Live updates: Charlotte’s William Byron wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville

William Byron delivered Hendrick Motorsports another win at Martinsville.

Each of the four drivers for NASCAR’s top team piloted special ruby red Chevrolet Camaros amid their 40th anniversary celebration, and they all ran toward the front throughout Sunday’s Cup Series race.

Byron, the 26-year-old Charlotte native, grabbed the lead during the final stage and didn’t look back. He finished right in front of two of his teammates, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, and Alex Bowman came in eighth. Bubba Wallace finished fourth, and Ryan Blaney took fifth.

Larson started the race from the pole and led the entirety of Stage 1. Joey Logano opted to take two tires instead of four, jumped off pit road and led the field to green for the next stage. Logano led for most of Stage 2 before giving up the lead to Denny Hamlin.

Elliott, battling Hamlin, surged to the lead early in the final stage. He was eventually passed by Hamlin himself, and Byron made his pit stops at crucial times that allowed him to move into the race lead.

Here’s a look at the race’s biggest moments as they unfolded:

Lap 415: William Byron holds off the field! Hendrick Motorsports gets the first 1-2-3 finish by one team in Martinsville history.

Lap 413: William Byron and Chase Elliott will restart on the front row. Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney — who fell all the way back in the field earlier — make up the second. Here. We. Go.

Lap 407: Can Byron hold on and claim his third win of the season? He has yet to head down pit road under this caution. Denny Hamlin does.

Lap 399: There’s fire coming out of Nemechek’s right front tire. How about this?! We’ve got an overtime restart coming up for the second week in a row!

Lap 398: Caution! With two laps left! John Hunter Nemechek blew his right front tire. Haven’t had a stoppage in nearly 200 laps.

Lap 370: Barring a caution, this race feels like Byron’s to lose. The No. 24 Chevy has taken a lead of more than 2.3 seconds over Chase Elliott. Kyle Larson runs third — putting the ruby red Hendrick cars 1-2-3 late in this anniversary race at Martinsville.

Lap 336: Byron’s lead over teammate Chase Elliott is nearly a second. Will a ruby red Hendrick car make it into Victory Lane?

Lap 330: William Byron moves into the race lead!

Lap 322: Daniel Suarez currently holds that race lead, and William Byron has surged into second place. Chase Elliott runs third, Kyle Larson fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth.

Lap 310: Briscoe pits, and Austin Cindric is currently the race leader.

Lap 302: With 100 laps to go, the leaders head down pit road! Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott battle for the race off pit road. Chase Briscoe, who last pitted in Lap 185, is your race leader.

Lap 294: As this period of green-flag racing continues, moments ago, South Carolina defeated Iowa to win the NCAA women’s basketball championship.

The FS1 commentators briefly discussed the tournament in the booth and complimented Dawn Staley’s program and Caitlin Clark. Will be interesting to see how this impacts NASCAR’s TV ratings this week — as the race went green and national championship tipped off nearly simultaneously.

Lap 288: Denny Hamlin is out in front of Chase Elliott by roughly 1.8 seconds. Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and William Byron run in the top five.

Lap 272: Good stretch of green-flag racing. Denny Hamlin’s lead is increasing over Chase Elliott, and Bubba Wallace is maintaining his third position.

Lap 257: Denny Hamlin runs down Chase Elliott and takes the race lead!

Lap 240: Chase Elliott’s lead has been trimmed by nearly a second as Denny Hamlin makes up some ground. Bubba Wallace still runs third, Kyle Larson fourth and William Byron fifth. Alex Bowman is sixth — four of the top six are the Hendrick drivers.

Lap 225: Chase Elliott is opening a healthy lead over Denny Hamlin, currently more than two seconds. Bubba Wallace runs behind his co-owner, followed by Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman.

Lap 208: Restart! Chase Elliott moves out in front of Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman.

Lap 201: Christopher Bell spins! Caution out as the No. 20 Toyota goes around.

Lap 194: Chase Elliott passes Denny Hamlin and moves into the lead!

Lap 190: Green for the final stage! Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott are side-by-side on the stage break restart.

Lap 186: Speeding penalty: Daniel Suarez. The No. 99 Chevy, which had been running in the top 15, will go to the rear.

Lap 185: Pit stops! Nearly everybody pits under this stage break caution.

Lap 184: Joey Logano’s decision to take two tires, instead of four, gave him the race lead on the restart prior to the start of Stage 2. He led most of the stage and finished fifth.

Lap 181: Your Top 10 following Stage 2: Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Ross Chastain and Josh Berry.

Stage 2

Lap 180: Denny Hamlin wins Stage 2! That’s his seventh stage win at Martinsville. He owns more stage wins here than any other driver.

Lap 179: Lots of drivers a lap down. Hamlin battling with lap car Austin Cindric as he leads.

Lap 171: There’s the pass! Denny Hamlin takes the lead, surging past Joey Logano and the rest of the field.

Lap 170: Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are battling for the race lead with 10 lef in Stage 2! Hamlin has been trying to get to both sides of Logano to pass him, and the two headed to the start/finish line side-by-side into this lap.

Lap 164: Denny Hamlin passes Bubba Wallace for second! Good run off the corner of Turn 2 for Hamlin, who surges in front of Wallace after running behind him for a while. Hamlin working right behind race leader Joey Logano.

