William Byron Conquers Iowa Speedway and Regains Confidence in NASCAR
William Byron, already qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, arrived at Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway in second place in the overall regular season standings. Despite his position, Byron was not satisfied with the recent performance. In the previous eight races, Byron had five results of 27th place or worse. He was looking to regain confidence on a track where he had had success in the past, just before the playoffs.Byron’s strategy, risking fuel savings, gave him his second win of the season. He completed the last 144 laps of the race (of 350 laps) without stopping. The yellow flags in the third stage helped him conserve enough fuel to reach the finish line. With this victory at Iowa Speedway, where he has won in all three NASCAR series, Byron secured an 18-point lead over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, in the fight for the regular season title.I think we’ve been fast every weekend. I don’t remember a week where we’ve been slow; the results just haven’t come. And that was starting to wear on us a bit and generate a bit of “What’s going to happen now?”
William Byron
Byron, winner of the Daytona 500 at the start of the season, has eight top-10 finishes this year, including three second places. However, he had less favorable results in Atlanta (37th), the Chicago street race (40th) and Dover (31st). The previous week, in Indianapolis, he finished 16th, after a late pit stop for fuel. The team boss, Rudy Fugle, was expecting this victory.This is going to swing the pendulum to the other side.
William Byron
Byron had had fuel issues in Michigan and Indianapolis. Despite this, Fugle was confident in the strategy with his driver.He’s an incredible driver. I think he’s the best driver, overall, on the track 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 versatile and he’s a fighter. He has a hard line and fights everything. He doesn’t give up.
Rudy Fugle
Byron admitted that he felt nervous as the end of the race approached on Sunday.Those are things he’s improved on over the years, weathering the blows and what happens afterward. And, suddenly, you’re leading and you have the opportunity to win.
Rudy Fugle
Byron thought there was still some fuel left 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 preserving as much as I could, doing a lot of different things in the car, lifting off the throttle earlier and not using the throttle as much. So the guys did a really good job guiding me on what to do.
William Byron
Now, Byron says he has a new drive for the playoffs.I felt that if I could get out of turn four, enter with the white flag, I could win the race. So that’s what I had in mind. And that was almost 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
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 of our results comes out well. We’ve been running so well this year; I feel like this is going to be a big momentum boost for our team.
William Byron
