William Byron – Syndication Server

Byron’s shot at Cup Series title snatched away by Penske speed

There was a moment during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship-deciding race in Phoenix when Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron thought he might have a shot at holding his Penske rivals off, but it was fleeting. Byron stayed out longer than …

Byron stayed out longer than Penske’s Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney before making his final stop on lap 247, which potentially set him up with tires roughly 15 laps fresher than his rivals for his final stint. That hope lasted all of one lap after Zane Smith crashed and triggered a caution, during which the two Penskes and fellow championship contender Tyler Reddick of 23XI all took the opportunity to make stops of their own under yellow.

They rejoined well behind Byron, who said he briefly thought he had enough of a gap to keep them at bay before the appearance of the Penske cars in his mirrors suggested otherwise.

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“I did,” he said when asked whether he thought he had them covered. “But just as good as they got through (Turns) 1 and 2, it was just like, man, now they’re right on me. I think going into the restart, I thought I had enough of a buffer and I didn’t really feel like one lap on tires was that big a deal. I don’t think it was.

“I just think that they were fast on the short run all weekend, and that was our struggle. We were decent throughout the run, but couldn’t really take off with a ton of speed. It wasn’t a huge surprise, but they were on me a little bit quicker than I thought they would be.”

Throughout the race Byron was fast enough to keep the Penskes in range, but not fast enough to engage them over a full run.

“I would just compliment Penske as a whole,” he said. “They had the two best cars today, and it was really a battle between them throughout the day. I was just hoping that they would make some mistakes and get up in there.”

2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race odds, picks and predictions

Looking at the odds for Sunday’s 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race with NASCAR expert picks and predictions.

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The NASCAR season wraps up at Phoenix Raceway Sunday with the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. The green flag drops at 3 p.m. ET (NBC) for the final start of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s NASCAR odds around the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race odds, and make our expert NASCAR picks and predictions.

NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race: What you need to know

After 9 playoff races, including 3 elimination races, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and William Byron make up the final 4 as they’ll compete to win the Cup title Sunday.
Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney aims for a 2nd consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championship. He had the best practice time with a 132.480 mph top speed heading into Sunday’s race, in which he’ll start 17th.
Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron was also sharp in practice, posting a best speed of 132.004 mph, as he vies for his 1st Cup title. He’ll start 8th.
Penske’s Joey Logano qualified 2nd with a time of 134.69 mph. He’s aiming for his 3rd NASCAR Cup Series championship, all since 2018.
23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick qualified 10th as he looks for his 1st series title. He was just 21st in practice with a best speed of 130.795 mph.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr., who is retiring from full-time NASCAR competition after this race, won the pole with a speed of 134.741 mph. He has 1 win in 37 career starts in Phoenix with 6 top-5’s out of his 16 top-10’s.
Blaney has never won at Phoenix, but he leads all Championship 4 drivers with a 10.9 Average-Finish Position (AFP) in 17 career Cup starts at the flat track. He has finished inside the top 5 on 8 occasions, leading 431 laps with 2 DNFs.
Byron has a checkered flag in his 13 Cup races at Phoenix, while posting 7 top-10 finishes and 186 laps led with 0 DNFs and a 93.6 Average Driver Rating.
Logano leads all Championship 4 drivers with 3 checkered flags in Avondale, while posting 8 top-5 runs and 16 top-10 finishes with 908 laps led and 3 DNFs with a 13.5 AFP in 31 career Cup starts.
Reddick has just 9 Cup starts in his career at the Arizona flat track, going for only 2 top-5 finishes and 3 top-10 runs with 1 DNF and a dismal 82.6 Average Driver Rating.
JGR driver Denny Hamlin has a 10.8 AFP in 38 career Cup starts with 16 top-5 finishes and 936 laps led at Phoenix. He’ll start 14th.
Hendrick’s Kyle Larson has a win and 8 top-5 finishes in 20 career Cup starts with 382 laps led and a 97.2 Average Driver Rating. He’ll start 4th.

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NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race – Expert pick

Odds provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list of NASCAR odds. Lines last updated at 3:11 a.m. ET.

RYAN BLANEY (+250) is the safe play. He won the championship last season, finishing as the runner-up in the season finale to Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who wasn’t in the final 4 picture. In fact, Blaney and Chastain made contact after a late-race restart last season.

