William Byron Conquers Iowa Speedway and Revitalizes His Season
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 entirely satisfied with the recent performance, seeking to regain confidence before the playoffs. In the previous eight races, Byron had five results below 27th place. The Iowa track, where he had been successful in the past, represented an opportunity to get back on track.On Sunday, Byron achieved his second victory of the season, betting on the fuel-saving strategy and securing the win. Byron completed the last 144 laps of the race, which consisted of 350 laps, without stopping in the pits. The yellow flags in the third stage helped him conserve the fuel needed to reach the finish line. After his triumph at Iowa Speedway, where he has won in all three NASCAR series, Byron leads the regular season standings with a 18-point lead over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott.“We’ve been fast every weekend. It’s just that the results hadn’t materialized. That was starting to wear us down a bit and generate some uncertainty,” declared Byron.
William Byron
Byron, who won the Daytona 500 at the start of the season, has eight top-ten finishes, 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. In Indianapolis, the previous week, he finished in 16th place, after a late pit stop for fuel.“This will change the course,” Byron affirmed.
William Byron
Their team boss, Rudy Fugle, expected this result.
Byron had had fuel issues in Michigan and Indianapolis. Despite this, Fugle was confident in his driver. Byron admitted that he felt nervous as the laps wound down on Sunday. “I knew what to expect. I knew what to look for in terms of if I was running out of fuel. But I was thinking about preserving as much as I could, doing a lot of different things in the car, getting up early and not using a lot of acceleration. The guys did a very good job guiding me on what to do,” he explained. Byron believed that there was still some fuel left at the end. “I felt that if I could get out of turn four, enter the white flag, I could win the race. 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,” he added. Byron now feels he has a new drive for the playoffs.“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 getting the experience to prove it. He’s very versatile and he’s a fighter. He doesn’t give up,” Fugle said.
Rudy Fugle
“I really feel like we needed to win a race like this, we deserve to win a race for how we’ve grown throughout the year, and it just wasn’t happening. It’s a big relief for us that things go well. We’ve been running really well this year, I feel like this will be a big momentum boost for our team,” he concluded.
William Byron
