MARTINSVILLE, Va. — His face red and body drained, William Byron had nothing left to celebrate his first appearance in next weekend’s Championship 4.
He was just glad to exit his No. 24 Chevrolet after 500 laps at Martinsville Speedway.
“Hell in a bottle,” he called it.
Near-record temperatures in the 80s and a car that didn’t handle made the 3-hour, 29-minute race an endurance test for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. Byron rarely ran in the top 10, failed to score points in either stage but advanced after a 13th-place finish — his worst result in the last seven playoff races.
The final 50 laps proved to be among the most difficult Byron has experienced in 214 previous Cup starts.
“It was so blurry in the car and I just wanted to pull in, but you’re not going to do that,” he said, sitting on the pit wall between the stall of Martin Truex Jr., the regular-season champion who failed to advance, and that of Joey Logano, the reigning Cup champion, who was eliminated in the first round.
Byron made it to the finish and this historic half-mile track provided another personal moment for the 25-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina.
The weekend didn’t begin well for Byron even though he entered with a 30-point cushion on the first driver below the cutline for this Round of 8 elimination race.
He was frustrated after qualifying 16th Saturday. Byron, who has a series-high six wins this year, knew that he would be stuck in traffic and might not score stage points, putting his title hopes in jeopardy.
“When we qualified the way we did, I was like, ‘oh no,’” Byron said. “I was so nervous sleeping last night. I don’t think I said a word to (girlfriend) Erin (Blaney) in the car on the way here. I had a feeling in my stomach. It’s nothing against all the work we put in, but I just didn’t have the feeling in the car that I wanted, and I knew it was going to be battle.”
The race didn’t go well. He spent most of the event outside the top 15. At times, he was out of a transfer spot based on who was leading.
Jeff Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports, understood what the current driver of the No. 24 was going through.
“You race long enough, you’re going to be in situations where it’s not good and you’re like ‘I would love anything to hop out of this car right now’ because you’re frustrated,” Gordon said. “Things aren’t going the way you want them to go. You’re hot.
“Those are the days where you truly build the team of what you’re made of, what your team is made of. So I think good comes out of it even though it’s a struggle.”
Byron advanced by eight points on Denny Hamlin, the first driver below the cutline. After Byron took the checkered flag behind winner Ryan Blaney, crew chief Rudy Fugle told him he had made it and that he was embarrassed by the car’s performance.
Even with the difficult day, this was nothing compared to April 2021. Watching her son compete that day, Dana Byron began to feel ill and was rushed to a local hospital. It was later discovered that she had MALT lymphoma, a treatable tumor on the side of her brain.
A year later, Byron won at Martinsville, giving his family a happier memory.
Dana and Bill Byron basked in their son’s accomplishment Sunday. It came a few days after her six-month scan showed that she remains cancer-free.
This also is the track Byron attended his first Cup race as a child. Dana Byron calls Martinsville a “memorable track” for the family.
Sunday, her flush and exhausted son overcame his challenges to add another family memory at this track.
