William Byron nets sixth victory of 2023 at Texas

FORT WORTH — William Byron is continuing a career-year in the NASCAR Cup Series with his latest victory in NASCAR’s elite series.

Byron led the final six laps to capture Sunday’s win in the EchoPark Autotrader 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, his sixth win of 2023 and the 10th of his career.

“It was a grind all day and our team was there at the end,” Byron said. “I’m really proud of this one as hot as it was and as tough as it was. We’ll take it and go on to the next round.”

Byron is now the only playoff driver to lock into the Round of 8, not needing to worry about the potential chaos at Talladega.

“That makes it nerve-racking in this round, so it’s always an accomplishment to get to the Round of 8,” Byron said. “So excited about that.”

In second, Ross Chastain picked up his best finish since his win at Nashville in June.

“We had the speed and we showed it all weekend,” Chastain said. “We did everything we needed to do.”

In terms of speed, third-place Bubba Wallace showed how fast he could be, starting from the pole and leading the most laps (111).

“We’re racing for a win,” Wallace said of choosing the top lane as the leader on the final restart. “I just hate it. I should have just kept my line into (turn) three and forced William (Bryon) to get tight.”

Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin rounded out the Top-5.

The highest non-playoff eligible driver finished sixth (Kevin Harvick).

The other playoff-eligible drivers finished in the following positions: Brad Keselowski (7th), Chris Buescher (14th), Martin Truex Jr. (17th), Tyler Reddick (25th), Ryan Blaney (28th), Kyle Larson (31st), and Kyle Busch (34th).

The next Cup Series race is scheduled for next Sunday, Oct. 1 at Talladega Superspeedway.