Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron took the lead on a restart with six laps remaining and held off the field to claim Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 victory on a steamy-hot, highly dramatic afternoon of NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs action at Texas Motor Speedway.
It marks a historic 300th victory for the championship Hendrick Motorsports organization – the most in NASCAR history for a Cup Series team – and is the series-best, personal-high single-season sixth victory of the year for the 25-year-old Charlotte native Byron. He came from third place on the final restart to ultimately drive away from the field and take a 1.863-second victory ahead of Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain to claim an automatic berth in the Round of 8, which starts in three weeks.
Those final six laps out front were the only laps Byron led all day. He turned in a fabulous final restart to pull ahead of 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who was out front on that start after leading a race-high, career-best 111 laps in his No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Wallace finished third, ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin – all five drivers among the 2023 playoff contingent.