AUSTIN, Texas — The endurance race style conditions at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) were no match for William Byron on Sunday, as he easily took his second win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Byron was the most dominant car in the field as soon as the green flag dropped. The Hendrick Motorsports driver started on the pole and led 43 of the 68 laps at the 20-turn, 3.4-mile road course. The only times during the race that Byron was not leading were during parts of the race that left others in front with varying pit strategies.
Christopher Bell came from over 15 seconds back after his final pit stop to just over half a second behind Byron at the finish. With a few more laps, Bell might have been able to challenge for the win.
"This sport is so hard," Byron said after the win to the media. "It's so difficult to show up week in, and week out with fast cars. I'm thankful for the team I have around me."
Sunday's race was unlike the previous two trips to Austin with zero cautions happening for an on-track incident. COTA races in 2022 and 2023 had cautions come out with two laps to go, forcing calamitous overtime periods.
Instead, no cautions were called for cause. The only caution periods happened for stage breaks at laps 15 and 30.
Bell, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five.
As is typical with most road course races, pit strategy became a key element early on. Most teams opted for a three-stop race that sent them to pit road before the end of the first two stages and midway through the final stage, meanwhile, other teams took a more daring approach by pitting just twice.
Byron led the first 13 laps on the 3.4-mile track before hitting pit road. Christopher Bell was on the two-stop strategy and won the first stage.
Denny Hamlin similarly won the second stage after Byron hit pit road from the lead again in the closing laps.
Many drivers lost track position in spins throughout the race -- Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, and Kamui Kobayashi, among others. However, none of their incidents were enough to bring out a caution.
Byron held a decent lead over Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs after the final pit stop. As the laps winded down, Gibbs began slowly chipping away at Byron's lead in search of his first Cup Series win. Bell also made his way through the field and chased down the lead with much fresher tires than the leaders.
However, Bell's efforts fell just short as Byron's car held on for the win.
It's the second win of the season for Byron and the 12th of his career. The Charlotte native won the Daytona 500 in February.
The NASCAR Cup Series is next in action on Sunday, March 31 at Richmond Raceway. Kyle Larson is the defending winner.