There is safety in numbers here, too. Team Penske has won the past 2 championships. Blaney has his teammate Logano to work with. Now, if it comes down to those 2 in the final lap, obviously all bets are off. But they can each help each other get into a better and safe position during the early to middle laps.

NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race – Contender

TYLER REDDICK (+1300) didn’t get into the Championship 4 by accident. He is a good driver, even though his results at Phoenix Raceway over his career haven’t been great. In practice, Reddick was just 21st with a 130.795 mph, so he has work to do.

In 9 career Cup starts at the flat track in Phoenix, Reddick has managed just 2 top-5 finishes, 3 top-10 runs and only 5 placements inside the top 20, posting 72 laps led, 1 DNF and a mediocre 82.6 Average Driver Rating.

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Cup Series title contenders spread throughout field for Phoenix start

There will be 16 grid spots separating the Championship 4 when the green flag waves for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series title-decider at Phoenix, but all of them feel good about their chances. “I do,” said Team Penske’s Joey Logano when asked if he felt …

There will be 16 grid spots separating the Championship 4 when the green flag waves for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series title-decider at Phoenix, but all of them feel good about their chances.

“I do,” said Team Penske’s Joey Logano when asked if he felt like the championship was his for the taking. “I feel like our car is strong. We did a good job in qualifying, feel strong about our team, and we feel really solid about these type of pressure situations. We’re just executing our plan. We’ve had two weeks to put our plan together; just have to execute it the best we can now.”

Logano’s confidence in the homework the No. 22 team has done ahead of this weekend was reinforced by his being the highest qualifier among the title contenders. He will roll off from second on the grid after being edged out by Martin Truex Jr.

“I’ve said all week, I feel like we’ve had the upper hand,” he said. “I feel like we’re in a great spot. Obviously a lot of things can happen from here, but when you look at what we accomplished today, getting a solid starting spot, that’s something we should be proud of, but it’s also exactly what we were trying to do. We feel confident. This race team’s been doing this a long, long time. We feel solid about where we’re at. When you prepare for what’s coming your way, it’s easy to feel confident.”

Logano is chasing his third Cup Series crown, while Penske teammate Ryan Blaney is looking to add a second to the one he earned last year. Blaney triumphed last year from 15th on the grid – an experience that he can lean on this time around after qualifying the No. 12 Ford 17th.

“Our lap didn’t go well, just got really free into Turn 1 and kind of ruined it all and couldn’t really make it back up,” Blaney said. “I was surprised, honestly, that it ran what it did for how loose I got.

“I think the car is pretty good. Still nice to have a decent pit stall and things like that. We’ll just take it how we can get it tomorrow; try to work through the first handful of laps and then start marching forwards. Pretty similar to last year – hopefully it will end the same and we can charge through the field. I think the race car is good enough to where hopefully we can make that happen.”

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Starting roughly halfway between the two title-contending Penske entries are their two rivals, led by Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron in eighth.

“I think we do [have a car that’s good enough to win],” he said. “It sucks; just didn’t quite get the second lap I wanted to in the second (qualifying) round, so bummed about that. I feel really good about our race car, getting first pit pick, which is huge. Excited about all those things, and just [have to] put together a good start to the race. It’s such a long race; it’s just going to be about getting to the finish and having what you need there.”

Tyler Reddick will be immediately behind him on the starting grid after qualifying the No. 45 23XI Toyota in 10th. He endured the most nerve-wracking trip through qualifying of the four contenders after narrowly hanging on to a top five spot in the opening round.

“Round one, obviously we just barely got in; did just enough there,” he said. “That second run, I wasn’t expecting it to lose that much lap time from round one, and when you’re first car out you’re kind of going off what you need to do, and the last thing I thought was that it would lose that much across the board. Definitely wish we could have had that one back.

“We’re right there with William; Joey’s a little further ahead obviously, but we had a pretty solid day.”

Reddick came into qualifying off the back of a disappointing run in practice on Friday, but is optimistic that the team is gotten the car to where it needs to be.

“There were moments in practice where our car was doing what we wanted it to do,” he said. “Just across the board, the fire-off speed wasn’t really there. We’ve been talking about it and coming up with a plan for Sunday. Going into the race, I have a good sense of direction for what I need to be focused on, and what we as a team need to keep up with on the race car.”

Why William Byron will win the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship

Check out why William Byron will win the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway this weekend!

