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Autosport
Autosport

NASCAR Cup COTA: Byron holds off late charge from Bell to win

Byron dominated Sunday’s race after setting the fastest time in practice on Saturday and earning pole position.

He led on five occasions for 42 of the 68 laps, scoring his second win of 2024 by 0.692 seconds over Christopher Bell.

Byron had lost the lead at the start of the final stage to Ross Chastain by overshooting Turn 1, but chased him down to reclaim it at Turn 1 with 25 laps to go. He held on to the finish as Stage 1 winner Bell charged on fresher tyres, courtesy of a later pitstop.

Byron and Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Kyle Larson have combined to win three of the season’s first six races.

"I feel like I made a lot of mistakes in the last 10 laps. Just little micro-errors," Byron said.
"Christopher was really fast there on the longer runs. But this sport is just so hard. It's so difficult to week-in and week-out show up and have fast cars.

"We've had a little bit of a rough stretch the last few weeks, but put a lot of prep work in this week.

"It's just a lot of fun to win races, and it's really difficult. We're going to enjoy this one."

Race winner William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro (Photo by: Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images)

Ty Gibbs ended up third by muscling his way past Alex Bowman at Turn 2 with eight laps remaining. Bowman had to settle for fourth, as Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were A.J. Allmendinger, Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch - who lost track positions in the final Stage to a spin at Turn 1 instigated by Bell - and Martin Truex Jr.

A first stage victory of 2024 went to Bell's team-mate Denny Hamlin, who took 14th spot, while Larson ended up 18th after being turned around in Stage 2 by Bell.

The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was in that phase of the race dropping back through the field on older tyres, having elected not to pit before the break, and tagged Larson into a spin at Turn 11. He briefly stalled, before continuing.

Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen was hampered by a pit road speeding penalty and ended up 21st. Sportscar racing ace Kamui Kobayashi was involved in several on-track incidents and finished 30th in a third 23XI Racing entry.

NASCAR Cup COTA race results

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1 W. ByronHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 24 Chevrolet 68

2:43'14.675

  5  
2 C. BellJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 68

+0.692

2:43'15.367

0.692 5  
3
T. GibbsJOE GIBBS RACING
54 Toyota 68

+2.778

2:43'17.453

2.086 6  
4 A. BowmanHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 48 Chevrolet 68

+12.675

2:43'27.350

9.897 6  
5 T. Reddick23XI RACING 45 Toyota 68

+13.162

2:43'27.837

0.487 6  
6 A. AllmendingerKAULIG RACING 13 Chevrolet 68

+18.979

2:43'33.654

5.817 6  
7 R. ChastainTRACKHOUSE RACING 1 Chevrolet 68

+20.988

2:43'35.663

2.009 6  
8 C. BuescherRFK RACING 17 Ford 68

+24.316

2:43'38.991

3.328 6  
9 K. BuschRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 8 Chevrolet 68

+25.329

2:43'40.004

1.013 6  
10 M. Truex JrJOE GIBBS RACING 19 Toyota 68

+31.628

2:43'46.303

6.299 7  
11 J. LoganoTEAM PENSKE 22 Ford 68

+32.491

2:43'47.166

0.863 6  
12 R. BlaneyTEAM PENSKE 12 Ford 68

+34.150

2:43'48.825

1.659 6  
13 C. BriscoeSTEWART-HAAS RACING 14 Ford 68

+38.645

2:43'53.320

4.495 6  
14 D. HamlinJOE GIBBS RACING 11 Toyota 68

+42.504

2:43'57.179

3.859 6  
15 B. Wallace23XI RACING 23 Toyota 68

+42.860

2:43'57.535

0.356 7  
16 C. ElliottHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 68

+43.211

2:43'57.886

0.351 7  
17 J. HaleyRICK WARE RACING 51 Ford 68

+44.121

2:43'58.796

0.910 6  
18 K. LarsonHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 5 Chevrolet 68

+44.885

2:43'59.560

0.764 6  
19 A. CindricTEAM PENSKE 2 Ford 68

+45.195

2:43'59.870

0.310 6  
20
Z. SmithSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
71 Chevrolet 68

+46.113

2:44'00.788

0.918 6  
21 S. van GisbergenKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 68

+47.374

2:44'02.049

1.261 7  
22 J. NemechekLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 42 Toyota 68

+56.678

2:44'11.353

9.304 7  
23
C. HocevarSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
77 Chevrolet 68

+58.723

2:44'13.398

2.045 6  
24 R. PreeceSTEWART-HAAS RACING 41 Ford 68

+58.744

2:44'13.419

0.021 5  
25 C. LajoieSPIRE MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 68

+59.109

2:44'13.784

0.365 7  
26 A. DillonRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 3 Chevrolet 68

+1'00.090

2:44'14.765

0.981 4  
27 T. GillilandFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 38 Ford 68

+1'00.975

2:44'15.650

0.885 6  
28 K. GralaRICK WARE RACING 15 Ford 68

+1'01.529

2:44'16.204

0.554 6  
29 R. Stenhouse JrJTG DAUGHERTY RACING 47 Chevrolet 68

+1'10.102

2:44'24.777

8.573 7  
30 K. Kobayashi23XI RACING 50 Toyota 68

+1'14.371

2:44'29.046

4.269 7  
31 H. BurtonWOOD BROTHERS RACING 21 Ford 68

+1'19.947

2:44'34.622

5.576 7  
32 D. SuarezTRACKHOUSE RACING 99 Chevrolet 68

+1'21.779

2:44'36.454

1.832 8  
33 E. JonesLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 43 Toyota 68

+1'44.257

2:44'58.932

22.478 8  
34 B. KeselowskiRFK RACING 6 Ford 68

+2'00.399

2:45'15.074

16.142 6  
35 N. GragsonSTEWART-HAAS RACING 10 Ford 67

+1 Lap

2:43'36.700

1 Lap 7  
36 J. BerrySTEWART-HAAS RACING 4 Ford 67

+1 Lap

2:44'31.741

55.041 6  
37 T. HillMBM 66 Ford 66

+2 Laps

2:43'52.013

1 Lap 6  
38 D. HemricKAULIG RACING 31 Chevrolet 66

+2 Laps

2:44'39.010

46.997 7  
39 M. McDowellFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 34 Ford 51

+17 Laps

2:27'07.270

15 Laps 7

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