William Byron Conquers Iowa Speedway and Secures Strategic Victory
Pilot William Byron, already qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, arrived at Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway in second position in the regular season standings. Despite his position, Byron was not entirely satisfied with the recent performance. He had five results below 27th place in the last eight races, and he was looking to regain confidence on a track where he had been successful in the past, just before the playoffs.Byron’s strategy proved to be key, achieving his second victory of the season by betting on fuel economy. He completed the last 144 laps of the race (out of a total of 350) without stopping, and the yellow flags in the third stage helped him conserve the fuel needed to reach the finish line. With this victory, Byron leaves Iowa Speedway, where he has won in all three NASCAR series, with 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; it’s just the results haven’t come. And that was starting to affect us a little bit and generate a certain feeling of ‘What’s going to happen next?’
William Byron
Byron, who also won the Daytona 500 at the beginning of the season, has eight top 10 finishes this season, including three second places. However, he had a 37th place in Atlanta, a 40th in the Chicago street race and a 31st in Dover. Last week, in Indianapolis, he finished in 16th place after a late pit stop for fuel. The team leader, Rudy Fugle, expected Byron to achieve this victory.This is going to change the course.
William Byron
Byron had experienced fuel problems in Michigan and in Indianapolis the previous week. Despite this, Fugle trusted his driver.He’s an incredible driver. I think he’s the best overall driver 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 anything. He doesn’t give up.
Rudy Fugle
Byron admitted he was nervous as the laps wound down on Sunday. 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 the throttle. So the guys did a really good job guiding me on what to do. Byron thought he had a little fuel left at the end.Those are things he’s also improved on over the years, taking the hits and what happens afterwards. And suddenly, you’re leading and you have the opportunity to win.
Rudy Fugle
Now, Byron claims he has new momentum for the playoffs.I felt that if I could get out of turn four, get into 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
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 goes our way. 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
