RIDGEWAY, Va. — In a situation where he had to win in order to earn the right to race for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship, William Byron outmuscled Ryan Blaney in the final laps at Martinsville to cap off a dominant day and win the Xfinity 500. Byron, who earned his third win of the season, third at Martinsville and the 16th of his Cup career, overcame a 36 point deficit to the Championship 4 cut line to join Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in next week’s championship race at Phoenix.
After two previous potential winning efforts in the Round of 8 went awry late in those races — colliding with a lapped car coming to pit road at Las Vegas and spinning out of the pack coming to the finish line at Talladega — Byron made a statement by winning the pole at Martinsville, then leading 304 of 500 laps. But in order to make the Championship 4, Byron had to run down Ryan Blaney in a run to the finish that amounted to a head-to-head fight between drivers who had to win in order to make it to Phoenix.
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Byron made his move with 43 laps to go, moving Blaney off of the bottom groove in turn 1 to take the lead. But when a spin by Carson Hocevar brought out the caution with less than 20 laps to go, Byron and his crew had to execute both on their final pit stop and the final restart. They did so, earning the right to try and become a championship team.