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William Byron picked up his fifth win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season in Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen.
The Charlotte native led 66 of the race’s 90 laps to score his first road course victory of his career by 2.632 seconds over Denny Hamlin in second and Christopher Bell in third.
“Feels really good, man,” Byron said. “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. So just thanks to him, I know he’s watching at home.
“Thanks to all the guys on the team, 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 to the guys that support me.”
Hamlin led from pole position, but Michael McDowell snatched the lead from Hamlin as the pair went to Turn 1 on Lap 4.
While Daniel Suarez brushed the wall exiting the inner loop and Harrison Burton spin at the Carousel during the first stage, there were no cautions through the first 20 laps. McDowell dominated the stage, winning a playoff point after completing the first 20 of 90 laps.
McDowell pitted on Lap 21, handing the lead to William Byron. During the pit sequence, NASCAR assessed McDowell a pass-through penalty for driving through too many pit boxes, dropping him from the lead group.
Byron continued in the lead, winning the second stage after 40 of 90 laps were complete. The race’s first caution came out on Lap 55 after Chase Elliott ran out of fuel on the backstretch, coming to a stop in the runoff at the inner loop near the end of the backstretch.
The race restarted on Lap 61 and Byron went away from the field.
While running in the top 10, McDowell’s # 34 Ford suddenly lost power with 15 laps to go.
Last week’s winner was out after fighting back to get into the top 10 after a second pass-through penalty for a crew member going over the wall too soon for his second pit stop.
McDowell was the race’s only retirement as the race ran mostly problem-free to the checkered.
Only an Aric Almirola spin off the final corner late in the race and contact between Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon at that same corner on the final lap of the race marked the only bit of drama in the final stage as Byron led 66 of the race’s final 70 laps to win.
Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick clinched their spots in the 2023 NASCAR playoffs with the upcoming race at Daytona as the end of the regular season.
