NASCAR News: Byron wins at Martinsville, locks into to Championship 4

William Byron charged past Ryan Blaney with 43 laps remaining and fended off a furious late-race restart to snag a dramatic victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs elimination race at Martinsville Speedway. The win—his third consecutive “walkoff” at the Paperclip—propelled Byron into the Championship 4 for the third straight season, where he’ll chase his first title.

Byron dominated with 304 laps led, edging Blaney by a razor-thin 0.717 seconds in a nail-biter that saw the duo swap the lead in the closing stages. Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson rounded out the top five, with Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland, and Josh Berry filling positions six through 10.

The result was brutal for the playoff hopefuls: Bell, Logano, Blaney, and Elliott were all ousted from title contention, slamming the door on Team Penske’s three-year championship reign. Blaney, who fell just short of a Martinsville miracle for the third year running, summed up the heartbreak: both he and Byron entered the day needing a win to advance, and their side-by-side duel in the final run kept fans on the edge of their seats.

Larson, meanwhile, locked the fourth and final Championship 4 berth on points, edging Bell by a scant seven markers after a season-long chess match that spilled onto the 0.526-mile short track. Despite qualifying ahead of Bell, Larson scoured every inch of asphalt to secure his spot, proving once again why he’s the points maestro.

Even the locks weren’t immune to chaos. Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin—both already Championship 4-bound—grappled with engine woes in the final stage, limping home 37th and 35th, respectively. A stark reminder that in the playoffs, survival is never guaranteed.

The 2025 Cup Series showdown is set for next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where one of these four will hoist the Bill France Cup.

Below is the Championship 4 field, ordered by reset points:

William Byron

Q. William, could you pick a better spot for your first-ever walk-off win?

WILLIAM BYRON: No. Damn, I got a lot to say (smiling). Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable.

I’m out of breath. Thank you, fans, for coming out. Bad-ass crowd. I watched my first NASCAR race up there just before start/finish line. Man, I am just so thankful, excited to see my family, just celebrate this one.

We obviously go to Phoenix. Just go try to kick ass there.

Q. You mentioned all that you have been through and this team has been through. Have you ever been through more emotional swings in 10 weeks to get to this point?

WILLIAM BYRON: No. I mean, we just worked so hard, all these guys work so hard. You put everything into Sundays. Sometimes you don’t get anything in return. That’s been the last couple weeks. Honestly, throughout the year, had some close calls.

But yeah, sometimes life is that way. You just got to keep being resilient. We were. Just feels damn good.

Kyle Larson

Q. Kyle, just seven points. Was it ever in doubt when you were racing with Bell thinking this might not work out?

KYLE LARSON: Well, a couple times I just wanted to stay green. Then the 77 was in, like, every caution tonight (smiling). Restarts, I felt good about my car on restarts, but you never know how the aggression is going to pick up, and everybody’s give-a-shit factor goes out the window.

We had good enough track position all day. We were kind of out of the mess, I guess. Yeah, that was good. My HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast. Our pit crew was on it all night. What a performance by William. That’s awesome. I think when the 12 gained control of the race, it was going to be really hard for anybody to beat him. William did a great job on the restarts, just kept positioning himself. Was good enough to get by him on that long run.

I was surprised on the restart there, the two tires were as good as they were. So happy for him. Happy for our team. Happy for Hendrick Motorsports. This win is as good as it could have been for us, for us to score more points than Christopher, then have William or Chase win, too.

Glad we can give Mr. H an opportunity next week. Hopefully one of us can win it. I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. I feel like we’ve been progressing so much throughout the Playoffs. To put two cars in the Championship 4 is awesome.

Thanks everybody there. Thanks, Chevrolet, Valvoline, everyone who is a part of this team. We’ll see if we can go be a few spots better next week.

Martinsville Race Results