MARTINSVILLE, Va. – William Byron claimed his first victory of the season in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson put himself into prime championship position with one race to go in the 2026 season.
The 28-year-old Charlotte native Byron led a dominating 362 of the 500 laps at the historic .524-mile speedway ultimately claiming a 2.049-second victory over the defending race winner, another Hendrick teammate, Chase Elliott. It was the most laps that Byron had ever led in a single race in his nine-year career in NASCAR’s premier series and resulted in his fourth win at the track along with the 17th victory of his career.
His No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was so dominant that Byron swept both stage wins and was able to put all but seven cars in the 37-car field a lap down by the checkered flag.
“We’re always pretty good here,” Byron said smiling in understatement.
“Man, it’s been a long road this year and this team’s worked really hard and I just appreciate them. We’ve had our struggles but today feels damn good. Man, we never quit and there’s something to be said about that.’’
Beyond Byron’s pace out front to deliver the Hendrick team its 32nd Martinsville victory, the drivers still chasing down the 2026 championship trophy had an eventful afternoon. Polesitter and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who came into the race ranked second to Larson, finished sixth. Larson finished ninth and JGR’s Christopher Bell was 10th.
Heading to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Larson now only needs to finish 28th or better – or simply gain nine points – to hoist his third career championship trophy.
He holds a 67-point lead on Bell and a 70-point advantage over Hamlin heading to South Florida. They are now the only three drivers still mathematically eligible for the title.
“I absolutely will feel some pressure this week,” Larson conceded. “I know it’s a large gap. Crazy things can happen. Just got to go there and execute like we have all Chase, yeah, just be ready to capitalize.”
The reigning series champion Larson won the race held last spring at the Homestead 1.5-mile oval and should he claim the title, the 33-year-old Californian would become only the 10th driver in NASCAR’s 78-year history to win three championships or more.
An unsuccessful strategy call early in the race essentially forced Larson and Martinsville pole winner Hamlin to play catch up early in the going.
Unlike most of the field, neither Larson’s nor Hamlin’s teams opted to pit mid-stage in the opening 160-lap Stage. But left on older tires they could not keep the top five pace they had shown in the opening laps and their competition who did pit was able to blow by.
The loss of track position fundamentally forced a change to their strategy with Larson going down a lap and Hamlin falling to the rear of the lead lap. And Hamlin said the setback really proved too much to recover from.
“Just really came down to stage one with us running the no-stop strategy,’’ said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota. “Lost all of our track position there.
“Once we lost our track position, the strategy, it’s hard to drive back to the front,’’ he added. “Nobody else did. We obviously got some decent damage there.”
Bell, who steers the No. 20 JGR Toyota, was not immune from challenges either. After running top 10 for much of the early race, it looked like he would benefit from some fortunate pit stop timing – having been on pit road when a caution came out on lap 198. But he was issued a speeding penalty on pit exit and dropped from what would have been the lead to 14th position on the restart.
Then only a handful of laps later, Bell collided with his teammate Hamlin after slight contact from Team Penske’s Joey Logano in Turn 2 – all fighting for position. There wasn’t any significant damage and the two JGR cars returned to track. Larson was also able to get his lap back on the yellow that came out for the incident.
“I think at least myself, I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was,’’ Bell said mustering a slight smile. “My team, [crew chief] Adam [Stevens], did a great strategy call there in stage one to pit and got us a bunch of track position.
“On the stage two start, I felt like I was pretty good. Adam came on the radio and said that William [Byon] was running part throttle. I’m at 100%, he’s at 80%. I don’t know, just I was pretty close on the short run, then the long run I fell off.
All in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up. It was a really hectic day. It is what it is.”
The longest green flag run (230 laps) in nearly 40 years closed out the race, however, and all three were able to rally forward for their top 10 finishes.
JGR’s Ty Gibbs ran among the top five for most of the day and finished third with Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry and Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen finishing fourth and fifth – quite a tremendous showing for the New Zealander Van Gisbergen who started 29th.
Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon finished seventh, just behind Hamlin. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Larson and Bell completed the top 10.
And so, it all comes down to next Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) where Larson arrives the defending winner and all three championship-eligible drivers have previously hoisted trophies.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Xfinity 500
Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Virginia
Sunday, November 1, 2026
1. (8) William Byron (C), Chevrolet, 500.
2. (9) Chase Elliott (C), Chevrolet, 500.
3. (2) Ty Gibbs (C), Toyota, 500.
4. (10) Josh Berry, Ford, 500.
5. (29) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 500.
6. (1) Denny Hamlin (C), Toyota, 500.
7. (20) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 500.
8. (15) Bubba Wallace (C), Toyota, 499.
9. (3) Kyle Larson (C), Chevrolet, 499.
10. (14) Christopher Bell (C), Toyota, 499.
11. (16) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 499.
12. (12) Tyler Reddick (C), Toyota, 499.
13. (7) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 499.
14. (11) Chase Briscoe (C), Toyota, 499.
15. (22) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 499.
16. (26) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 499.
17. (19) Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 499.
18. (5) Joey Logano (C), Ford, 498.
19. (33) Zane Smith, Ford, 498.
20. (17) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 498.
21. (25) Carson Hocevar (C), Chevrolet, 498.
22. (28) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 498.
23. (6) Ryan Preece (C), Ford, 498.
24. (18) Chris Buescher (C), Ford, 497.
25. (32) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 497.
26. (31) Noah Gragson, Ford, 497.
27. (23) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 497.
28. (24) Daniel Suarez (C), Chevrolet, 497.
29. (30) Erik Jones, Toyota, 497.
30. (34) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 497.
31. (35) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 496.
32. (27) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 495.
33. (37) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 494.
34. (21) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 487.
35. (13) Ryan Blaney (C), Ford, 441.
36. (4) Austin Cindric (C), Ford, Accident, 222.
37. (36) Josh Bilicki(i), Ford, Clutch, 105.
-NASCAR WIRE
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