William Byron may have won the NASCAR Cup regular season championship a week earlier, but he was not able to continue that momentum in Saturday night’s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
Advertisement
Byron finished a disappointing 19th at Daytona, but he can take consolation in the fact that after the points were reset for the 16 drivers who qualified for the playoffs, he will head into the playoff opener next week at Darlington tied with Kyle Larson atop the point standings.
Contributing to his mediocre performance, Byron was without regular crew chief Rudy Fugle, who was ejected from the racetrack after Byron’s No. 24 Team Hendrick Chevrolet failed a pre-race inspection. Backup Brandon McSwain replaced Fugle atop the pit box for Saturday’s race but is no stranger to Byron.
“I thought Brandon did a really good job stepping in tonight,” Byron said. “We’ve worked together for probably a decade, really, since JRM (JR Motorsports) days. I thought he did a good job, and I’m sure all the work Rudy was doing back at the shop and everything was great as well. Just really proud of the effort.”
Early wreck didn’t cause much damage, but still set him back
Byron had to overcome some unusual issues early on that hindered his initial progress. “We had some gremlins there in the beginning of the race, some weird stuff going on,” he said.
“Nothing was wrong with the car, we just kind of got in that early crash and thought we might have had some damage. But overall, our car was good enough to compete for the win, I just wish I could have had a couple decisions back in the third stage. Overall, thought our weekend was smooth, all things considered.”
While he would have liked to have some better momentum going to Darlington, Byron has a very good track record at the so-called “Lady In Black.” In 14 starts there, Byron has one win, five top-fives and seven top-10 finishes, as well as two poles. He finished runner-up in this season’s earlier race at Darlington, and has three top-fives and two other top-10s in his last six starts there.
“I’m just excited for Darlington,” Byron said. “We’re going to be one of our best racetracks, and I’m sure we’ll be fast there. It’s pretty easy to just turn the page quickly.
“We’re going to one of our best racetracks and just hope that we can have a good week of prep and be ready for a long 500 miles. That’s one you really want to win. Just excited about the next few playoff races, and this is the time of year that gets exciting, so it’ll be fun.”
