William Byron racing during the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
LINCOLN, Ala. — In an uncharacteristically calm superspeedway-style race, William Byron finished in third place in the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Byron initially crossed the start/finish line in fourth place, but the second-place finisher, Ryan Preece, was disqualified following a post-race inspection, moving Byron up to third.
“The No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a good job today,” Byron said. “We had some issues and had to work on it. We got it better and then we were able to race there in the final stage, so really happy with that.”
As the race stayed under green flag conditions in the final stage, a green-flag pit stop cycle was needed for all the teams to reach the end of the race. Byron came down pit road with the third and final group during the cycle, which featured several Chevrolet teammates and the eventual race winner Austin Cindric.
William Byron (No. 24) racing three-wide with Ryan Preece (No. 60) and John Hunter Nemechek (No. 42) at Talladega Superspeedway. (Hayden Hutchinson | The Podium Finish)
After executing well on pit road and getting organized, along with the help of Ross Chastain throwing a big block to slow down the momentum of the group led by Carson Hocevar and Denny Hamlin, they took control of the race with Byron in second.
However, Byron ended up in the top lane in the closing laps, pushing Cindric, but couldn’t get a good enough run to jump to the outside and make a move to win, even with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman pushing behind. He cited the outside lane not being able to sustain momentum throughout the race as why the best move was to stay in line and push.
“For whatever reason, the top lane just couldn’t get the runs off the corner at the right time to get connected,” he said. “We’d get connected too late and then get a little bit squirrely and lose our momentum. I wish just that one time, we could have connected a little better to stay even with the bottom lane, but we were working really hard to do that with the No. 2 (Cindric).”
Even with the third-place finish, it was a somewhat quiet day for Byron, who had a very good points day for the No. 24 team, scoring nine stage points and 43 points in total, helping maintain his lead in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings.
William Byron (No. 24) battling for position between Bubba Wallace (No. 23), Justin Haley (No. 7) and Austin Dillon (No. 3) during the Jack Link’s 500. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)
Hendrick Motorsports also had a strong afternoon with all four cars finishing inside the top 10, a feat the organization has only accomplished one other time at Talladega Superspeedway, which was in 2011.
Despite the good finish, Byron still was left feeling a little disappointed, as he thought his No. 24 team was in a great spot to claim the victory, which would have been the first since winning the season-opening Daytona 500.
“We always want a little bit more,” said Byron. “I feel like we were in the perfect position there with 10 laps to go.”
