William Byron Conquers Iowa Speedway and Secures a Vital Boost for NASCAR Playoffs
Pilot William Byron, already qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, arrived at Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway in second position in the overall regular season standings. Despite his position, Byron was not satisfied with the way things were going in the final stretch of the regular season. In the previous eight races, Byron had five results of 27th place or worse, and arriving at a track where he had had success in the past, he was looking to regain confidence heading into the playoffs.However, what happened next was that Byron earned his second win of the season on Sunday, betting on fuel economy for a victory that, in his opinion, changed the course of his season. Byron completed the final 144 laps of the 350-lap race without stopping, and a third stage full of yellow flags helped him conserve enough fuel to reach the finish line. He left Iowa Speedway, where he has now won in all three NASCAR series, with an 18-point lead over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, for the regular season title.I think we’ve been fast every weekend, but the results haven’t materialized. It was starting to wear on us a bit.
William Byron
Byron won the Daytona 500 that opened the season and has eight top-10 finishes this season, including three second-place finishes. However, he had a 37th-place finish in Atlanta, a 40th-place finish in the Chicago street race, and a 31st-place finish in Dover. Last week, in Indianapolis, he finished 16th, when he had to make a late pit stop for fuel. Surviving to win this race was something that team boss, Rudy Fugle, expected.This is going to swing the pendulum the other way.
William Byron
Byron had fuel-saving issues at the end in Michigan, and again last week in Indianapolis. Even with that, Fugle knew he could still bet on his driver.He’s an incredible driver. I think he’s the best driver, overall, right now. He’s mine, and I should say that. But I really think he’s maturing and gaining the experience to prove it. He’s very diversified, and he’s also a fighter. He has a hard line and fights everything. He doesn’t give up.
Rudy Fugle
Byron admitted he was nervous as the laps wound down on Sunday.Those are things he has also improved on over the years, taking the hits and what happens afterward. And, suddenly, you’re leading and you have the opportunity to win.
Rudy Fugle
Byron thought there was a little fuel left in the tank at the end.I knew what to expect. I knew what to look for, and all that in terms of if I was running out of fuel. But I was just thinking about conserving as much as I could, doing a lot of different things in the car, lifting early and just not using a lot of percentage of throttle. So the guys did a really good job guiding me on what to do.
William Byron
I felt that if I could get out of turn four, enter the white flag, I could win the race. So that’s what I had in mind. And that was mostly true. When I did the burnout, at the end of the burnout, the fuel pressure went up. So I don’t know how many laps it would have been.
William Byron
Now, says Byron, he has new fuel to reach the playoffs.
I really feel like we needed to win a race like this, we deserve to win a race based on how we’ve grown throughout the year, and it just wasn’t happening. It’s a big relief for us that one comes out right. We’ve been running really well this year; I feel like this is going to be a big momentum boost for our team.
William Byron
