NASCAR: The biggest winner at Martinsville wasn’t William Byron

William Byron officially clinched a berth in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs by becoming the first driver to win twice. But he wasn’t the biggest winner.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron has already doubled his career win total in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

After entering the season with two wins to his name, he now sits at four after winning the season’s fifth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and then its eighth race at Martinsville Speedway this past Saturday night.

Byron’s win at Martinsville Speedway prevented the 2022 season from becoming the first season in 19 years to see eight different winners in eight races to start the year, thus making him the first driver to win two races in 2022.

As a result, he is the first driver to officially secure a playoff berth.

With the 16 playoff spots going to the regular season points champion and then the next 15 drivers highest in wins, winning one race in the 26-race regular season doesn’t necessarily guarantee a playoff berth, despite the idea that the playoff format is a “win and in” format.

But as long as a driver remains in the top 30 in the point standings, winning twice does, as there can be no more than 13 two-race winners before the playoffs.

But Byron wasn’t the biggest winner of the weekend.

If there are more than 16 regular season race winners, the tiebreaker among single-race winners to fill the open spots is points — kind of like points decide who fills in the open spots among the non-winners if there aren’t that many winners.

If it came down to a points battle, Byron was already sitting in a great position. He sat in fourth place in the point standings entering the race as the highest placed driver among the seven winners, and following his win, he moved up to third.

Bottom line, he was basically locked into the postseason anyway.

However, the same can’t be said for the other six winners.

Only two of those other six winners are in the top 10 in the point standings, with one not even in the top 20. Take a look.

• 5th – Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Team, 246 points
• T-6th – Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports, 237 points
• 11th – Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing, 220 points
• T-13th – Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, 201 points
• T-13th – Austin Cindric, Team Penske, 201 points
• 21st – Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, 157 points

If more than 16 winners do emerge, very few of those listed above would be considered safe in their current positions.

While we could still very well see more than 16 different regular season winners, given the fact that there are still 18 races to go before the playoffs, Byron’s win on Saturday night takes away an opportunity for a potential new winner, thereby increasing the likelihood that the playoff format will indeed be a “win and in” format once again and all of these drivers will indeed be locked in thanks to their earlier victories, no matter where they end up in the point standings.

The ninth race on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is scheduled to take place this Easter Sunday, April 17. This race, the Food City Dirt Race, is set to be broadcast live from Bristol Motor Speedway on Fox beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to start your free trial of FuboTV now!