William Byron ended a year-long winless streak on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, the same track where he last won.
Byron dominated the Xfinity 500 by sweeping all three stages and setting the fastest lap for the maximum 76 points, but had already been eliminated from contention for the season championship.
His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson, who leads the points standings, had a rough day and finished a lap down in ninth, but his closest competitors also struggled.
Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin both needed big days to close the gap to Larson, but they came up short, finishing 10th and 6th and scoring eight and zero stage points, respectively.
That leaves Larson with a 67-point lead over Bell and a 70-point lead over Hamlin heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami, where even a middling result will secure him his second Cup Series championship.
“I’m surprised that it’s that good,” Larson said of his points lead, after also coming away with zero stage points. “I’m happy, but I’m also bummed, because there was just a lot of opportunity there in the stages; yeah, we were just on the wrong side of the strategy.”
“There’s always concern when it’s not clinched, so, yeah, I absolutely will feel some pressure this week,” Larson said of his attitude going into the finale. “But, you know, crazy things can happen.”
