Four things we learned after William Byron's storybook win at Martinsville

No matter the era, Hendrick is always the team to beat at Martinsville

Whether it be their first win in 1984, countless battles between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon or overtime restarts between William Byron and Chase Elliott, Hendrick seems to find its way to the front at the Paperclip. 

Hendrick cars finished first, second, third and eighth at the half-mile short track on Sunday, proving they're always the favorite whenever the circuit heads to the famed facility. Rick Hendrick's drivers also led a combined 238 of the race's 415 laps. Byron's win is the fifth at the track for Hendrick in the last five seasons and he will likely be one of the favorites when NASCAR returns to Martinsville in the fall.

There's still a lot of work to do with NASCAR's short track package

It appears that the phenomenal race at Bristol on March 17 was more a product of the tire than NASCAR's aero package. For whatever reason, NASCAR's Next Gen car has turned former must-see events at Martinsville into long, drawn out games of follow the leader.

Unless your name was William Byron, passing proved to be nearly impossible during Sunday's race, despite fair temperatures and plenty of rubber being laid down on the track. Whether the answer is adding more horsepower, eliminating shifting or an aerodynamic trick, NASCAR needs to figure out their car's short track issues before the fans refuse to show up at the gate.

William Byron is the new king of late race restarts

Whether it be Las Vegas with Kyle Larson on his tail, Darlington with Kevin Harvick breathing down his neck or Martinsville with a hungry Chase Elliott to his outside, William Byron has proven to be the new king of late race restarts in the NASCAR Cup Series. In addition to the mentioned 2023 examples, Byron also won at Texas last fall after a late race restart and did the same in the Martinsville spring race in 2022.

While Byron has clearly been the best driver overall with the Next Gen car, he's also been clutch on late restarts whenever they pop up, a valuable asset for any driver wanting to win races in the modern era of NASCAR.

Bubba Wallace is improving tenfold on the short tracks

Once looked at as just a superspeedway ace, Wallace has proven he can win on the intermediates and put forth top-15 efforts on road courses. However, these past two weeks have proven he's capable of contending for victories on NASCAR's bullrings. Wallace ran top five all night at Richmond before a bad final pit stop resulted in a 13th-place finish, but on Sunday, he closed the deal, finishing fourth on a day when he started second. 

With the strong finish, Wallace earned 18 total stage points, placing him 13th as the circuit heads to Texas. Wallace's improvement on the short ovals is extremely commendable, but next Sunday's race at Texas may be his first legitimate shot of getting his first win of the season – after all, it was Wallace who narrowly lost to William Byron in the closing laps at Texas last fall.