William Byron proved untouchable at Circuit of The Americas as he capped off a dominant weekend with a victory Sunday afternoon.
The No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports was the fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying, and Byron led the most laps in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (42 of 68). He crossed the finish line 0.69s ahead of Christopher Bell after leading the final 18 laps once cycling back to the race lead after green flag pit stops.
This battle for the lead! đź‘€
Byron takes the top spot away from Chastain! #EchoParkGP pic.twitter.com/v977VrRVb7
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 24, 2024
“I feel like I made a lot of mistakes in the last 10 laps — just little micro errors,” Byron said. “Christopher [Bell] was really fast there on the longer runs, but this sport is just so hard. It’s so difficult to week-in and week-out show up and have fast cars.
“We’ve had a little bit of a rough stretch the last few weeks, but put a lot of prep work in this week and just thankful for the team I have around me, all the people back home as well. … It’s just a lot of fun to win races, and it’s really difficult. We’re going to enjoy this one.”
It’s Byron’s second victory after claiming the season-opening Daytona 500. He’s also won two of the last three road course races in the series.
Byron made his final green flag pit stop with 24 laps to go, giving up the race lead in doing so. Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain followed Byron down pit road, and a fast pit stop from his Hendrick Motorsports pit crew kept him ahead of the competition.
The pit cycle ended with 18 laps to go when Martin Truex Jr. gave the race lead back to Byron. Once back out front, he had a gap of 1.8s on teammate Alex Bowman, followed by Gibbs in third place.
Bell cycled out sixth. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team called Bell to pit road for the final time with 20 laps to go, and he came from over 9s behind to hunt down Byron.
Bell won the first stage.
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“Obviously, once I got to him it was going to be tough to pass him,” Bell said of chasing Byron. “Just needed a couple of mistakes. William has been really, really good on the road courses, and he was flawless when it mattered today.”
Gibbs finished third, Bowman, fourth and Tyler Reddick, fifth. AJ Allmendinger finished sixth, Chastain, seventh and Chris Buescher, eighth.
Kyle Busch finished ninth. He recovered from being spun by Bell earlier in the day and confronted his former teammate about the contact after the race.
Truex finished 10th. He led two laps during the pit cycle.
Bubba Wallace finished 15th in a hard-fought day for his 23XI Racing team. Wallace was collected in a lap one incident when Corey LaJoie went wide off the corner and came back onto the racing surface, colliding with Truex and Wallace. Wallace had to pit from the contact and needed additional repairs when given the chance under the stage break.
Denny Hamlin, who won the second stage, finished 14th. Chase Elliott finished 16th. Elliott was called for cutting the course on lap 38 and then spun with 11 laps to go.
Shane van Gisbergen finished 21st and Kamui Kobayashi finished 30th. As in his debut last year in Indianapolis, Kobayashi was spun twice throughout the afternoon.
There were 11 lead changes among seven drivers. NASCAR threw the caution flag twice Sunday, both for stage breaks.