William Byron ends winless drought with dominant Martinsville victory
William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team waited nearly an entire season for a victory. When their opportunity finally arrived Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, they made the most of it.
Byron led 362 laps and turned in a dominant performance to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season, extending a streak of winning at least one race in every season dating to 2020.
The victory was particularly meaningful for a team that has spent much of the year searching for speed and trying to find answers.
"It's the hardest I've worked ever in my career," Byron said. "It's the most I've been at the shop, most I've been in the sim, most meetings we've had. It's just never stopped."
After a challenging season, the approach heading into Martinsville was surprisingly simple.
Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle went to the simulator Tuesday and decided against making significant changes. Instead, they focused on executing the things they already knew worked at the Virginia short track.
"Honestly, we went to the sim on Tuesday and said, 'Yeah, probably not going to change anything,'" Byron said. "We came here, 'Yep, we're going to get out there and do what we know how to do.'"
That approach paid off.
Byron qualified well, avoided overreacting to balance issues during practice and worked with Fugle to make adjustments throughout the weekend. A strategic one-stop call during the first stage helped put the No. 24 in position to control the race.
Despite being 15th on the practice charts and 30th in 30-lap average, Fugle believed the team had more potential than the numbers indicated.
The decision to make additional changes proved to be the right one.
"We made it look easy. It wasn't easy," Byron said. "Every lap, every lap car we got to, everything was difficult. Yeah, we just put it together."
Byron's dominance was especially important given the struggles the team had endured throughout the season. Fugle took responsibility for some of the team's struggles during the middle portion of the year, saying mistakes in how they addressed a lack of speed ultimately hurt their performance.
Fugle compared Byron to a duck — calm on the surface while working hard underneath.
Byron agreed with the assessment, describing himself as a methodical thinker who knows when to be patient and when to push.
The Martinsville victory was also the fourth of Byron's career at the track, a place where he said the team has found another level of performance since last year.
For a driver accustomed to winning, going an entire season without a victory was difficult.
"You never want to get used to losing," Byron said. "That is a culture that you never want to shift, especially when you drive for the team we have, driving the 24 car. It's important that we can win races."
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