NASCAR Xfinity 500 takeaways: William Byron dominates at Martinsville; Kyle Larson fights through adversity to maintain title lead

The win is Byron's first of the season, fourth in the last 10 races at Martinsville and the 17th of his career. His performance was so dominant that his 362 laps out front are the most he has led in any race of his Cup Series career.

Granted, Byron is still just ninth in points and has been nowhere near title contention since the Chase began due to multiple issues, most of which have not been of his doing.

If anything, this could be the shot in the arm that Byron and his No. 24 team need to finish out the season strong and carry the momentum over to next season.

Kyle Larson escapes with title still in sight

Larson started third for Sunday's race and looked to be in prime position to either maintain his points lead or clinch the title altogether. That all changed when a strategy call to remain on the track for the 130-lap green-flag run to begin the race backfired and trapped him a lap down.

Courtesy of some cautions and a late rally during the lengthy run to the finish, Larson somehow salvaged a ninth-place finish despite accumulating just 28 total points and zero in either of the stages.

As a result of that and the inability of his closest competitors to capitalize on the opportunity, Larson only lost six points and still leads Christopher Bell by 67 and Denny Hamlin by 70 going to arguably his best track, Homestead-Miami Speedway, with the title on the line. 

Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin squander a huge opportunity to cut into Kyle Larson's points lead

While both Bell and Hamlin entered the day with a hill to climb in the standings, they appeared to be in a favorable position to make this a compelling championship battle in Miami next Sunday.

Instead, Bell sped on pit road during his green-flag stop on Lap 198 and lost all of his track position after battling near the front. On top of that, he was bumped from behind by Joey Logano and spun into Hamlin 10 laps after the ensuing restart.

Bell recovered to 10th, and Hamlin still finished sixth, but not without the same opening-style strategy backfiring on him as it did for Larson. Bell and Hamlin may not be eliminated from title contention like Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney, Logano and Tyler Reddick were on Sunday, but it was a huge missed opportunity.

Temperatures reach a boiling point for several drivers

Payback has become common at Martinsville due to its slow speeds and close-quarters racing. The first of those instances took place when Carson Hocevar break-checked Austin Cindric multiple times and damaged his nose so much he had to retire from the race in 36th.

Later on, Josh Berry, who finished fourth and was one of three non-Chase drivers inside the top 10 (Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon), did the same to Blaney before the 2023 champion spun in the next corner to end the second stage.

Martinsville has always had a tendency to bring out the tempers and create some run-ins, but it reached another level in these two instances, especially as Hocevar continues to put himself in the headlines for mostly the wrong reasons.