William Byron wins in NASCAR Trucks return at Martinsville

After a rash of cautions, the race finally found some green-flag running towards the end with Byron fully in control. Johnny Sauter fought hard to hold back the KBM drivers and did so successfully, even keeping Kyle Busch at bay.

Unfortunately, he could not run down Byron who captured the checkered flag 1.1 seconds up the road. It's Byron's eighth Truck Series victory and his first since he was full-time in the series back in 2016.

“Yeah man, it was a lot of fun," he said after the victory. "Great crowd here at Martinsville. I’ve never won here.

"Just awesome to get the win tonight. Great truck, thanks to Spire. They don’t have a lot of guys but they do it right.

He went on to thank Rick Hendrick for letting him run the race. “Pretty awesome, really excited.”

Sauter, who is running part-time this season, finished second. Busch placed third, going 0-3 in Truck starts this year. John-Hunter Nemechek and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top-five.

Chandler Smith, Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Zane Smith and Tyler Ankrun filled out the remainder of the top-ten.

Stage 1

Before the race even began, Ty Majeski encountered problems and needed to switch out the battery.

Smith led the way at the initial start, but it didn’t take long for the contact to begin. On Lap 8, Kris Wright spun and Jack Wood had nowhere to go, colliding with Wright's truck.

Dean Thompson then stopped on track after a small fire erupted in the cockpit, bringing out the second caution.

The elbows came out early as Sauter put Hailie Deegan in the wall as battles raged throughout the pack. The third caution of the race quickly followed for an unrelated incident as Spencer Boyd stalled.

Some drivers took the opportunity to pit, led by the KBM trucks. 14 drivers stayed out.

Smith claimed the stage win ahead of Stewart Friesen, Rhodes, Nemechek, Enfinger, Eckes, Derek Kraus, Tan. Gray, Chase Purdy, and Ankrum.

Stage 2

It was now Smith outside the top-15 as Rhodes and Busch cycled to the front of the field.

The cautions continued to fly in the second stage as Boyd’s truck stalled once again. Soon after, Lawless Alan went spinning to bring out the sixth caution of the race. 

During this yellow flag period, Busch and Byron dove to pit road from the second and third positions on track.

Eckes and Hocevar then battled back-and-forth for second place with Eckes ultimately prevailing.

The Stage 2 win went to Rhodes, who led Eckes, Hocevar, Smith, Nemechek, Majeski, Matt DiBenedetto, Parker Kligerman, Enfinger, and Tan. Gray.

Stage 3

The frontrunners then pitted before the start of the final stage, and Stage 1 winner Smith was caught speeding.

Byron then moved to the front of the field as he stayed out. The final stage did not remain green for long as Kaden Honeycutt crashed out of his CWTS debut. Another caution flew for an incident involving Dillon Steuer.

After that, Rhodes made a three-wide move that went wrong, knocking his teammate Eckes into Friesen and sending the latter spinning up the track. The hits just kept coming as Jesse Little spun next, collecting Wright.

Austin Wayne Self then fell from the race after a fire erupted inside the right-front wheel.

After that, the cautions subsided and Byron, unchallenged, cruised to the race win ahead of Sauter and Busch, leading 94 of 200 laps.