Byron, who won the first two stages and led 176 of 271 laps, lost the lead during a round of pit stops late in the race and it appeared his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson was going to cruise to the victory.
Aric Almirola’s spin and wreck on Lap 264 sent the race into a two-lap overtime. Martin Truex Jr. elected to remain on the track while Byron and Larson came out second and third, thanks to two-tire stops.
Byron powered past Truex entering Turn 3 with one lap remaining and held off Larson by 0.622 seconds to earn the win.
The victory is the fifth in Byron’s career and first of the 2023 season. With fellow Hendrick driver Alex Bowman ending up third, HMS claimed its third-ever 1-2-3 finish.
“Just been really confident about the group of guys that I have on this No. 24 team. They work extremely hard, and we spent a lot of time in the off-season just going through running at the sim with Chevy and running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a race car driver and as a team,” Byron said.
“It’s all about the team. It’s a great pit crew. Thinking of Chase (Elliott) back home. Wish he was out here with us. He’s a great race car driver, great teammate. Wish he was out here, but thankful to (Rick Hendrick), Jeff Gordon.
“Honestly when we got back in traffic, it was a little bit tight, but we knew we had speed so we just had to have the right things play out, and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) made a good call, so it was good.”
Bubba Wallace ended up fourth and Christopher Bell rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were Austin Cindric, Truex, Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick and Daniel Suarez.
Chevrolet drivers have now won the first three races of the season for the first time since the 2010 season.
JR Motorsports Xfinity Series driver Josh Berry, who substituted for the injured Elliott in Hendrick’s No. 9 car, ended up 29th and two laps down.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all pit with Byron first off pit road.
On the restart on Lap 174, Byron was followed by Larson, Bowman, Truex and Ross Chastain.
While running three-ride with Kyle Busch while exiting Turn 4 on Lap 183, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski made contact which sent Logano spinning down into the frontstretch grass to bring out a caution.
The damage on Logano’s No. 22 Penske Ford was too severe to repair and his race came to an early end.
“Considering how we’ve been here in the past, you…
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