William Byron dominated the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen International and earned his fifth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.
Byron led 66 of 90 laps, including the final 42, to extend Hendrick Motorsports’ streak of victories at the road course to five despite struggles for teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, who had combined to win the last four races at the track dating back to 2018. Larson finished 26th in a bid for his third straight Glen triumph. Elliott, the 2020 series champion, ended up 32nd.
Byron finished 2.6 seconds ahead of runner-up Denny Hamlin. Christopher Bell finished third, AJ Allmendinger fourth and Ty Gibbs fifth.
The victory was the first at a road course for Byron, 25, and his ninth overall in the series.
By the numbers
In contrast to recent Cup races at the 2.45-mile track, Sunday’s race was a clean, fast-paced excursion for the field of 36 drivers that lasted 1 hour and 58 minutes.
There was just one caution flag, the lowest number in the modern history of the race dating back to 1986. The previous low was three, which has happened three times.
Elliott’s playoff hopes take hit
The only caution came when Elliott ran out of fuel just past the midway point, dropping him out of contention and forcing him to win Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway to advance to the 16-driver playoffs that begin Sept. 3 at Darlington Raceway.
Brad Keselowski (15th on Sunday) and Kevin Harvick (21st) clinched playoff spots based on points. With 13 series regulars in the playoff field based on wins, that leaves one playoff spot available at Daytona. That will go to either a first-time season winner or the driver with the most season points.
Bubba Wallace, who finished an encouraging 12th, holds the final playoff spot by 32 points over Gibbs.
“That’s the first time I’ve been proud of myself at a road-course race,” Wallace said.
Eighth straight sellout
An hour before the start of the race, it was announced…
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