Lap 155: Those same 10 drivers listed below lead the field with 25 laps to go in Stage 2. Essentially, Joey Logano took two tires when he pitted during the stage break to get to the lead and hasn’t given it up. Kyle Larson, from whom Logano took the race lead, hasn’t moved up from fourth as he’s caught behind Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin.

Lap 135: Your Top 10 here in Stage 2: Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Josh Berry.

Lap 120: And we’re back to green! Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin run in the top three — ahead of Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron. Those four ruby red Hendrick Motorsports Chevys are currently running in a line. Pretty cool.

Lap 112: First natural caution of the day comes for debris on the frontstretch.

Lap 110: Flat tire for Christopher Bell! He steers his No. 20 Toyota around the track and heads down pit road quickly after slipping all the way to the back of the field.

Lap 97: Joey Logano opens a sizable lead after leading the field to green on the stage break restart. Bubba Wallace, who started and finished Stage 1 second, still holds that position. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch round out the Top 10.

Lap 93: Green for Stage 2! Joey Logano leads the field to green after taking two tires, while Kyle Larson — who led every lap of Stage 1 — is first on four tires.

Lap 91: Ryan Blaney made multiple trips to pit road and is now 24th.

Lap 88: Chase Elliott made contact on pit road with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was hit with a speeding penalty. Todd Gilliland back to pit road after leaving a wedge wrench in the window. Joey Logano and William Byron only took two tires at this stage break pit stop.

Lap 85: Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace are among a host of drivers who head down an open pit road during this stage break.

Lap 81: Your Top 10 following Kyle Larson’s Stage 1 win: Larson, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Josh Berry and Kyle Busch.

Stage 1

Lap 80: Kyle Larson wins Stage 1 in dominant fashion! The No. 5 started from the pole and has yet to look back. Bubba Wallace made a good run toward the end but was held off by Larson, who collects his first stage win at Martinsville.

Lap 62: Stage 1 is going well for Hendrick Motorsports on its big day! Larson continues pacing the field by nearly two seconds. Chase Elliott has been running third, William Byron up to eighth and Alex Bowman is 11th.

Lap 39: Larson has led for the entirety of the race. Cars are spreading out all over the track, making the leader work through traffic. Bubba Wallace is roughly a second back, running second.

Lap 20: Been a good stretch of green-flag racing to kick off today’s race at Martinsville. Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace are out in front, followed by Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Green flag, 3:14 p.m.: Green green green! 400 laps at Martinsville; Here we go!

3:07 p.m.: Cars are on the track! No cars to the rear. Racin’ soon at Martinsville!

3:03 p.m.: “Drivers, start your engines!“ Jeff Gordon and Geoff Bodine — legends of Hendrick Motorsports — join a young boy representing race sponsor Cook Out, and engines are fired!

2:55 p.m.: Drivers have been introduced! Denny Hamlin, fresh off his win in which he jumped the restart, seemed to receive even more boos than usual, if that’s possible.

2 p.m.: Cars are lined up on pit road, which stretches around Turn 1 on NASCAR’s shortest track. Roughly an hour away from the green flag!

1 p.m.: Happy Race Day! The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the half-mile of mayhem this afternoon.

Martinsville Speedway, the 0.526-mile short track in the Southern Virginia mountains, is both the smallest and oldest venue in NASCAR. Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports — whose drivers are piloting special ruby red Chevy Camaros as the team celebrates 40 years at Martinsville — won the pole position for today’s race, which is scheduled to green at 3:11 p.m.

“Getting track position on Saturday and qualifying well usually pays dividends as long as your team can execute on Sunday,” said Larson, the pole-sitter for the second straight week. “It’s great to get another pole on a short track, back-to-back weekends. I felt like it really helped our race out last week, and as long as we execute (today), it should help our race out as well.”

Who are the favorites to win the Cook Out 400?

Kyle Larson is the favorite on Sunday at +350 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook Sunday morning, followed by Denny Hamlin at +475, then Martin Truex Jr. (+550), Joey Logano (+700) and Ryan Blaney (+850). Today’s pole-sitter and last week’s race winner are tied for the best odds to win Sunday at +400 on FanDuel Sportsbook.

Shane Connuck is picking Ryan Blaney to defend his win at Martinsville. As I said on PRN’s Pit Reporters show this week, it’s about time the new Ford Mustang body gets into Victory Lane. I know I’ve picked Blaney a couple of times already this year. But with Fords still winless entering what could be another eventful race on Martinsville’s iconic “paper clip,” someone has to do it, and I’m ready to see the defending series champion turn the speed he’s shown throughout the season into a win. Drivers have gone back-to-back at Martinsville before — most recently, Martin Truex Jr. in 2019 and 2020 — and Brad Keselowski’s March 2019 victory is the last time a Ford won at Martinsville before Blaney. It’s his turn again.

How to watch and stream the NASCAR race at Martinsville

Race: Cook Out 400

Place: Martinsville Speedway (Ridgeway, Va.)

Date: Sunday, April 7

Time: 3 p.m. ET (Green flag at 3:11 p.m.)

Purse: $7,669,028

TV: FS1, 2 p.m. ET

Streaming: FOX Sports

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Distance: 210.4 miles (400 Laps)

Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 80; Stage 2 ends on Lap 180; and the Final Stage ends on Lap 400.

Starting lineup for the Cook Out 400