William Byron (left) finished in 25th place at Talladega Superspeedway following a last-lap incident while running in fifth place. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
TALLADEGA, Ala. — William Byron finished 25th in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday and headed back home to North Carolina at 36 points below the playoff cutline.
While running inside the top five on the final lap, Byron got turned around in the tri-oval off the nose of Carson Hocevar, putting him in “must-win-territory” next weekend at Martinsville Speedway in order to advance to a third consecutive Championship 4.
“Yeah, it’s just the way that it goes,” Byron said. “Felt like I was in the right position there on the bottom lane, and we just couldn’t get linked up off of (Turn) 4.”
On the final restart, which was an overtime attempt, Byron was lined up behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in the bottom lane. While on the back straightaway on the final lap, Larson ran out of fuel and scrambled the racing lines, which allowed the Toyotas to take over the lead before Byron spun in the tri-oval.
William Byron (No. 24) battling for position during the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
“Had the (No.) 5 (Larson) run out of fuel there on the backstretch,” said Byron. “So, it just broke up all the energy. I don’t know. Couldn’t quite get the pushes to go our way there at the very end.”
Byron, who has come close to winning at Talladega Superspeedway in the past, having scored five top-five finishes in 16 starts, believed he got the restart needed to win, but after Larson ran out of fuel, his line was not able to get linked back up quickly enough on the final lap.
“I had the restart I wanted to through (Turns) 1 and 2,” he said. “Got pushed clear and just couldn’t get it back reconnected and the energy back going for the white flag lap. Green white checkers are tough. You’re just trying to get linked the best you can, and unfortunately, it wasn’t that way for us.”
The Round of 8 has been a story of unfortunate circumstances for Byron in the two races thus far. He was taken out of the race late while running in second place last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after an incident with Ty Dillon, and the spin in the tri-oval while running in fifth place at Talladega Superspeedway was along similar lines.
William Byron en route to a 25th-place finish in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The positions lost on the final lap put him 36 points below the cutline for the Martinsville Speedway elimination race next weekend. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
Both incidents have cost Byron a large number of points, causing him to drop from comfortably above the provisional playoff cutline during the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to uncomfortably below the cutline with the elimination race at Martinsville Speedway looming.
Byron will join his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott in the fight for victory at Martinsville Speedway next Sunday. Both drivers sit too far below the cutline to make it to the Championship 4 on points alone.
“Definitely got to go there (Martinsville) and try to win the race,” said Byron. “We’ve put ourselves in a position to win these last two. So, I don’t see why we’ll be any different there. Just got to regroup, go there and try to win.”
