William Byron finishes the Coca-Cola 600 in second place (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish
CONCORD, N.C. – William Byron brought home a runner-up finish at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports.
Due to inclement weather forcing the cancelation of Cup Series practice and qualifying, Byron started from the pole position after NASCAR set the starting grid by the rulebook.
In addition to what is already NASCAR’s longest race, this year, inclement weather on Sunday made the weekend longer as the event got postponed until Monday afternoon.
Byron, though, seemed to be one of the best at adapting and maintaining speed throughout the race which can seemingly feel like a marathon for drivers. The No. 24 car consistently ran in the top 10 throughout the race by winning Stage 1, finishing eighth in Stage 2 and fourth in Stage 3.
Consistently running in the top 10 may not seem noteworthy, but with the track constantly changing and an additional stage tacked on, it makes the feat more impressive.
All things considered, just a race removed from his last points-paying victory, Byron was satisfied with the result.
“I think we just needed a little bit more. Our No. 24 Liberty University Chevy was good,” Byron said. “We could move around and get through the field. We could get to the top five, and then we would just kind of stay there and not have enough pace to really get further than that.”
Byron raced eventual winner for a large portion of the race, saying “Yeah, it was fun. I enjoyed it. I have trust in how he [Ryan Blaney] races. He caught me off guard with the last restart.”
The 25-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native hasn’t been caught off guard by much this season, despite an early season penalty. He has three victories, the most of any driver in the field, along with seven top-five finishes.
Although he fell shy of victory lane at his home track, William Byron has several noteworthy results throughout the first third of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Byron heads to WWT Raceway sitting third in driver’s points, just three points behind Blaney for second and four behind Ross Chastain for first. He’ll look to cut into that deficit even more in the Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by TicketSmarter, set for Sunday, June 4 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