[autotag]William Byron[/autotag] will have another opportunity to win.a NASCAR Cup Series championship. In 2023, Byron made the Championship 4 but couldn’t beat Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson, who finished in second and third place, respectively. However, why will Byron’s end result be different than it was during the 2023 NASCAR season?

Among the Championship 4 drivers at Phoenix, Byron is statistically the second-best behind Blaney. Plus, the driver of the No. 24 car is the only Hendrick Motorsports competitor to make the Championship 4, so all the focus will be on his effort at Phoenix. Finally, Byron has one year of a Championship 4 event under his belt, giving him a better idea of this season’s attempt.

Byron has won at Phoenix in the past, so it’s not like Team Penske, which has two drivers in the Championship 4, will be unbeatable. The driver of the No. 24 car won the spring race at Phoenix in 2023 but was unable to replicate the speed in the fall. Yet, there should be optimism as Byron enters the Championship 4 with the most consistent speed during the playoffs.

It will be tough to beat Team Penske and Tyler Reddick, who won the regular season championship, but Byron is up to the task this year. While Blaney and Logano have experience as well, it’s good to know what the week leading up to Phoenix will consist of now. Byron hasn’t won a race in months, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see that change on Sunday afternoon.

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NASCAR explains Bell penalty; still more to review from Martinsville

NASCAR focused its review of the finish from Martinsville Speedway on Christopher Bell to determine who would be in the Championship 4 for the Cup Series title. Bell was penalized for riding the wall on the final lap in the final corners, which …

NASCAR focused its review of the finish from Martinsville Speedway on Christopher Bell to determine who would be in the Championship 4 for the Cup Series title.

Bell was penalized for riding the wall on the final lap in the final corners, which eliminated him from the position. The final transfer spot went to William Byron.

In the initial finish, Bell advanced via a tiebreaker on Byron, but it took 27 minutes for NASCAR to review the video and confirm the finish and who advanced.

“When you look at it today, he clearly got up against the fence in [Turns] 3 and 4 and rode the fence all the way off [Turn] 4 there,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said. “That’s strictly to protect our drivers and our fans. That one is pretty straightforward.”

The penalty was a safety violation. The wall ride falls under the safety violation in the NASCAR Rule Book, which was made clear in 2022 after Ross Chastain pulled off the video game move to advance in the postseason. Chastain went wide open into Turn 3 and rode the wall to the finish.

Joe Gibbs Racing executives went to the NASCAR hauler about the decision. It was approximately a 15-minute conversation in which they were told an in-race violation is not appealable.

Bell denied riding the wall intentionally. He said he made a mistake getting into Turn 3 and the car slid into the wall. However, Bell acknowledged that he knew he needed the positions and tried to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.

“I made a mistake and I slid into the wall,” Bell said. “Unfortunately, they ruled that as a safety violation. I don’t know what to say. I didn’t advance my position into the wall. I lost time on the racetrack, but it’s not meant to be.

“It’s fine.”

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The only position Bell could have taken was from Toyota teammate Bubba Wallace. Bell was in the process of passing Wallace going into Turn 3 before his car slid into the wall.

“I’m not going to speculate on what Christopher did or what he meant to do,” Sawyer said. “That wouldn’t be fair to try to make that type of decision based off that. We looked at the data and the video, and we’ve been very clear based off our conversations with our industry and based off that move two years ago, that it won’t be tolerated.”

However, NASCAR does have more to review from Sunday. Bell’s move was the immediate issue that NASCAR addressed.

Wallace slowed on the backstretch on the final lap before Bell caught him for the position. He denied that it was to help his manufacturer teammate and said something happened to his car and he was trying not to cause a caution.

Chevrolet also had three drivers behind Byron who did not attempt to pass him. It’s one point per position, and Byron could not afford to lose any as he was only one point ahead of Bell as the race wound down.

The No. 3 in-car radio of Austin Dillon showed their team was aware of Byron’s situation and discussed it with less than 25 laps to go. Dillon was later told if he were to pass Byron, it would move the Hendrick Motorsports driver outside the playoffs.

Dillon wound up behind Byron over the final laps. Ross Chastain, another Chevrolet driver, was to Dillon’s outside. Carson Hocevar ran behind the side-by-side Dillon and Chastain.

“Does the [No.] 1 crew chief know the deal?” one voice on Dillon’s radio asks.

“Yeah, he should,” another voice says.

