XFINITY: Byron Comes Out On Top in Crash-Filled Finish at Charlotte

William Byron dominated Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway behind the wheel of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but a pit road speeding penalty after he swept Stages 1 and 2 put him in a hole in the final Stage of the race.

The 27-year-old full-time NASCAR Cup Series racer would spend the entirety of the final Stage trying to work himself back into a position to win the race, and as Byron was mired in the pack, it allowed Justin Allgaier to lead the most laps in the race at 103.

Thanks to a rash of cautions in the closing laps, which sent the race into an overtime finish, Byron was able to finally get track position after a strategy call to grab fresh tires with 20 laps to go.

" I think really once I sped [on pit road], it was just playing catch up from there on out. We never were really on offense there until we got the new tires on with 20 [laps] to go," Byron explained. "Was fortunate to get through that first restart, where they crashed and crashed on the bottom of [Turn] 1. I was able to sneak past that. So, that was a good break, and the next restart was really the key, I felt like."

After he found himself in position, Byron put his foot to the floor, and he would snatch the lead from Allgaier as they were coming to the white flag.

.@WilliamByron comes through in overtime to capture the @BetMGM 300 at Charlotte!!! pic.twitter.com/R9nyu9Q0dc
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) May 24, 2025

Byron would lead the final two laps of the race and would secure the victory when the caution flag would fly one last time on the final lap for a multi-car melee involving Jeb Burton and Brennan Poole. Officially, Byron's victory margin was 0.302 seconds.

RESULTS: NASCAR Xfinity Series BetMGM 300 at Charlotte

The victory is the first of Byron's NASCAR National Series career at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is the driver's home track. Byron didn't shy away from how special the win on Saturday was for him.

"The big one was winning here at Charlotte. Just growing up here nearby, my family's home race track," Byron stated. "It was really special, and we've been to this race track a lot, sitting in the stands, and this is really where the dream came alive. So, it just felt awesome to win here. I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself to run well at Charlotte and try to win, and to finally get one here was really cool."

Now, Byron shifts his focus to the big prize which is a win in the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday evening. Byron hopes with a win at Charlotte Motor Speedway under his belt on Saturday, it'll relieve the pressure he feels to get the job done on Sunday.

"Hopefully, that kind of takes the pressure off and we can just go out there tomorrow and just perform like we know how to," Byron explained.

Connor Zilisch, who competed in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series event since suffering a lower back injury in a vicious last-lap crash at Talladega Superspeedway on April 26, would claw his way to a second-place finish behind Byron.

Zilisch, a NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year contender, will make his second career NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Fellow Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year contender Nick Sanchez would notch a third-place result as he was able to bring home a very loose, and very fast No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet in one piece.

Allgaier would fade on the final lap of the race after nearly spinning out as he attempted to hold Byron at bay for the race lead. Allgaier, the defending series champion and current point leader, would cross the finish line in the fourth position.

With the solid run, Allgaier extended his NASCAR Xfinity Series point lead to 72 points over eighth-place finisher Austin Hill.

Sammy Smith was the initial fifth-place finisher in Saturday's BetMGM 300, but in post-race inspection, his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet did not meet the minimum weight requirements. This resulted in a disqualification, which sent Smith to a 38th-place finish.

Dean Thompson, Josh Williams, Hill, Ryan Ellis, Christian Eckes, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-10 finishers in Saturday's race.

For Ellis, a journeyman racer, the eighth-place result marked his first-career top-10 finish, and it came in the driver's 144th career NASCAR Xfinity Series start. Ellis was quite emotional as he climbed from his No. 71 DGM Racing Chevrolet at the conclusion of a hard-fought race.

"Well, I cried basically from there before I crossed the line and then [my spotter] Tab [Boyd] was yelling at me to cross the line," Ellis said after collecting the top-10 finish. "So, I think, I don't know how many starts I have -- I stopped looking. I know I hated looking at my Racing-Reference page and I care about this crap way more than I wish I did. Just really, really happy to be here and be part of DGM Racing, man. We've had really, really good cars and I felt like I've let them down a few times, same thing with Alpha Prime."

Poole, who was in position to score a top-15 finish until he was involved in the last-lap skirmish with Burton, took a massive shot into the outside wall on the final lap of the race. Poole, who dropped a position in the championship standings to 18th, says despite how hard the crash appeared, he was okay after a trip to the infield care center.

"It looked a little bit worse than it was, but, I'm totally fine. Everything did it's job, just kind of frustrated. That's it."

Poole was frustrated as he was alongside Burton, and couldn't do anything to prevent the collision.

"Yeah, I felt like I had a really good last restart. Everything was going great, from my standpoint. I don't know, I just think Jeb didn't know I was outside of him. And he just kept coming up," Poole explained to Racing America On SI. "And I was at his door. I mean, at that point I can't even check up enough to just let him in. I was too far up alongside him. So, when he came up, he just kind of squished me into the wall, and then it kind of turned him because I was already there.

"And then when he got turned, I kind of tried to get left to get away from him, and my hood popped up from damage from the first wreck. So, I couldn't see anything, and I was sideways, and I clipped somebody else, I think [Sawalich], and that turned me right back up into the wall."

While it looked like Burton simply turned into Poole on the final lap, it turned out that Burton had suffered a cut tire, which caused him to loose control of his race car.

Burton would be credited with a 20th-place finish, while Poole would end up 22nd.

Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, May 31. That race will be televised on The CW, and coverage of the race will kick off at 7:30 PM ET.

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