William Byron picked a great time to get his momentum back. The Hendrick Motorsports driver gave the team their 5th straight victory at Watkins Glen with Byron dominating Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.

He led three times for 66 laps in scoring his 9th NASCAR Cup Series victory but first on a road course.

 “Yeah, I’d have to think about it a little bit, but definitely,” Byron said when asked if this was the most dominant win of his career thus far. “It feels really good, man. You know, just a huge credit to the race team behind me. I want to thank Max Papis. This first road course win, we’ve worked years and years for this. Thanks to him. I know he’s watching back home.

“Thanks to all the guys on the team, Valvoline, Liberty, AXALTA. I did a lot of laps on iRacing this week. I got a new simulator at home, so thanks to those guys, and just thanks to everyone back home, the guys who support me. It’s a great win.

“I don’t know what it means and all that. I don’t read into that. But I think it shows that when we’re at our best, we can perform like this.”

He had never had a top 5 finish in 6 career Watkins Glen starts including 2 of his last 3 finishes here being 21st or worse. His previous 3 road course finishes on the season were 14th, 13th, 14th. So, for him to win and get just his second top five finish since the first weekend of June is massive for momentum. He’d not finished better than 14th in his last five starts too.

So, to get a win this late in the regular season was massive.

“Yeah, we seem to go through that summer slump in July and August, and for some reason we just can’t quite put the races together. I think it’s the racetracks itself,” Byron said.

“Yeah, just came this weekend with a good mindset, focusing on trying to get ready for the post-season, and we’ve had fast cars, we just haven’t executed races, but today was flawless, and just Rudy, everybody, all the spotters. Thanks to everybody. This is a cool win.

“Like I said, road courses have been tough, so it’s fun to get a win.”

Byron bested Denny Hamlin by 2.632-seconds.

Hamlin settled for runner-up for his first top 10 finish on a road course this season. The pole sitter had won the pole in two other road course events but had finished 36th and 11th in those races. On Sunday, he was 3rd and 2nd in the pair of stage and came home an uneventful runner-up for his fourth top three finish in the last five weeks.

Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top five.

All four Joe Gibbs Racing cars finished in the top 6.

For Byron, the winning move for him came when hit ran the first stint 1 lap longer. After finishing 2nd in Stage 1, most of the top 10 point scorers all hit pit lane the next lap (Lap 21). Byron stayed out one lap longer. It worked.

He pit on Lap 22 and cycled back to the lead. He’d not look back in leading the next 32 laps before hit final pit stop. He’d inherit the lead again on Lap 58 and lead the final 33 laps to the finish.

“Yeah, just really good strategy by those guys,” said Byron. “Brandon McSwain on the box. Those two guys work really well together, Ryan Kelly back at the shop. It was kind of like the old F1 style, stay out, get clean air, get a good lap in, and we pitted there and got the lead, and it was kind of ours from there.

“Just really proud of the team. Really awesome to get a road course win.”

HMS Gets Win, But Knows 1 Driver Won’t Race For Championship This Fall

William Byron scoring a win was big for him personally, but for the team overall, they leave Watkins Glen knowing that at least 1 of their drivers won’t be racing for a title this Fall in Phoenix.

Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott each had to win to get themselves in and with neither winning on Sunday, they’ll have to win next Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 in order to get by. Unfortunately for them, only 1 of them can win which means the other won’t be in the postseason. If neither win, then only 2 HMS drivers get by to the playoffs.

It was a disastrous sequence just past the midway mark that saw Chase Elliott run out of fuel and come to a stop on Lap 55. He’d never get back on the lead lap and finished a disappointing 32nd. It was a bad time for his worst career finish on this track with his previous results being 13th, 13th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 4th. Even in a pair of Xfinity Series starts, Elliott finished 6th, 7th.

Bowman didn’t pit before that caution and had to do an emergency service under that caution to pit for fuel. He’d have to serve a penalty as a result of that and would only come away with a 23rd place run in the end. He’s never had a top 10 in six starts here with a best result of 14th (2018, 2019, 2022).

Also, just prior to that caution, Kyle Larson who had a legitimate shot at winning, was too fast exiting his pit stall on his Lap 53 stop and had to restart at the back.

His two-race win streak here comes to an end with a 26th place finish.

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Hamlin Closes Ground On Truex

Denny Hamlin kept his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate of Martin Truex Jr. from celebrating a regular season crown early. That’s because he made up 21 points on him on Sunday via his runner-up finish at Watkins Glen. It was all predicated by netting 17 stage points (3rd, 2nd) and his fourth top three finish in the last five weeks to go from a deficit of 60 to -39 heading into Daytona next Saturday night.

“Yeah, I’m happy with my day,” Hamlin said. “It takes me a while to get going, and with McDowell there at the beginning, like he’s just ready and he’s on kill, and I’m kind of working my way into it. I just lost the lead because I looked at the 24’s back bumper the rest of the day.

“It was a fun race. Appreciate the whole Mavis guys here and Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing for giving me a good car and giving me the tools I need to get better.”

Hamlin joked that if he can get NASCAR to give him his 25 point penalty back from comments about the Ross Chastain incident back in Phoenix on his podcast, things would be even more interesting.

“I mean, it’s doable. You’ve got to have things go your way, but yeah, if we can talk NASCAR into those 25 points they took away earlier in the season, we’d really make it interesting,” he joked.

