On the day Hendrick Motorsports celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first victory in the NASCAR Cup Series at the hands of Geoff Bodine, William Byron led teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott to the checkered flag for his third win in 2024 and 13th of his career as he continues his march to dominance this season.
READ: Martinsville at the heart of Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary
The red-clad Hendrick cars, decked out in tribute to the original #5 machine Bodine drove in 1984, finished 1-2-3 for the first time in team history as they narrowly missed out on the 2nd ever 1-4 finish that Hendrick achieved at Dover several years before. Alex Bowman ended his day 8th, a solid finish for the #48 driver as he continues to search for his first win of 2024. Byron, winner for the second year in a row at the spring event, was dominant in the final stage as he passed Chase Elliott and held on for a late race overtime restart to claim the win.
Larson dominated the first stage of the race, leading the first 86 laps ahead of 23XI’s Bubba Wallace – who would go on to finish 4th – before losing the lead to the #22 of Joey Logano for much of Stage 2. Denny Hamlin, hot off his win at home in Richmond last week, took the victory in stage two but finished his day in 11th as a late-race caution with 3 laps to go prompted the #11 squad to pit in an alternate strategy to the Hendrick team. With overtime cautions a common occurrence, the gamble for fresh tires would pay off in the long run, but it wasn’t to be as the sole overtime finish went green-white-checker to end the race.
After two weeks away, NASCAR heads back to the Lone Star State for the final time this year as teams tackle the 1.5 mile Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, TX. Last years winner, William Byron, will look to stay red-hot as the spring edition of the race returns to the calendar after being a staple in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs the past several years. Catch up on highlights from today in the video below and get ready for a good ole Texas-sized shootouton Sunday, April 14th, at 3:30 ET on FOX.
