William Byron Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service FORT WORTH, Texas – Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron took the lead on a restart with six laps remaining and held off the field to claim Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 victory on a steamy-hot highly-dramatic afternoon of NASCAR Cup Series Playoff action at Texas Motor Speedway. It marks a historic 300th victory for the championship Hendrick Motorsports organization – the most in NASCAR history for a NASCAR Cup Series team – and is the series-best, personal-high single-season sixth victory of the year forRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Denny Hamlin landed a knockout punch in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.  NASCAR Cup Series regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. survived to fight another round.  Bubba Wallace rescued himself from the brink of elimination from the series Playoffs and advanced to the Round of 12 by four points.  Kevin Harvick, winner of the first elimination Playoff in 2014, won’t be around to fight for the title in his final season of Cup racing. He joins defendingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – For Christopher Bell, Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session brought an unprecedented accomplishment.  For Martin Truex Jr., Bell’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, it brought a sense of relief—if that’s possible for a driver trying to climb above the cut line in the series Playoffs.  In the final round of time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, Bell turned a lap in 15.109 seconds (126.997 mph), edging another teammate, Denny Hamlin, by 0.008 seconds (126.930 mph) for the top starting spotRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Christopher Bell earned a second chance on Saturday. For the second straight NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race, Bell will start from the pole position after a blistering lap at 180.276 mph (29.954 seconds) in the final round of qualifying for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell beat last Sunday’s Darlington winner Kyle Larson (179.826 mph) by 0.075 seconds to win his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. — Welcome back, Kyle Larson.  The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion held off a desperate charge from fellow Playoff driver Tyler Reddick at sold-out Darlington Raceway to claim victory in Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and earn an automatic berth in the Round of 12.  Larson entered the Playoff opener with an undistinguished average finish of 17.5 in his previous six races, but he weathered a transmission momentary stuck in neutral and a disconcerting brush with the wall to register hisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Lack of 2024 contract doesn’t dismay Denny Hamlin as NASCAR Cup Playoffs begin CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Denny Hamlin enters the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs without a contract to drive next season, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have job security. Though Hamlin expressed emphatically his desire to return to No. 11 Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing, he does have other options—namely the 23XI Racing team he owns with NBA superstar Michael Jordan. “I have a race team—I always have options,” Hamlin bantered on ThursdayRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The RFK Racing duo of Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski were up to their old superspeedway tricks again Saturday night at Daytona, with Buescher capturing his third win of the season in the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Both Buescher and Keselowski were in the mix throughout the night, but when the race was pushed into overtime after a violent crash by Ryan Preece, it was go time for the two Ford drivers with Buescher lining up just ahead of his team ownerRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – William Byron added to his season highlight reel earning his first career NASCAR Cup Series road course victory with a dominant win in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at historic Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. It marks a career best fifth victory of the season – tops in the NASCAR Cup Series and most for him in a single season in a six-year career in NASCAR’s top series. And the 25-year-old Charlotte native had to earn this one – holdingRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – taking to the track twice in Saturday’s final qualifying session alone and bettering his already field-best speed in his second outing. This is the fourth pole position of the season and third road course pole – also at Sonoma, Calif. and Chicago Street Race – for Hamlin, whose No. 11Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – It’s that time of the year again, when NASCAR invades open wheel territory for a weekend at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For the third year in a row, the Cup Series will be joining their counterparts from the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series in running on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile infield road course in what will be an action-filled tripleheader weekend, culminating in Sunday’s Verizon 200. In the two races on the road course, carnage has ensued, but NASCAR is hoping toRead More