By: Zach Arnold

The first road course race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season did not disappoint with many drivers on different strategies which created an exciting finish. However, nobody could catch the No. 24 car of William Byron.

Sunday’s race was the first race since July 2022, when there were no cautions due to an incident, which allowed all 39 teams to search for the race-winning strategy through pit stop decisions.

Early on, we saw Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell play the most daring strategy, as they elected to stay out until the middle of stage two. Unfortunately, for McDowell, he ran into a power-steering issue hurting the rest of his race, so fans did not see how the No. 34 team’s strategy played out.

Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports continued their season-long battle of which team brings the fastest cars to the race track – Ty Gibbs and Bell from JGR seemed to be the only drivers who could compete with Alex Bowman and Byron, the two fastest cars from HMS.

Bowman and the No. 48 team decided to make their final pit stop before any other race team, which proved to be the right call at the time, as he moved up to second place once the green flag pit stops cycled through. However, the Arizonian had to save fuel later in the run, which allowed Bell and Gibbs to pass him for second and third place.

Gibbs and Bell made their final pit stop and had their eyes set on the No. 24 of Byron. Bell had the fastest car later in the run, but took too many laps to pass his teammate Gibbs, which hurt his chances of catching Byron for the race win. Bell needed one more lap to catch Byron, as he had fresher tires, and the JGR driver finished 0.692 s behind the race winner. The 3.41-mile track would have allowed Bell many opportunities to find his way to the lead.

Byron held on for the win marking his second win on a road course and the 12th NCS victory in his career.

“Oh yeah, it was fun for sure. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with a long front straightaway like this, but just super thankful for this team. Rudy, all the guys on this race team – it’s pretty amazing what we have been able to do the last couple of years, but we just have to keep working hard and keep it going. Nothing is guaranteed in this sport, and we just have to keep it going.” Byron said post-race.

NASCAR heads to Richmond, Virginia next weekend for the second short track event of 2024, tune into Fox Sports on Sunday night at 7:00 pm EST to catch the action.