NASCAR at Martinsville results: William Byron survives late caution, overtime to win Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400

Edward Sutelan

•
NASCAR at Martinsville results: William Byron survives late caution, overtime to win Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 image

The decision came down to pitting late or staying out. William Byron decided to stay out.

A late caution with six laps remaining in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 brought forward that decision. Drivers mulled whether to go to pit road with overtime looming. Most of the field, including Byron, had not pitted in nearly 100 laps.

Byron decided to stay out — as did the rest of the top five — and went to overtime on older tires. It was the right decision. Despite a late push by Joey Logano, Byron took the white flag as the leader and hung on for the win at Martinsville Speedway. He became the Cup Series' only two-time winner in 2022.

"Man, it feels awesome. I knew when that last caution came out we were probably — I thought everyone behind us would pit and luckily we stayed out, we were aggressive. We felt like we could refire on the tires and be OK," Byron told FS1 after the race. "And you got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano and I knew I chattered the tires on (Turns) 3 and 4 and kind of left the bottom open, but was able to kind of block my exits and get a good drive off."

Fans eager to watch the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville had to wait an extra hour for the race to start because of inclement weather. It took even longer before there was a major change in the race.

Chase Elliott won the pole, led for the first 185 laps and won the first two stages. He only ceded his position in the race off pit road following Stage 2. Byron took the lead off the pit stop and held it for the next 118 laps. He briefly gave way to Ryan Blaney but recaptured the lead after Blaney pitted. The only other point during the race that Byron was not the leader came on Lap 320, but he was back in front for 321.

There wasn't a caution flag during racing until Lap 311 when Denny Hamlin's car stalled. There wouldn't be another one until Lap 393 when Todd Gilliland hit the wall.

Byron dedicated Saturday's race to his mother, Dana Byron, who was diagnosed with brain cancer a year ago. She was at the track Saturday night.

"Means a lot to have her here and it's been a crazy year, but she's doing great," Byron said. "Thanks, everybody, for the support. I kind of felt like she was riding there with me. So cool to have her here and definitely got to enjoy this."

The Sporting News tracked live updates and lap-by-lap highlights for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville on Saturday. Follow below for complete results from the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400.

MORE: Watch NASCAR Cup Series races live with fuboTV (free trial)

NASCAR at Martinsville live updates, highlights from Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400

(All times Eastern)

11:25 p.m.: Byron takes the white flag, and despite some moves by Logano, Byron holds on to win the race.

11:24 p.m.: Byron (inside) and Logano (outside) are on the front row. Dillon (inside) and Blaney (outside) are on the second at the green white checkered.

11:21 p.m.: NASCAR is going to overtime. 

11:20 p.m.: Harvick, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Buescher head to pit road. Most of the leaders stay out.

11:18 p.m.: Caution flag comes out as Todd Gilliland hits the wall. Six laps to go.

11:17 p.m.: 10 laps to go: Byron, Dillon, Logano, Kurt Busch, Blaney, Chastain, Almirola, Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Elliott.

11:14 p.m.: Traffic helps Byron clear some space. He's up to nearly two-and-a-half seconds over Dillon with 16 laps to go.

11:10 p.m.: Dillon has been able to keep Logano at bay, all while closing in on Byron. He's 1.67 seconds back of Byron and nearly 0.4 seconds ahead of Logano with 27 laps remaining.

11:05 p.m.: Logano is pushing Dillon hard for second place. If he gets an opening, Logano should be able to make the pass and move back into second.

11:02 p.m.: Almirola has not had any issues trying to use his bumper to clear space on the track.

10:57 p.m.: Kurt Busch has quietly worked his way up to fourth in the race. He's roughly two seconds behind Byron for the lead, and is closing in on Logano with 65 laps left.

10:56 p.m.: Elliott is down at 11th, and hasn't been picking up much speed relative to the cars in front of him. He's about 5.3 seconds back of the leader.

10:52 p.m.: 80 laps to go and this race is back to green.

10:51 p.m.: Hamlin is not happy with how his day has gone.

10:47 p.m.: Elliott, Harvick and Kyle Busch take the route to pit road. The majority of the field decided to stay out. Brad Keselowski gets the free pass.

10:45 p.m.: Caution flag comes out for Hamlin, the first caution of the race.

10:44 p.m.: Everyone has cycled through pit road on green, and Byron is back in front as the leader. Logano is second at just over a second back.

10:42 p.m.: Larson was too fast on pit road. He's going to have to pass through.

