MARTINSVILLE, Va. – William Byron's additional seat time ahead of Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway paid off as he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the Virginia short track on Thursday night.
Byron led the final 84 laps and all but two of the final 96 laps as he drove the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado to victory lane for Spire Motorsports. The win was his eighth career Truck Series victory and first since 2016. The 24-year-old had to make up quite a bit of ground over the course of the race as he started 32nd in the 36-truck field as the lineup was set by the rule book with qualifying rained out earlier in the day.
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"It was a lot of fun," Byron told FS1 pit road reporter Regan Smith after the victory. "I never won a race at Martinsville and I struggled here when I was in late models. Awesome to get the win tonight."
Alex Bowman made a Truck Series start two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas - also in the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Spire.
Byron said he had a little help from his Cup Series crew chief Rudy Fugle ahead of the race. Fugle had said earlier in the week that he felt running the 200-lap Truck Series race was going to be extremely beneficial for his driver ahead of the Cup race.
On the Cup side, Martinsville is one Byron’s best tracks on the circuit. His three top fives at the .526-mile track are his most at any track and he was one of two drivers to score top-five finishes in both races there last year. (Martin Truex Jr. was the other.) He also enters the latest short-track race with three straight top-five finishes on that track type dating back to last September at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Tune in as Byron and his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 race in the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.