All of those chains of events will be looked into this week by NASCAR.

“We’ll take all the data, video, we’ll listen to in-car audio and video,” Sawyer said. “We’ll do all that, as we would any event.”

‘I don’t know what to think’ says subdued Byron after chaotic Martinsville finish

William Byron is headed back to the Championship 4 for the NASCAR Cup Series championship but had a hard time celebrating Sunday night at Martinsville Speedway. Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team took the final transfer spot when NASCAR …

William Byron is headed back to the Championship 4 for the NASCAR Cup Series championship but had a hard time celebrating Sunday night at Martinsville Speedway.

Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team took the final transfer spot when NASCAR penalized Christopher Bell. Bell was deemed to have ridden the wall on the final lap, which was outlawed after Ross Chastain performed the move in 2022.

At the finish, Bell advanced over Byron via a tiebreaker, but the penalty negated the move and he was taken from an 18th place finish to 22nd.

Byron finished sixth.

“I don’t know what to think,” Byron said. “I have a hard time feeling happy in this situation. We just raced as hard as we could and raced within the rules and everything like that, so it is what it is at that point.

“We were tied on points, and like I said, the wall ride is what it is. We just had to fight through that. I don’t know. I’m glad to race for a championship, that’s for sure.”

It took 27 minutes before the decision was announced. Byron and Bell both stayed on pit road with their teams as the finish was reviewed. There were crowds around both drivers to capture the moment when one of them was given the news they would be racing for a championship.

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“I’ve never been through anything like that,” Byron said. “There was definitely some drama from that, for sure, because I usually get to go home by now. I don’t really know what to think about all that, but thankful that NASCAR looked at it, that they have rules in place, and that’s what it is.”

Byron thought it was clear what happened. Although he has thought about making such a move, he knows there is a rule against it.

The finish was set up as the No. 24 ran inside the top 10 all afternoon and earned 15 stage points, while Bell earned none and was buried in the pack because of multiple miscues. In the final laps, Byron tried to hang onto a slim one-point advantage over Bell.

He also had wingmen behind him to help the cause. There were three Chevrolet drivers stacked behind Byron, none of which made a pass that would have taken a point away.

“No one moved me and they gave me room to kind of catch my car,” Byron said. “They raced me hard. I just didn’t have enough rear tires left so I needed all the racetrack, and I was using all of it.”

Byron said no one behind him lifted him so he could keep his position.

It is the second straight year he’ll appear in the Championship 4.

“I’m excited; I can’t wait to race for a championship next week,” Byron said. “I know we’ll bring a bullet there. We had an awesome car today, got a little bit of damage, but I was really happy with it. I’m excited.”

Hendrick Playoff drivers confident of advancing to title race

The three Hendrick Motorsports teammates who are still fighting for a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race have all expressed confidence about their chances to advance with one race left in the Round of 8. But all three drivers face …

But all three drivers face different challenges going into the elimination race. William Byron is the only Hendrick driver sitting in a transfer spot, but he’s on the bubble with a slim seven-point advantage.

“Absolutely,” Byron said of getting the job done at Martinsville Speedway (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET). “We did it in the spring, so we should be able to.”

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Byron’s spring triumph at Martinsville Speedway was his third win in the first eight races of the season. He hasn’t won since.

On Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Byron finished sixth. It was his fifth consecutive top 10 finish, however, a victory by Tyler Reddick shrunk Byron’s advantage on the cutline by 20 points.

“We kind of had what we had (Sunday),” Byron said. “We weren’t good enough, and we were just trying to get all we could. I feel like a sixth-place finish is good. If it had gone green there, we were going to end up top-five. I don’t know how that changes the points, but we just have to go to Martinsville Speedway and compete for a win.”

Byron sits one spot ahead of Kyle Larson, who is seven points out of a transfer spot. For the second straight week, Larson and his team had to fight from behind after an early race issue.

At Homestead, it was a puncture that caused Larson to hit the wall in the first stage. He then spun in the final stage, with 13 laps to go, while battling Ryan Blaney for the race lead. Larson tried to squeeze between Blaney and Austin Dillon in Turn 3.

“You’re making split-second decisions,” Larson said after finishing 13th. “Austin did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as (Blaney) got to his inside, and maybe he’d run a lane off the wall just to give me some clean air. He continued to run his line.

“I had a little bit of a hole and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of the No. 3 and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of the No. 12 or build a run to have a shot at him in (Turns) 1 and 2. But yeah, it just didn’t work out.

“I was going as hard as I could. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team did a great job rebounding after the flat tire.”

Larson was the biggest points loser Sunday. He went from 35 points above the cutline to seven below.

“We’ve been strong at Martinsville at times, so we’ll see,” Larson said. “It’s not my best track, but I’ve been a lot better there since I joined Hendrick Motorsports. We just need to qualify well and give it our best shot.”

Meanwhile, Chase Elliott shaved some points off his deficit towards a transfer spot but is still in a must win situation. Elliott finished fifth at Homestead after an early DNF in the opening race of the round at Las Vegas when collected in a multi-car crash. Elliott is last on the playoff grid in a 43-point hole.

“I just got tighter and tighter as the day went on,” Elliott said of Sunday’s race. “I was just trying to manage that on the front side of a run, and ultimately, I just didn’t do a great job of managing it. When the pace got quicker and everyone started pushing, I didn’t really have anything left to push.

“It was a really solid couple of weeks for the No. 9 NAPA Chevy team, from a pace perspective. That’s encouraging as you move along in the playoffs.”

Elliott, like his teammates, is a winner at Martinsville Speedway. Elliott won the fall race at Martinsville in 2020, which advanced him into the championship race which he went on to win and claim the Cup Series title.

“Very confident,” Elliott said of the upcoming weekend.

Hendrick Motorsports has won five of the last eight Martinsville Speedway races. Following Eliott’s win in 2020, Alex Bowman won in the fall of 2021, Byron in the spring of 2022, and Larson in the spring of 2023. Plus, the aforementioned Byron victory from earlier this season.

And in the spring race from April, Hendrick Motorsports went 1-2-3 in a race that celebrated its 40th anniversary, with Byron leading Larson and Elliott across the finish line.

Byron rising to the occasion again

William Byron has been the best NASCAR Cup Series playoff driver in the last two races. Not only has he earned back-to-back top-five finishes, he’s also been the highest-finishing playoff driver. This has seen Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick …

William Byron has been the best NASCAR Cup Series playoff driver in the last two races.

Not only has he earned back-to-back top-five finishes, he’s also been the highest-finishing playoff driver. This has seen Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team already locked into the Round of 8 on points, and going into the elimination race at the Charlotte road course, they are the only ones guaranteed a spot in the next round.

Byron also leads the overall point standings, although in the postseason that hardly matters when it’s about getting to Phoenix Raceway and being the last man standing. You can ask him what it meant to lead the Cup Series in multiple statistics last year before the finale played out at Phoenix. Spoiler alert: It meant nothing. He didn’t win the championship. The 2017 Xfinity series title-winner finished third behind Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and his own teammate, Kyle Larson.

But being the only driver locked into the next round and heading the points table has to feel good for now. Actually, it probably feels really good for a driver who was given the chance to defend his race team over the weekend.

Byron was asked by RACER if he was bothered by the comments about his race team. The question stemmed from him telling NBC Sports after the Kansas Speedway race that his team has “gotten a lot of [crap] over the summer.” It was a reference to what’s become a common theme in recent seasons: the No. 24 team has a dip in results through the midseason.

“It doesn’t bother me that people say or notice, but it bothers me (because) we’re not that much different from any other team,” Byron said. “If you look statistically, we have 10 top fives and 16 top 10s, and that’s right in line with the other five or six guys that we’re racing. So, yes, we haven’t had a stellar season based on what we did last year, but we’re still plugging along and finishing races in the front … and we just need to continue that.”

From Daytona to doldrums — the Hendrick team can always turn it around when it counts. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images

The statistics are spot on. Byron has the second most wins in the series – three – behind teammate Kyle Larson and second most top-10 finishes (16) behind Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell.

And to further prove Byron’s point, the top 10 drivers in the Cup Series standings indeed have similar numbers.

Byron: three wins, 10 top fives, 16 top 10s
Bell: three wins, 11 top fives, 19 top 10s
Larson: five wins, 12 top fives, 15 top 10s
Denny Hamlin: three wins, 10 top fives, 15 top 10s
Alex Bowman: one win, seven top fives, 15 top 10s
Ryan Blaney: two wins, nine top fives, 14 top 10s
Tyler Reddick: two wins, 11 top fives, 19 top 10s
Chase Elliott: one win, eight top fives, 15 top 10s
Joey Logano: two wins, five top fives, nine top 10s
Daniel Suarez: one win, three fives, seven top 10s

“It bothers me that we get treated a little differently because everyone this year has been, for the most part, pretty inconsistent,” Byron continued. “But for us, we’re trying to continue to put weeks together and plug away and try to put back-to-back weeks together. It’s tough when you go from a mile-and-a-half to a speedway; you don’t really have control of that result. So, we’re trying to do more of that – more consistency.”

If the results were skewed during the summer, it was, Byron admitted, the product of fast cars with no payoff or slow cars that finished only where they were capable. Byron ended the regular season fifth in the championship standings and was reseeded fourth with 22 playoff points.

Proving the naysayers wrong once again. The No. 24 way. Rusty Jarrett/Motorsport Images

Although the comments rubbed him the wrong way, Byron didn’t take it as being written off as a contender for the championship. Nor should he be.

“I feel like there’s a certain narrative out there of, ‘Hey, they’re not good in the summertime,’ and I don’t know if that’s completely true,” Byron said. “I think we have certain races that are great in the summertime and I think we had certain weeks that we weren’t that great. But you can look across the whole garage and that’s pretty consistent.”

Which is why Byron still has as good a shot as anyone to win the Cup Series title. Over the last few weeks he’s been the one who has stood out from the field, and it must bring him added satisfaction that the team is showing its capabilities at the time it matters most.

Byron leads the way for Cup Series title hopefuls in Kansas

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. …

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.”

Byron, Gibbs make gains in Michigan

William Byron and Ty Gibbs were close to getting their NASCAR Cup Series seasons back on track with a win at Michigan on Monday. In the end, the pair got trapped battling each other while Tyler Reddick drove away, but their results were a step in …

Byron was running a distant second to Reddick when Martin Truex Jr. slid up into the wall late and pushed Monday’s rain-postponed race to overtime. He took the bottom of the front row for the ensuing restart and muscled his way to a narrow lead with help from a pushing Brad Keselowski before another caution flew.

That positioned Byron to pick the outside, preferred lane for the final restart. He had Keselowski behind him again, too. But the Hendrick Motorsports star lost the top spot to Reddick through Turns 1 and 2 after Keselowski slowed behind him — an issue Keselowski said was tied to his engine briefly shutting off.

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“I’ll relive that restart and what lane to choose overnight, for sure,” Byron admitted afterward. “It seems like always, as the leader, you want to take the top. But I’ve gotten beat twice here by the bottom and I had the lead on the bottom, barely, over (Reddick). But he had a better car than us, so he was a little bit faster. “

In search of his first win, Gibbs fired off behind Reddick for both of the final two restarts. He nearly followed Reddick past Byron and through to second in double overtime but couldn’t quite clear his No. 24 Chevrolet off Turn 2 and ended up falling back to third. The pair stayed in second and third for the final lap, crossing the line within a second of Reddick as he scored his second win of 2024.

“I feel like we were in contention, for sure,” Gibbs said. “I needed to get up sooner off (Turn) 2 to clear the No.24. Just missed it by a little bit, then after that it takes a lap to get wound back up after you lose momentum.”

Byron could have used the victory to add to his playoff point total going in to the postseason. He has three wins, but entered Michigan seventh in points and unlikely to catch many of the drivers ahead of him for regular season bonus points. His three wins all came in the opening eight races of the year. Since then Byron’s struggled to find consistency, with as many finishes outside of the top 20 (five) as he has in the top five.

“Second sucks, but (I’m) really proud of the effort,” Byron said. “We’ve been trying to put weeks together like this, and this is a really good step. Everyone did a great job on the team. Strategy was awesome. Car was awesome all day. I’m really proud of the team.”

Gibbs’ top five was more consequential, helping the sophomore make big strides toward his first Cup Series playoff appearance. He’d entered Michigan 19 points up on the cutline. Aided by issues for the three drivers behind him, the 2022 Xfinity Series champ left the Irish Hills with a 39-point cushion.

With two rounds left before the playoffs — including a wild card at Daytona International Speedway — Gibbs was happy to see his playoff advantage grow.

“It definitely is good to have a good points day,” Gibbs said. “Definitely wish we could have won and locked ourselves in, because winning usually takes care of about everything. But I’m thankful to be here and thankful to have a good day.”