By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
More than two hours after William Byron took the checkered flag to win Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, the work of crew chief Rudy Fugle still wasn’t done.
Fugle had called an exemplary race and afterwards shepherded Byron’s No.24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet through inspection, confirming the win in the Round of 8 elimination race.
As the NASCAR Cup Series transporters filed out of the legendary short track, Fugle waited with his SUV near the crossover gate. Soon, a pickup truck with Martinsville Speedway logo pulled up nearby.
From the pickup, Fugle and a crew of three unloaded a long, heavy box that looked more like a corrugated cardboard coffin than the resting place of something precious.
The four men slid the box into the SUV, and the hatch clicked shut. It was official. The grandfather clock trophy that goes to the Martinsville winner was on the way to Byron’s home in Charlotte.
More than that, it was symbolic. The prize for winning the Xfinity 500 represented Byron’s coming of age under the most intense pressure of his career. To compete for a championship next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, Byron had to win the race—and he did.
Asked whether his drive on Sunday was the best of his career, the two-time Daytona 500 winner already was looking ahead to the Championship 4 Race.
“I hope it’s not the best, because I hope next week is good, too,” he said.
That’s not to say Byron’s performance during the entire Martinsville weekend wasn’t a tour de force. After a contemplative drive from Charlotte to Martinsville in his street car, Byron posted the seventh fastest single lap during Saturday’s practice. He was third-best in 10-lap average, suggesting good long-run speed.
Later that afternoon, Byron put the No. 24 Chevrolet on the pole by 0.002 seconds over Ty Gibbs. In the race itself, he dominated early, and after Ryan Blaney took control in the final stage, Byron seized the opportunity to muscle his way past the 2023 series champion with 44 laps left.
Two weeks of horrible luck had put Byron in the win-or-bust position. In the first Round of 8 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he finished 36th after a freak accident near the entrance to pit road sidelined his Camaro. A week later, at Talladega Superspeedway, he spun near the finish line while running in the top-10 and finished 25th.
But on Sunday, Byron used the accumulated disappointments of a long season as fuel for a heroic run, made possible by the quality of the car Fugle his team prepared for the race.
“Yeah, I do think from start to finish, it’s the best I’ve ever felt in the race car,” Byron said. The (Coca-Cola) 600 (where Byron won the first three stages but finished second to Ross Chastain), different races. You just channel those things, learn from ’em.
“If you can learn from ’em, they become positives. They become things you lean on in the moment. For some people they become scars and things you can’t get past. For me, I found a way to flip that script either this week or sometime during these Playoffs. It went the other way.”
With the victory, Byron earned his third straight trip to the Championship 4. In his two previous appearances, he finished third, as Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Blaney claimed the respective championships—Logano in 2022 and 2024 and Blaney in 2023.
Byron’s win on Sunday eliminated both Penske entries from the Championship 4, putting the 27-year-old in a strong position to win his first title in NASCAR’s top division.
If he does prevail at Phoenix, Byron won’t need four clock-bearers to lift the Bill France Cup into an SUV, but the trophy and what it represents won’t have any less gravitas.
And after Sunday’s performance at Martinsville, Byron seems more than ready to earn it.
