Last year’s ultimate elimination race at Martinsville was everything a NASCAR fan could have ever asked for. Christopher Bell’s walk-off victory, Ross Chastain’s Hail Melon move and so much more. With this season’s seekers of those last two championship spots being stalwarts like Denny Hamlin and William Byron, one could expect yet another slugfest this Sunday.

The odds are definitely in favor of William Byron. This HMS icon sits better than the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. However, there’s just one thing that this talented driver needs to stay away from in order to advance to the Grand Finale.

William Byron’s biggest challenge at Martinsville

William Byron has had an impressive track record at the Virginian Paperclip. He won at Martinsville in 2022, which was the first-ever win at the half-mile short track with the next-gen stock car. Moreover, he has six top-10 finishes in his last eight career starts there. And Byron’s overall playoff performance is equally good.

The last five races of the postseason witnessed Byron finishing 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 7th, and 4th. His worst performance since the playoff rumble roller out at Darlington was a 15th-place finish at Kansas Speedway. However, William Byron has been having inconsistencies on the short tracks
lately.

Byron’s best performance at a short track this year was a 9th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. Back at the Bristol dirt race earlier this year, Byron couldn’t manage anything better than a P13 finish. Fast forward a week, the NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway had Byron finish 23rd in a 36-car field.

On a side note, Rick Hendrick’s team has 28 overall wins at Martinsville. Additionally, Martinsville is the one track where all four current Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won. And with Kyle Larson already locked in Championship 4 and Byron being 30 points above the provisional cutline, the winningest team of NASCAR does have solid chances of making a championship run at Phoenix Raceway.

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As things stand now, the number 24 Chevy star just has to stay out of trouble and advance on points. Even if he doesn’t win, he has ample scope to compete in the Championship 4 race solely on that basis. And with the newest revelation about the #24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, even the fans are excited about Byron’s day.

Byron gets a new sponsor for the Xfinity 500

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PODS Enterprises LLC, the industry leader in portable moving and storage solutions, has signed a deal with Hendrick Motorsports and Byron’s team to be the primary sponsor for the Xfinity 500 on Sunday. Needless to say, Kathy Marinello, the president and chief executive officer of PODS is elated to be able to fund Byron’s race.

According to the official Hendrick Motorsports page, Marinello said, “PODS is thrilled to be the primary sponsor of William Byron and Hendrick Motorsports at NASCAR’s Xfinity 500. At PODS, our passion is helping our customers seamlessly move wherever they need to be, no matter how near or far.”

Marinello added, “As we gear up to celebrate our 25th anniversary in November, we reflect on our continued commitment to acting with dedication, determination, and excellence. We look for those same qualities in others, so we could not be more pleased to support Byron and the whole Hendrick Motorsports team in Martinsville.”

Even Byron felt like the reputation of PODS would be highly beneficial to HMS. Clearly, he has high hopes of running for them. “PODS is a nationally known company, and to have their support in our team is so cool. Hopefully, we have a good race and can help bring awareness to PODS as well as their initiatives,” exclaimed Byron. Recently, the #24 team unveiled the newest look of Byron’s machine.

When Team Hendrick revealed the new paint scheme of Byron’s PODS car, everyone on Twitter was happy with the simple, yet elegant skin in red, blue, and white. Don’t you agree too?

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