Xfinity 500: Byron dominates Martinsville; title contenders battle adversity

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron put on a show at Martinsville Speedway, leading 362 of 500 laps en route to a perfect 76-point day in the Xfinity 500.

The driver of the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet has now won four times at Martinsville in the NASCAR Cup Series, snapping a year-long winless streak, with his last victory coming in this event last fall. 

“Yeah, it’s been a tough year, but we’ve grinded and never stopped working,” Byron said. “It means a lot for everyone on this No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet team. I think everyone’s felt it, but have worked hard and kept their heads down. To come to a place like this, where we’re traditionally good and just have an awesome performance like that, is incredible. We just kept getting a little bit better through the race and it was a lot of fun.”

Byron’s teammate, Chase Elliott, won at Martinsville back in March, but had to settle for runner-up this time around at “The Paperclip.”

“I just needed some rear tires,” Elliott said. “I was running as hard as I could go. I really fell off hard on the run before, and I think that’s probably what hurt me the most with having to make up that gap. William (Byron, race winner) had that gap to play with and he did a great job managing that. He saved and he knew I was pressing. I’m really proud of our No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet team. I thought we got our car better and better all day. That last run, I was really happy with it, but I just needed to be a little further up the road.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs put together another solid performance in the final short-track race of the 2026 season. The driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota started second and earned 51 points, finishing third at the Virginia short track.

“It was just a long night,” Gibbs said. “Not a lot of passing. The tire was just really sensitive and the tire was made recently. Just made the material newer and fresher and easier to wear. The 54 Monster Energy, SAIA Toyota was really fast but not fast enough. We were close enough and in contention; we’ll just go out there and go get them next week and next year.”

Results from the 2026 Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Once again, Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team failed to capitalize on opportunities as they only gained three points to championship leader Kyle Larson. Hamlin now sits 70 points behind Larson and third in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after earning no stage points and finishing sixth.

“Just really came down to Stage 1 with us running the no-stop strategy,” Hamlin said. “Lost all of our track position there. When we got to the back, then you got all those incidents, the cautions, then obviously the 22 (Joey Logano) got the 20 (Christopher Bell), and the 20 got into us. It’s racing, I guess. You’re going to have that. We just lost our track position. Once we lost our track position, the strategy, it’s hard to drive back to the front. Nobody else did. Obviously got some decent damage there.”

Christopher Bell is currently second in the Cup Series standings after a 10th-place finish accompanied by eight stage points. Bell is 67 points behind Larson heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I don’t know,” Bell said. “I mean, I think at least myself, I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was. My team, Adam (Stevens, crew chief), did a great strategy call there in Stage 1 to pit and got us a bunch of track position. On the Stage 2 start, I felt like I was pretty good. Adam came on the radio and said that William (Byron) was running part throttle. I’m at 100%, he’s at 80%. I don’t know; I was pretty close on the short run, then the long run I fell off. All in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up. It was a really hectic day. It is what it is.”

JGR drivers Hamlin and Bell were both spun simultaneously after contact from fellow Chase competitor Joey Logano.

Larson finished ninth, which means he will have to wait one more week before he can clinch the Cup Series championship.

“It was a difficult race,” Larson said. “The first stage got away with us on strategy. I assumed we were just kind of playing off the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin). The second half of the run didn’t go like we needed it to. We could have used a caution at some point to save us, but unfortunately, it went green the whole way and we got ate up. I was just hanging on, really. Fortunately, we got back on the lead lap in the second stage, and we just kind of had to fight it out from there. It was just hard to pass. I tried some runs to pass and beat my tires up. Other runs, I tried to save and it was just kind of net-whatever.”

Lots of drivers in the 2026 Xfinity 500 showed displeasure with one another. The most notable incidents were Josh Berry brake-checking Ryan Blaney multiple times, along with Carson Hocevar continuously brake-checking Austin Cindric.

Chase Driver Martinsville Results

• William Byron (1st)
• Chase Elliott (2nd)
• Ty Gibbs (3rd)
• Denny Hamlin (6th)
• Bubba Wallace (8th)
• Kyle Larson (9th)
• Christopher Bell (10th)
• Tyler Reddick (12th)
• Chase Briscoe (14th)
• Joey Logano (18th)
• Carson Hocevar (21st)
• Ryan Preece (23rd)
• Chris Buescher (24th)
• Daniel Suárez (28th)
• Ryan Blaney (35th)
• Austin Cindric (36th)

Chase Standings Post-Martinsville

GRID Ranking

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.
The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Tyler Reddick	12.54	7th	12th	N/A	N/A
Denny Hamlin	12.19	11th	6th	N/A	N/A
Kyle Larson	11.75	14th	9th	N/A	N/A
Christopher Bell	11.40	15th	10th	N/A	N/A
Chase Briscoe	10.66	19th	14th	N/A	N/A

Week 31 of the GRID Ranking:

*Week 31 of the GRID Ranking will be updated sometime in the next few days.*

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 8. Coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

GRID Network

GRID Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GridNetworkTV

GRID X: https://x.com/GridNetworkTV

GRID Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gridnetworktv.bsky.social

GRID TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gridnetworktv

GRID Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GridNetworkTV

GRID Facebook: https://facebook.com/GridNetworkTV

GRID Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gridnetworktv/

GRID YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GRIDNetworkTV