10:41 p.m.: Now the leader, Byron, makes the decision to go to pit road. Blaney is the new leader, for the moment.

10:39 p.m.: Elliott now makes the stop to pit road at 297 as others have done the same.

10:38 p.m.: Truex has a flat tire off pit road and nearly took out some other drivers after coming out of pit road. He's going to head back to the stall. Green flag stays out.

10:37 p.m.: Kyle Busch goes to pit road, and now Truex Jr. is following him.

10:34 p.m.: Logano bumps Elliott and leads to a surge of cars passing Elliott. The former leader dropped all the way down to fifth, with Logano, Blaney and Dillon all moving ahead of him.

10:28 p.m.: Custer might have been passed, but he is making a difference in the race for the front. Byron passed Custer, but Elliott couldn't do the same, giving Byron some space. Custer also held off Byron and Elliott long enough for Logano and Ryan Blaney to catch up as they're both now within two seconds of the lead.

10:26 p.m.: Custer is about to be passed by Byron. Custer had been in the top 10 and threatening to join the top five at times, but that pit-road penalty sent him to the rear. He has not been able to make much progress since then as he's currently in 21st place.

10:22 p.m.: Elliott and Suarez again connected, with Suarez bumping the back-right side of Elliott around 240 laps into the race.

10:16 p.m.: Elliott has kept it close with Byron and is only 0.6 seconds back of the leader, but just as Byron struggled earlier to catch Elliott, the same has been the case for Elliott trying to catch Byron now.

10:09 p.m.: Byron has been able to create some separation from Elliott with 188 laps to go. He's now up by three-quarters of a second.

10:03 p.m.: Stage 3 is underway, and Byron immediately races out ahead of Elliott to take the lead, the first new leader in the race so far.

10:02 p.m.: Suarez will move up to being just a lap down after he decided to stay out and avoid a trip to pit road.

9:59 p.m.: That loose tire goes as a penalty for Custer, who will go to the rear. He had finished the second stage in eighth.

9:57 p.m.: There was a loose tire bumping around on pit road.

9:57 p.m.: The first five off pit road are: Byron, Elliott, Blaney, Logano and Dillon.

9:52 p.m.: Suarez bumped Elliott to try to get back just a lap down just as the two drivers cross the finish line, but he just came up short. Elliott wins the second stage.

9:50 p.m.: Hamlin is now two laps down.

9:47 p.m.: Byron has not been able to make up the distance on Elliott. He's still a half-second back of the leader with less than 15 laps to go in the second stage.

9:39 p.m.: BJ McLeod has taken the first driver to make a green-flag pit stop. He's in last and is already 11 laps back.

9:36 p.m.: Halfway through Stage 2, there has only been one leader during this race. Byron has closed the gap, but Elliott still leads the race by more than a half second.

9:31 p.m.: Jones has passed Hamlin for 24th. The two have been battling it out for the free lap position. It has not been Hamlin's night.

9:27 p.m.: Kyle Larson bumps Kurt Busch to pass him for the 11th spot. The two are chasing Austin Dillon for 10th, who is around 0.3 seconds ahead of the two.

9:22 p.m.: Stage 2 is underway.

9:21 p.m.: Quite a bit going on at pit road. Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace are both going to the rear on pit road penalties, and Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch made contact on pit road.

9:16 p.m.: First five off pit road are: Elliott, Byron, Bell, Almirola and Custer.

9:12 p.m.: Michael McDowell gets passed by Elliott, which means that Hamlin will go a full lap down. McDowell will get the free pass as Elliott wins the first stage.

9:10 p.m.: Hamlin keeps holding off Elliott, and led both the leader and Byron past Erik Jones. But Hamlin left just enough space on the inside, and Elliott took that chance to pass him on lap 77. Hamlin has been put a lap down. 

9:06 p.m.: Suarez is finally nudged away by Elliott, but it gave Byron enough to catch up to the leader. He's now just over 0.3 seconds back.

9:05 p.m.: Daniel Suarez is trying to hold off Elliott and avoid falling a lap down on lap 601. But Elliott is the faster car on the track right now, and should be able to pass him before too long. Next up after Suarez would be Hamlin.

9:01 p.m.: Elliott keeps pulling away from the rest of the field. He's more than two seconds over Byron for second, and about four seconds ahead of Custer, who is in third.

8:57 p.m.: Elliott is already putting a few drivers a lap under. There have already been five drivers put under one. Last week's winner, Denny Hamlin, is sitting in 26th and could soon see Elliott in his rearview mirror.

