William Byron celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup series auto race in Martinsville, Va., Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With a Championship 4 spot on the line Sunday, William Byron put the bumper to Ryan Blaney to win at Martinsville Speedway in the third-round finale of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Byron made his winning move with 43 laps remaining, seizing the bottom lane in Turn 1 and moving Blaney up the track by tagging him in the left rear.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver led the rest of the way and fended off Blaney on a restart with 11 laps remaining. Starting from the pole position, Byron led a race-high 304 of 500 laps for his third victory this season in the No. 24 Chevrolet.

“I thought William drove the race of his life,” said Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion and nine-time winner at Martinsville himself.

It was the first win in 11 races since August at Iowa Speedway for Byron, who won the regular-season championship despite a six-month drought after opening the year with his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory.

He had one top-five finish (a third at New Hampshire Motor Speedway) in the previous eight playoff races and opened the third round with a 36th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 25th at Talladega Superspeedway that left him in a win-or-else position to make his third consecutive Championship 4 appearance.

Byron delivered with his 16th career Cup victory — his first in a playoff elimination race and third at Martinsville.

“Damn, I got a lot to say,” Byron said. “Things have a way of working out. God really tests your resilience a lot of times. We’ve been tested. Just unbelievable. We just worked so hard, and you put everything into Sundays. Sometimes you don’t get anything in return. That’s been the last couple of weeks and honestly throughout the year. But sometimes life is that way. You just got to keep being resilient. We were. Just feels damn good.”

Blaney also was in a must-win situation to advance to the championship round. Trying to win his third consecutive playoff race at Martinsville, came up one spot short despite qualifying 31st and leading 177 laps on the 0.526-mile oval.

There were no hard feelings afterward as Blaney congratulated Byron in victory lane.

“That’s just two guys going for it, I don’t blame him for taking that,” Blaney said about the contact with Byron on the pass for the lead. “I would have done the same thing. I knew it was going to be tight. I tried to crowd him as much as I could. Just proud of the effort from the team. They gave 100% of what they had, and that’s all you can ask. Wasn’t quite enough.”

Norris snaps skid

MEXICO CITY — Lando Norris reclaimed the championship lead from teammate Oscar Piastri by winning in Mexico City on Sunday to snap a five-race losing streak and create a tense final push for the Formula 1 title.

“I think it is just my best performance through a whole weekend,” said Norris, who started from the pole, was never challenged and won by 30 seconds.

The sixth victory of the season for Norris was his first time back on top of the podium since winning the Hungarian Grand Prix at the start of August. More important, Norris pounced on the recent slump Piastri has fallen into to tighten the teammates’ bid to dethrone Max Verstappen as world champion.