William Byron Wins His Way Into NASCAR Championship 4 With Martinsville Victory

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Oct 26, 2025
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William Byron at Martinsville
Credit: NASCAR via Getty Images

NASCAR Cup Series regular season champion William Byron earned at shot at the double by winning at Martinsville to secure a spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix.

Byron entered Xfinity 500 Round of 8 finale 36 points below the cutline looking for a win. He ended up dominating the day by sweeping the first two stages and leading 304 laps, but it all came down to the final restart with 11 laps to go.

Byron lined on the front row alongside Ryan Blaney, who had put up the strongest challenge of the day with 177 laps led. Blaney was also in a must-win situation, as were Chase Elliott and Joey Logano, who were taking the restart in fourth and 10th.

Byron immediately pulled out to a lead when the green flag waved and stretched it to about three car lengths. Blaney was unable to mount a challenge and settled for second ahead of Elliott in third, while Logano came home in eighth.

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“Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable,” Byron said during his front stretch interview after the race.

“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.”

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Byron’s win meant there was just one Championship 4 spot left for someone to get on points. It went to Kyle Larson, who finished fifth ahead of his closest competitor, Christopher Bell back in seventh, to secure the opportunity to drive for his second NASCAR Cup Series championship. Denny Hamlin and Chase Brisco qualified through their wins at Las Vegas and Talladega.

The championship race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 2 on NBC.

Click here for the full results from Martinsville

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