NASCAR: Byron wins Texas crashfest

After Kyle Larson, who dominated all day, crashed out late, teammate William Byron gave the Hendrick team its 300th NASCAR Cup win.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Byron’s win guarantees that he advances to the playoff round of 8. He passed Bubba Wallace on the final restart with 3 laps to go and never looked back.

Ross Chastain came home 1.863s behind Byron giving Chevy a 1-2 finish in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Polesitter Bubba Wallace came home 3rd having choked on the final restart. After leading a lot of laps he ran out of talent and got beat by both Byron and Chastain.

Larson had a big lead but lost it when the Cup drivers kept crashing behind him. Then on the next to last restart Wallace took the air off Larson’s left rear quarter panel and around he went into the wall and out of the race.

The Toyotas of Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-5.

Like most NASCAR Cup races, it was a real crashfest with 11 cautions and a slew of mangled race cars.

Talladega is next weekend and if you thought today was a crashfest, just wait until next Sunday.

Top-3 Quotes

William Byron

How did you steal that one on that final restart?

WILLIAM BYRON: Man, that’s badass. I finally got a good restart at the end. Just ooh, it was hot today. I think it’s finally hitting me. But No. 300 for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle really deserved this one, got to say. Those guys were really fast all day, and hate it for them at the end.

Man, it was awesome to get our car to the front. I loved clean air. We just fought through traffic all day and our Liberty University Chevy was just tight back in traffic but had good pace. This was one of those hot days, it felt like I was playing football and went through two a days, just wanted to quit. It was a grind it out day and our team was there at the end. I’m really proud of this one as hot as it was and as tough as it was. We’ll take it and go on to the next round.

Rick Hendrick gave you a shot as a young driver; what does bringing him win No. 300 mean for Hendrick Motorsports?

WILLIAM BYRON: I don’t know if I can even put it into words. I was such a Hendrick Motorsports fan growing up as a kid, watching Jimmie Johnson, and became really fond of Jeff Gordon as I got to know him.

Just thankful for all the people and men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports and Mr. Hendrick for his investment in me and telling me at 17 years old that he was going to take me to Cup racing. Just appreciate everything he’s done for me, and this is awesome. We’re definitely going to enjoy this one.

Now you and the 24 team are one step from a potential championship run. You don’t have to worry about Talladega and the Roval; how cool is that?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, it’s cool. We’ve just been kind of steady Eddie through the first three, four races and we haven’t shown any flashes, but today I thought we had a good car if we could have just gotten to the front, and at the end there we were really fast.

How about these Texas fans who stood out here in 100-degree heat this afternoon?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, they’re better than I would be. Appreciate all you guys coming out. It was a really good crowd for as hot as it was. We’ve got some of the best fans in Texas. I love it here. Look forward to coming back next year.

Ross Chastain

A runner-up finish after what seemed like kind of a major issue. That throttle position sensor went bad, went dead. First of all, tell us what that was like in the car.

ROSS CHASTAIN: It was terrible. You push the gas and it ain’t got no gas. I noticed something on a few cautions like having the car off in third gear, clutching, dropped the clutch with the ignition on, and it kind of stumbled, but I thought I just had it too low of RPM.

Then I pit, and that pit stop is when it had already failed, and it wouldn’t go. I’m part throttle to get it fired, and it doesn’t think I’m doing anything.

From there they walked me through it, and basically I just had to give it a lot of throttle, so the next pit stop for our final two-tire stop was just a whole lot of throttle. I’m sure the eardrums were blown out of everybody behind our pit box, but for our Worldwide Express Chevy, we were not fast enough to run second with two tires. We were with four.

Early in the race I thought we were one of the best cars, and I wish we could have raced with those guys. We just worked our way back with taking four tires a lot, and some bad restarts on my side, but we had the speed, and we showed it all weekend.

We did everything we needed to do, and at this race, if you follow the chart for running position is everything that the 1 team is about, and I love it.

You feel confident headed to the next two races?

ROSS CHASTAIN: I don’t know about those. I only care about here, and I just want to run good at the track I’m at. We go to Talladega and the Roval, we’ll just go try to perform like we did today. If it’s not looking good, just what does the next lap take, what does the next breath take, and whenever we do the right things, those races, they give out the same amount of points as this one, and we’ll go and race them the same way.

Bubba Wallace

Q. Bubba Wallace comes down in third position after leading the most laps today, 111. That last restart didn’t go your way. Walk me through what happened.

BUBBA WALLACE: Third time I fooled myself starting on top. These guys gave me the right information. 14 was tight and he sent it off in there. Wasn’t going to stick, but that’s what he’s going to do. We’re racing for a win. I just hate it. I should have just kept my line into 3, and forced William to get tight. But we’re so vulnerable in these cars, right.

But just upset with myself. Really needed a win there, and it was a good showing. I don’t know where that puts us. I don’t really care. But I know what I did and I choked.

Q. As you look to the next two races, can you learn anything from this?

BUBBA WALLACE: Yeah, you’ve just got to process things slower. I feel like I’ve made a massive improvement in that, processing things a little bit better, but when it comes down to crunch time, you have to keep it all in check.

The best restarter in the game gives it up on a restart. Funny how that works. Appreciate everybody; McDonald’s Toyota Camry was good out front. Struggled in traffic a little bit, but we grinded, come out with a good solid points today. Appreciate everybody’s support and effort, and we’ll go on to Talladega.

Race Results

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MANUF	BEHIND	LAPS
1	24	William Byron (P)		0.000	267
2	1	Ross Chastain (P)		1.863	267
3	23	Bubba Wallace (P)		2.196	267
4	20	Christopher Bell (P)		2.468	267
5	11	Denny Hamlin (P)		3.668	267
6	4	Kevin Harvick		3.943	267
7	6	Brad Keselowski (P)		4.318	267
8	99	Daniel Suarez		4.510	267
9	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		5.144	267
10	14	Chase Briscoe		5.658	267
11	9	Chase Elliott (P)		5.835	267
12	48	Alex Bowman		5.916	267
13	31	Justin Haley		6.112	267
14	17	Chris Buescher (P)		6.302	267
15	34	Michael McDowell		6.382	267
16	42	Carson Hocevar(i)		6.522	267
17	19	Martin Truex Jr. (P)		6.548	267
18	10	Aric Almirola		6.695	267
19	77	Ty Dillon		6.731	267
20	21	Harrison Burton		7.101	267
21	22	Joey Logano		7.212	267
22	78	BJ McLeod(i)		7.463	267
23	41	Ryan Preece		8.582	267
24	38	Zane Smith(i)		11.057	267
25	45	Tyler Reddick (P)		21.824	267
26	7	Corey LaJoie		-5	262
27	2	Austin Cindric		-6	261
28	12	Ryan Blaney (P)		-9	258
29	16	AJ Allmendinger		-12	255
30	43	Erik Jones		-12	255
31	5	Kyle Larson (P)		-19	248
32	15	JJ Yeley(i)		-26	241
33	54	Ty Gibbs #		-190	77
34	8	Kyle Busch (P)		-194	73
35	51	Todd Gilliland		-215	52
36	3	Austin Dillon		-227	40

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME