William Byron led the way for NASCAR Cup Series playoff contenders at Kansas Speedway with a runner up finish in the Hollywood Casino 400.
Ross Chastain won the race, which means no playoff driver clinched a spot in the postseason’s third round. Chastain took the lead from the front row on the race’s final restart with 20 laps go. Byron took second place just as quickly, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver couldn’t overcome the leader’s advantage and never got to Chastain’s bumper to mount a challenge.
The difference was “just clean air,” Byron said.
Sunday was his first top-five since mid-August. It was also a career-best finish at Kansas Speedway.
“I feel like he had the restart he needed to,” Byron said. “I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys, and once I got clear of them, my balance was OK — a little bit tight, but kind of inching up on them. I needed probably for it to be a longer run, being in second [place].
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“I wanted that one really bad. It sucks. You’re so close and know going to Talladega what that is. … Proud of the effort. We brought an awesome car. I’m proud of all my guys. They’ve been working their tails off, and we’ve gotten a lot of [crap] over the summer from the outside, and I know how good this team is, and I know what we’re capable of, so this is a great day to build on. … I’m looking forward to Talladega. We’re usually good there, and we’ll just see how that goes.”
Byron had the best average running position of any driver at Kansas — 4.6. He also led 24 laps and earned the most stage points Sunday afternoon (17). By winning the first stage, Byron added a playoff point to his total.
“Yeah, just what we can do,” Byron said of it being a statement race. “We know how important these tracks are and we’re excited to keep building and keep putting weeks together like this. We got off a little bit at times during the race; we were able to get it back and I’m proud of that. We have work to do, but proud of the effort today.”