Byron Wins for Spire, Brandon Jones Wins as Punches are Thrown

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series arrived at Martinsville, Virginia to see which driver could conquer the paperclip-shaped short track. The Truck Series raced under the lights on Thursday night, while the Xfinity Series raced under the lights on Friday night, which also featured Dale Earnhardt Jr making his lone Xfinity start of the season.

William Byron got his first truck series victory since driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2016, as he drove the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado for Spire Motorsports. He had to come up through the field, as he started 32nd of the 36-truck field, due to qualifying raining out early in the day. This also gives Spire Motorsports their first win in the Camping World Truck Series. Johnny Sauter, driving part-time for Thorsport, finished second, Kyle Busch ended up finishing third, and John Hunter Nemechek and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top five.

“It was a lot of fun. Great crowd here at Martinsville. I had never won a race at Martinsville,” Byron said in his post-race interview with FS1. “I struggled here when I was in late models. Just awesome to get the win tonight.”

Zane Smith, who has two wins on the season, started from the pole and led for the first 50 laps to claim the first stage victory of the race. At the halfway point of the race, he was hit with a speeding penalty on pit road and rallied back to finish in ninth.

The NASCAR Xfinity race showcased a more wild race that featured a 20-car pileup and a fight after the race, as Brandon Jones came in clutch on the final lap to get around his teammate, Ty Gibbs, to win the race. Jones went winless in 2021 after winning three races in 2020.

“What a day,” Jones said in his post-race interview. “I can’t say we could have played it out any better. I loved the call to stay out to get stage points. Drove the thing from all the way in the back to the front on older tires than all those guys there at the end.”

“This is driver’s race track right here. I’ve won at a lot of different race tracks now and this is one where you have to get after it. Ty ran a really hard race. He had a strong car,” he said, commenting on Ty Gibbs’ fire-hot start to the season.

When Ty Gibbs got passed by Jones, he got into a three-wide battle with Sam Mayer, resulting in Gibbs being moved up the track and finishing in eighth. That wasn’t the end of it for both drivers, as Gibbs went to confront Mayer after the race, which then resulted in the two drivers breaking out into a fight with punches thrown. Gibbs was called to the NASCAR hauler after the race.

“I tried to talk to him, and he got all in my face. At that point, we’ve got to start fighting,” Gibbs said in his post-race interviews. “We got put in a bad position there. He wasn’t going to get past the No. 16 there and I just got hit in the left rear. It’s just frustrating. I just got drove in the fence at the end.”

AJ Allmendinger went on to collect the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash as his teammate, Landon Cassill, finished in second with Allmendinger third. Brandon Jones, Landon Cassill, AJ Allmendinger, and Austin Hill will be the four drivers competing for the next Dash 4 Cash race at Talladega.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, NASCAR Hall of Famer, made his lone start of the season in the No. 88 Hellman’s Chevrolet Camaro. He would recover from a late spin to finish in 11th.