8:53 p.m.: Elliott is still leading 24 laps into the race at Martinsville, and with that, Hendrick Motorsports has hit an impressive milestone. They are the first organization to ever lead 10,000 laps or more on a single track.

8:47 p.m.: Aric Almirola is struggling early. He started on the front row, but has been passed by Cole Custer, William Byron and Christopher Bell already. Chase Elliott is leading by about 1.2 seconds 10 laps into the race.

8:44 p.m.: There's the green flag, and this race is underway.

8:33 p.m.: AJ Allmendinger will need to have a pass-through for the green flag, per NASCAR.

8:26 p.m.: It will take longer than normal for this race to get started since pit road will need to be dried.

8:20 p.m.: The command has been given by Whit Blattner for drivers to start their engines.

8:16 p.m.: This race is get pretty cold later on tonight. But drivers are heading over to their cars as planned.

8:03 p.m.: Drivers are going to be back at their cars by 8:15 p.m., with the command scheduled for 8:20 p.m.

7:57 p.m.: If there's no more rain, NASCAR thinks the race track will be ready by 8:25 p.m. ET.

7:44 p.m.: Follow along here for more weather updates for the race.

7:43 p.m.: The driers have been deployed, but are currently on hold for the invocation and the national anthem. They'll then resume after pre-race ceremonies.

7:31 p.m.: Rain has threatened the start of the race in Martinsville, but the air titans are currently out on the track to try and keep it dry.

What time does the NASCAR race start today?

  • Date: Saturday, April 9
  • Time: 7:30 p.m. ET

The Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 is listed to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, though with prerace ceremonies, the green flag is expected to wave at 7:58 p.m. ET.

NASCAR LINEUP AT MARTINSVILLE: Starting order, pole

What channel is NASCAR on today?

  • TV channel: FS1 (U.S.); TSN3 (Canada)
  • Live stream: Fox Sports Go, fuboTV

Saturday's race will be carried by FS1 in the U.S. and TSN3 on Canada.

Mike Joy will call the lap-by-lap action, with Clint Bowyer and Chad Knaus providing analysis. Fox has been using a rotating set of analysts to replace Jeff Gordon, who left the booth to rejoin Hendrick Motorsports as an executive.

Streamers can watch the race on either the Fox Sports Go app or by streaming FS1's broadcast of the race using fuboTV, which offers a free trial.

NASCAR lineup at Martinsville

Here is the complete NASCAR starting lineup for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway.

Starting pos. Driver Car No. Team
1 Chase Elliott 9 Hendrick Motorsports
2 Aric Almirola 10 Stewart-Haas Racing
3 Cole Custer 41 Stewart-Haas Racing
4 Chris Buescher 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing
5 William Byron 24 Hendrick Motorsports
6 Kevin Harvick 4 Stewart-Haas Racing
7 Christopher Bell 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
8 Kyle Larson 5 Hendrick Motorsports
9 Brad Keselowski 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing
10 Todd Gilliland 38 Front Row Motorsports
11 Kyle Busch 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
12 Ryan Blaney 12 Team Penske
13 Austin Cindric 2 Team Penske
14 Joey Logano 22 Team Penske
15 Alex Bowman 48 Hendrick Motorsports
16 Michael McDowell 34 Front Row Motorsports
17 Justin Haley 31 Kaulig Racing
18 Kurt Busch 45 23XI Racing
19 Chase Briscoe 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
20 Martin Truex Jr. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing
21 Bubba Wallace 23 23XI Racing
22 Tyler Reddick 8 Richard Childress Racing
23 Austin Dillon 3 Richard Childress Racing
24 Erik Jones 43 Petty GMS Motorsports
25 Denny Hamlin 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
26 Corey LaJoie 7 Spire Motorsports
27 Ross Chastain 1 TrackHouse Racing
28 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing
29 Harrison Burton 21 Wood Brothers Racing
30 Daniel Suarez 99 TrackHouse Racing
31 Josh Bilicki 77 Spire Motorsports
32 JJ Yeley 15 Rick Ware Racing
33 BJ McLeod 78 Live Fast Motorsports
34 Ty Dillon 42 Petty GMS Motorsports
35 Cody Ware 51 Rick Ware Racing
36 AJ Allmendinger 16 Kaulig Racing

Edward Sutelan

Edward Sutelan Photo

Edward Sutelan joined The Sporting News in 2021 after covering high school sports for PennLive. Edward graduated from The Ohio State University in 2019, where he gained experience covering the baseball, football and basketball teams. Edward also spent time working for The Columbus Dispatch and Cape Cod Times.