put much distance on the field as Harrison Burton spun on lap 303 due to a shredded right-front tyre, and Harvick would lose seven spots on pit road. This shuffled Larson back into first for the ensuing restart, only for A.J. Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, and Noah Gragson to wreck together after just one lap and trigger overtime.

Larson and Byron comprised the front row for overtime and raced side by side until Ryan Blaney tried to get involved. Riding along the outside, Byron cleared the two then drove off to the win while Blaney was left trying to fend off Tyler Reddick for second.

“Last year, even though we won early, we didn’t really know the car or understand the car,” commented Byron. “We were kind of just adapting to what we had. We were just making the most of an unpredictable situation with the entire field. There was a lot of attrition in the races, a lot of just weird things that were happening.

“I feel like now, it’s strength on strength. It feels different. It feels like we’re more consistently towards the front and we’re leading laps.

“We just want to focus on our processes during the week. I think our processes this week were kind of frustrating because we didn’t really get to do the things we wanted to do. Everyone was a little tired. There was a lot going on on the outside. It was a little frustrating going into today, but it’s cool to see that we can overcome those things and still get a win.”

Harvick finished fifth to continue an impressive streak of scoring a top ten at Phoenix in every race since the fall 2013 event, a run of twenty.

“That one is not fun to swallow,” said Harvick. “We had a great car and didn’t need that caution at the end. We had a strong car and a chance to win. Just hate missing an opportunity when you have a car that strong.”

All four Hendrick cars finished in the top ten, with Josh Berry scoring his best Cup finish in relief of Chase Elliott in tenth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	3	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	317	Running
2	8	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	317	Running
3	12	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	317	Running
4	1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	317	Running
5	15	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	317	Running
6	5	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	317	Running
7	24	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	317	Running
8	9	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	317	Running
9	18	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	317	Running
10	17	9	Josh Berry*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	317	Running
11	16	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	317	Running
12	25	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	317	Running
13	7	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	317	Running
14	19	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	317	Running
15	21	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	317	Running
16	30	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	317	Running
17	13	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	317	Running
18	4	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	317	Running
19	23	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	317	Running
20	22	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	317	Running
21	10	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	317	Running
22	11	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	317	Running
23	2	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	317	Running
24	6	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	317	Running
25	20	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	316	Running
26	28	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	316	Running
27	26	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	316	Running
28	14	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	316	Running
29	32	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	316	Running
30	35	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	315	Running
31	34	38	Zane Smith*	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	315	Running
32	29	15	Todd Gilliland	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	314	Running
33	31	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	313	Running
34	36	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	311	Running
35	27	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	310	Running
36	33	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	50	Fuel Pump

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