That’s because Truex Jr. minimized the damage. Despite qualifying 19th and finishing 27th and 15th in the pair of stages, he was helped by that Chase Elliott caution on Lap 55. He had just pit on Lap 52 and that allowed him to cycle to the top 10.

He’d stay there and come away with a sixth place finish for his 10th top 7 in the last 12 races including six straight.

If those points for Hamlin came back, the gap between the two would be 14…

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Wallace Holds Final Playoff Spot, as Keselowski/Harvick Clinch Spots In

Saturday night in Daytona is Bubba Wallace vs. half of the field. He leaves Watkins Glen holding the 16th and final playoff spot with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 being the 26th and final regular season event.

Wallace is +32 over Ty Gibbs meaning that it’s down to them on points. Daniel Suarez (-43), AJ Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola, Todd Gilliland, Corey LaJoie, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon each have to win to get in.

Can they?

Wallace gained four points during the weekend with a surprising strong result in 14th. He qualified 12th on Saturday and used that to score 5 stage points (8th, 9th) on a sun filled Sunday afternoon.

Wallace, who said he had a valuable phone conversation with six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon before the race, scored his best road course finish of the five run so far this season.

“Just executed really,’’ Wallace said, noting that no new race winner Sunday certainly helps his cause in pursuing his first ever Playoff berth.

“I’m proud of myself and that’s the first time I’ve felt proud of myself after a road course race. Just executed and didn’t lose focus, maybe one time. And that’s the difference-maker. You’ve got to stay on it in these places. Hats off to my team for sticking with me and believing in me.

“Great day for the 23-team,’’ he added. “Now we get to go into Daytona, still stressful as hell but it takes a little bit of the edge off.’’

Gibbs net 15 points himself and gained 17 points but it wasn’t quite good enough as he’s 32 down after being 47 behind entering.

Gibbs finished 4th and 3rd in the pair of stages and came home a career best 5th.

An underrated storyline was that Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick both clinched spots in now. With a driver (Byron) who’s already won, Wallace can’t catch them on points meaning that they’re now in too.

 If someone below them won on Sunday, then 1 of them would be on the bubble and the other 1 spot ahead going to Daytona. 

That’s not a moot point.

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McDowell Goes From High To Low

A week ago, Michael McDowell led 54 laps en route to a dominating win in Indianapolis. 7 days later, he started third and jumped out to an early lead on Lap 3 and scored the opening stage win. However, it was all downhill from there.

On McDowell’s opening pit stop, he drove through too many pit boxes which resulted in a pass through penalty. That dropped him from 2nd exiting the pit stall to 17th after his penalty. He’d rebound to finish 11th in Stage 2 but on his next stop on Lap 52, he had a slow stop and a crew member over the wall too soon resulting in a second penalty.

Then, a late race electrical issue dropped him to last in the end.

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Straight Forward Race

For the second straight week, we saw just 1 caution. That’s 2 races with 172 combined laps and just 7 caution laps in total. Some may wonder if eliminating stage breaks now is a bad thing. Look at the racing we’re seeing.

I for one like it. It’s a strategy race and allows the quicker cars to win.

Last week in Indy, 8 of the top 10 finishers started in the top 10 including the top four starters all finishing in the top 4 in the end. On Sunday, the starting spots of the top 5 finishers were 2nd, 1st, 7th, 6th, 4th.

It was a straightforward day that was another breath of fresh air. Indy lasted around 2 hours from start to finish where Watkins Glen was 1-hour, 58-minutes and 44-seconds.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Go Bowling at The Glen

Watkins Glen International

Watkins Glen, New York

Sunday, August 20, 2023

1. (2)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 90.
2. (1)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 90.
3. (7)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, 90.
4. (6)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 90.
5. (4)  Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 90.
6. (19)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 90.
7. (13)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 90.
8. (8)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 90.
9. (23)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 90.
10. (11)  Joey Logano, Ford, 90.
11. (25)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 90.
12. (12)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 90.
13. (28)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 90.
14. (9)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 90.
15. (24)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 90.
16. (17)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 90.
17. (30)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 90.
18. (22)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 90.
19. (21)  Mike Rockenfeller, Chevrolet, 90.
20. (10)  Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 90.
21. (33)  Kevin Harvick, Ford, 90.
22. (14)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 90.
23. (18)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 90.
24. (20)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 90.
25. (29)  Andy Lally, Ford, 90.
26. (5)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 90.
27. (35)  Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 90.
28. (34)  Cole Custer(i), Ford, 90.
29. (31)  Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 90.
30. (27)  Aric Almirola, Ford, 90.
31. (16)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 90.
32. (15)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 89.
33. (32)  Harrison Burton, Ford, 89.
34. (36)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 89.
35. (26)  Chase Briscoe, Ford, 83.
36. (3)  Michael McDowell, Ford, Electrical, 74.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  111.426 mph.

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 58 Mins, 44 Secs. Margin of Victory:  2.632 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  1 for 4 laps.

Lead Changes:  6 among 5 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   D. Hamlin 1-3;M. McDowell 4-20;W. Byron 21;A. Allmendinger 22-23;W. Byron 24-55;K. Busch 56-57;W. Byron 58-90.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  William Byron 3 times for 66 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 17 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 3 laps; AJ Allmendinger 1 time for 2 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 2 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 34,24,11,54,16,5,20,23,8,45

Stage #2 Top Ten: 24,11,54,5,16,20,9,8,23,3