DARLINGTON, S.C. — William Byron emerged from the smoke and thunder of the final laps and overtime to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.
Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson crashed while racing for the lead on a restart with six laps to go, leaving the lead to Byron.
Byron started the overtime restart in front of Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton.
As the green flag flew for the final time, Byron surged ahead of Harvick, led the final two laps and won relatively easily.
Nothing was easy about the final segment of the race, however, as a series of front-pack accidents jumbled the running order and frustrated those who were crashed out of contention.
“Definitely didn’t expect this,” Byron told Fox Sports. “But just thankful for a great team, and yeah, just things have a way of working out, and come back here to Darlington and have it go exactly the other way.”
Joey Logano bumped Byron from the lead to win this race last year.
On a restart with 13 laps to go, third-place Logano and fourth-place Martin Truex Jr. crashed, starting a multi-car incident and causing another caution. Chastain and Larson were side-by-side for the lead, and Chastain hit the wall while racing Larson at almost the same time Truex lost control of his car.
Having watched the wild racing at the front over the final miles, Byron said he was prepared for the final restart alongside Harvick. “It does matter in the sport how you race others,” he said. “The 1 (Chastain) had done that move earlier in the race, and it had come back his way. Part of our decision-making before the final restart was that you put that in the memory bank and who are the people I’m up against in this situation and make decisions
Sporting
fencing
sprint
cup
Kyle Larson
Fox Sports
Joey Logano
Chase Elliott
Kevin Harvick
William Byron
Brad Keselowski
Martin Truex-Junior
Ross Chastain