Byron seals Round of 8 berth with Texas NASCAR win

William Byron claimed the NASCAR Cup Series race win at Texas Motor Speedway after taking the lead on the final restart with six laps remaining.

Byron, who led for only five laps, handed Hendrick Motorsport their 300th win and clinched a spot in the Round of 8.

Bubba Wallace started on the pole and dominated most of the race, leading 111 laps, until Kyle Larson passed him late.

Larson’s day would come to an end after he crashed on Lap 247 following a restart.

With 20 laps remaining, the Californian went inside of Wallace, lost air off the rear spoiler, and backed his Chevrolet hard into the Turn 1 wall.

On the final restart, Wallace and Ross Chastain battled for the lead as Byron trailed in the third position as the three cars entered Turn 1.

Byron got a good run, went low out of Turn 2, and pulled even with the Wallace and Chastain down the backstretch.

As the cars entered Turn 3, Byron was able to hold the low line and emerged with the lead over Wallace.

Byron would finish 1.8s ahead of Chastain, while Wallace finished third.

“I finally got a good restart,” Byron said. “It was awesome to get our car to the front, it loved clean air.”

“It was tight in traffic, but it had good pace. It was a grind-it-out type of day, and our team was there at the end. I’m really proud of this one.”

Getting win number 300 for Rick Hendrick was special to Byron.

“I’m thankful to Mr Hendrick for his investment in me and telling me, when I was 17 years old, that he was going to take me to Cup racing,” he said.

“I appreciate everything he’s done for me.”

Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jnr, Joey Logano, and Kevin Harvick were eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs today.

Twelve drivers remain in contention for the championship:

1. William Byron
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Chris Buescher
4. Christopher Bell
5. Martin Truex Jnr
6. Ross Chastain
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Kyle Larson
9. Bubba Wallace
10. Tyler Reddick
11. Ryan Blaney
12. Kyle Busch

The series returns to Talladega Superspeedway next weekend (September 30-October 1, local time) for the second race of the Round of 12.