While sleeping racecars sat still in the Martinsville garage, a crowd gathered around garage stall No. 14, home to William Byron’s Chevrolet.
Through eight races, Byron seemed class of the field, leading laps, winning two races early and bringing speed to the track week after week.
This week, the NASCAR Cup Series returned to Martinsville Speedway, a place where Byron enjoyed success in the spring of 2022. In that event, run at night, the 24 team took the lead on pit road, and Byron never looked back, leading 212 laps en route to a victory.
The win held extra significance for Byron, as his parents attended just one year after Byron’s mom suffered a stroke during another Martinsville race. Byron dedicated his 2022 win at the Paperclip to his mother, and she sat atop the pit box again for this weekend’s event.
The No. 24 looked poised to compete for the win again, as Byron had the second-fastest lap in practice and the best car on a longer run. He qualified eighth but felt optimistic about his chances of driving his Liberty University Chevrolet to the front.
“Unless my crew chief was lying to me, our lap times were really good,” Byron said. “It’s such a full weekend. I feel like there’s so many elements of the race that have to go right.”
Along with his optimism, Byron hoped to put on a show for the Liberty students, faculty and alumni in attendance.
“This place is really a home race for them, so it’s really cool to have them on the car because it’s such an important venue for them,” Byron said. “On race day, we get a lot of comments about, ‘Hey, I go to Liberty’ or ‘I went to Liberty,’ so it’s really cool.”
When the green flag dropped, Byron slotted in just outside the top 10. It became apparent early on that passing competitors would be difficult. Despite this, Byron fought his way to 10th position by the end of stage one.
A slow pit stop during the stage break dropped Byron to 19th, and he expressed frustration with his team over the radio before going after it again. The Hendrick driver only battled up to 16th before the end of the second stage. Another slow stop relegated the 24 to 18th as the final stage went green.
After struggling for much of the third stage, a caution with 50 laps left led Crew Chief Rudy Fugle to make a strategy call and put two tires on the Liberty Chevrolet. Byron restarted 11th, but he came over the radio to alert his team that something was wrong.
Battling through mechanical issues, Byron slid to 23rd by the finish of the race, his worst finish at Martinsville since the fall of 2020.
This marks the third straight race Byron finished outside the top 10. Last season, Byron won two races early but went on a stretch of 18 races with only one top-10 finish.
Summers have not been kind to Byron throughout his career, but the Hendrick driver expects this season to be different.
“We’ve got our process during the week,” Byron said. “It seems like every time we show up, we’re fast, so (we’ll) try to keep that going. Try to keep that same rhythm, same routine. It doesn’t really change whether we win or not.”
Barnes is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on Twitter