NASCAR at Chicagoland: Byron Sweeps Stages

JOLIET, Ill. -- William Byron swept the stages ahead of some hungry Toyotas in Sunday's eero 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Byron swept the first two stages for the first time in a Cup Series race since the October 2025 race at Martinsville Speedway.

STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 80): William Byron, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick.

STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 165): William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, John Hunter Nemechek.

Briscoe battled Byron hard at the end of the stage and didn't let him forget when the final stage began. Byron led all four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, led by Briscoe and then Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. 

As of lap 210, Byron led all drivers for laps led (89). Bubba Wallace (34 laps led), Denny Hamlin (28), Kyle Larson (23), Austin Cindric (18), Ryan Blaney (8) and Chase Briscoe (5) followed Byron's lap-led total. 

Several incidents filled the first two stages, starting on the first lap. Connor Zilisch crashed and scored his fifth last-place DNF this season, all in the last seven races.

Ryan Preece lost multiple laps with his involvement in the incident with Zilisch. 

Later in the first stage, on lap 32, Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar crashed in turn two while racing hard. Then, Shane van Gisbergen tapped Austin Hill on the entry to turn three and caused him to hit the wall on lap 48.  

In the second stage, Kyle Larson spun from third on lap 93. He damaged the underbody, causing a loss of downforce that kept him in 35th for much of the rest of the night. 

On lap 134, Tyler Reddick brought out the caution after something went through his radiator and caused fluid to leak onto the racetrack. He eventually came back out on the track 29 laps down. 

By this point, Preece found himself on the lead lap after all of the cautions.