William Byron Victorious in Atlanta Wreckfest

Photo by Peter Stratta/TSJSports

NASCAR

William Byron Outlasts Competition in Attrition-Filled Atlanta Race

HAMPTON, Ga. – For the second time in two days, William Byron visits victory lane. The Hendrick Motorsports driver spent Saturday night racing at Hickory Motor Speedway in a late model, and backed it up Sunday with his third Cup Series win. While Byron is the victor in the first race on the redesigned Atlanta Motor Speedway, many drivers were involved in wrecks throughout 500 miles.

With a hybrid superspeedway-style racing product, wrecks came many times and took out several contending cars. Stage 1 ended a few laps early after Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon made contact out of turn four. This sent the 3 up into the 18, also collecting Ty Dillon and Chase Briscoe. The Stage 1 win would go to William Byron.

Stage 2 would see an unprecedented three multi-car crashes. Tyler Reddick initially triggered a major crash, as the 8 blew a tire while running third, sliding into the middle of the pack.

While leading, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also blew a tire, collecting a few others. Stenhouse was the third driver to blow a tire while leading, as Ross Chastain suffered this issue in Stage 1. Oddly enough, all three of these drivers to blow tires while up front were Chevrolets. Goodyear claimed that teams may have been too aggressive with camber setups, causing the tire failures.

One additional crash highlighted Stage 2, as a bad push from Denny Hamlin sent Kyle Larson around. This incident ended the Stage prematurely again, giving this Stage win to Ryan Blaney.

After methodically working his way forward to the lead pack, William Byron was out front with 50 laps left. Two final cautions bunched the field up again, as a pair of two-car incidents unfolded. Todd Gilliland spun as Cody Ware slammed hard into the inside wall, and on the restart Aric Almirola got spun from second. Even with Bubba Wallace battling against him, Byron maintained the lead on each restart.

The last lap would see Byron get a big gap over Wallace and Ross Chastain. Christopher Bell had a chance to push Chastain by the 24, but instead turned underneath the 1, and went under the out-of-bounds line. As a result, Bell was disqualified from second and sent to the last car on the lead lap. With Bell out of contention, Byron cruised to the win. Contact coming to the checkers would also send Chris Buescher, Wallace, and Justin Haley around and into the wall.

“It was so different,” Byron said of this style of racing in Atlanta. “You know honestly the last few laps there, just trying to manage the gap to Bubba (Wallace) and trying to not get too far out front. My spotter Brandon (Lines), it’s his first win so congrats to him and just thanks to this whole team. They’ve done a great job this year. There’s a lot of changes with the Next Gen car.

“The Liberty University Chevrolet was awesome there. We had a pretty rough practice; worked hard on it and got it handling well. Like I told you, it was kind of an intermediate style with a little bit of superspeedway to it, so it was lot of fun. Thanks to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. Super exciting.”

“I think these fans saw one heck of a race. It was certainly long from my seat. It was mentally taxing. Just thanks to all the fans for coming out. Been an awesome weekend. I got the win last night in the Late Model too, so it’s been a lot of fun.”

Byron is now locked into the Playoffs for the fourth time, thanks to his third-career Cup victory. Hendrick Motorsports has now seen three of their drivers win in the first five races of 2022. It appears the two-time defending championship-winning team is firing on all cylinders.

Behind Byron, the top 10 were Ross Chastain, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, and Alex Bowman. See reactions from some of the top finishers below.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Circuit of the Americas next week. While last year’s inaugural event was rain-plagued, this year’s forecast appears to be sunny and in the 80s. Coverage begins Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. With three Hendrick Chevrolets in the Playoffs, can Chase Elliott make it four by repeating at COTA?

Written by Peter Stratta

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Photo Credit to Peter Stratta/TSJSports