William Byron dominates final stage for Spire’s first Truck win

NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron has only two Camping World Truck Series starts since 2016, but he is batting .500. He dominated the final stage of Thursday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville Speedway to score the maiden Truck Series victory for Spire Motorsports.

A rained-out qualifying meant Byron started thirty-second in his one-off for the part-time Spire operation, while Zane Smith was on the pole. Smith, who won the latest race at COTA, led every lap in Stage #1 in a segment that saw three cautions for accidents. Ben Rhodes won the second stage and he and much of the field pitted between segments, while Byron made his final stop twenty laps prior.

Byron’s strategy paid off as it placed him at the top for much of Stage #3, which saw a battle between former and current Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers as Byron traded the lead with Chandler Smith four times. He cleared Smith on lap 117 and led the remaining eighty-four laps to secure his eighth career Truck win.

“It was a lot of fun,” commented Byron. “[…] I’ve never won a race at Martinsville and struggled here when I was in late models.”

Spire Motorsports, a full-time Cup team, enjoys its second ever trip to Victory Lane and first in the Trucks in just three tries. The first win came at the Cup level in 2019, incidentally with a part-time driver in Justin Haley at Daytona.

Doing little to dispel the notion of the Truck Series being rife with inexperience, eleven cautions occurred throughout the race. When combined with the bumping and banging that naturally comes with short track racing, many were left unhappy: Lawless Alan, who collided with multiple drivers, had a post-race conversation with Hailie Deegan, who in turn called out runner-up Johnny Sauter for squeezing her into the wall during the race, though Sauter took responsibility for the incident.

Race results

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