AUSTIN, TX– William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports wins EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix from COTA.
After starting from the pole and taking control of the race early, William Byron was able to withstand a charge by Christopher Bell in the final laps to cap off a dominant performance, winning the Echopark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas for his second victory of the 2024 season. Byron’s 12th career Cup win comes after he led a whopping 42 of 68 laps and also after his crew had an exceptional final pit stop that was three seconds faster than then-second-place Ross Chastain.
There were just two caution periods for a total of four laps. Thirty-four of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Martin Truex Jr. remains the championship leader after COTA with a five-point advantage over second-place Ty Gibbs.
Stage 1 Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stewart Haas Racing Finish:
- Chase Briscoe (Started 32nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 24th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
- Noah Gragson (Started 39th, Finished 35th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)
- Josh Berry (Started 31st, Finished 36th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)
Stewart Haas Racing Points:
- Chase Briscoe (17th with 131 points, 89 out of first)
- Josh Berry (29th with 76 points, 144 out of first)
- Ryan Preece (31st with 73 points, 147 out of first)
- Noah Gragson (34th with 58 points, 162 out of first)
Briscoe earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at COTA.
“Our race was OK overall,” said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I felt like, starting 32nd, that for the first couple of laps we were able to drive up to 17th and were going to be in a really good spot coming to the end of the first stage. I bottomed out really hard into the esses and it made me miss a corner and that really changed the whole complexity of our race. I had to go to the back and then drove back up there to the top-10. At the end with eight to go I made a huge mistake and got in the dirt in turn eight and allowed those guys to all swallow me up those last couple of laps. I thought we made our Mustang better throughout the day. I thought we had a solid 10th-place car, but we don’t really have anything else for the rest of the guys. We need to do some work, but to finish right outside of the top-10, we’ve been able to do that pretty much every week this year. If we aren’t in the top-10, we’re just a couple of spots outside of it. We’ve been really consistent, which is nice. We just need to get a little bit better, and then, hopefully, we can improve on the finishes.”
This was Briscoe’s third straight result of 13th or better. He finished ninth on March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th last Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Preece finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.
“We just could never get track position,” Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “Every time we went up there we’d get spun or wrecked or whatever. I felt like we had a pretty good racecar, just nothing to show for it.”
Berry finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn a bonus point.
This was Berry’s first career NASCAR Cup Series start at COTA.
William Byron won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to score his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at COTA. His margin of victory over second-place Christopher Bell was .692 of a second.
“We struggled from the get-go,” said Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “We made some spots up at the beginning of the race and then fell back. Was kind of off the pace and knew we were probably worse than we were in practice, so we decided to come down pit road at the end of stage two and make some extensive changes to the setup, just wholesaling it and throwing everything we could at it. We were hoping to get a caution there at the end to get racked back up, but never did. It was definitely a brutal day, but I am still proud of everyone on this team. A long day with nothing to show for it.”
“We got better throughout the race<‘ said Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “Our lap times were pretty good at the end. We just needed some more caution to bunch everything up and help our odds. It was a tough weekend, and going into it, we knew it would be hard, but we learned a lot, and we’ll be better for the next one.” –
Next Up:
The next NASCAR Cup Series scheduled event is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, March 31, at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
