Byron Ends Long Weekend With 13th Place at Texas

Another curveball hit the 2020 NASCAR season in the form of a race that took not one – not two – not three – but four days to complete. When the dust finally settled, William Byron finished in 13th place in the Autotrader Echopark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. However, Byron will remember this weekend more for what happened off the track than on the track.

The engines fired as scheduled at 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday afternoon. However, soon after the green flag dropped, a light mist began to sprinkle over the track. As track conditions worsened with Byron in 12th place on lap 45, NASCAR finally threw the caution for the mist, eventually bringing the cars down pit road on lap 52.

The cars were covered up and taken to the garage, not to be seen again for 71 hours. The rain continued to pelt the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth until Wednesday afternoon.

However, two major stories broke which will affect William Byron’s next season.

First, on Monday it was announced that Rudy Fugle would replace Chad Knaus as his crew chief  starting next season. Fugle and Byron have a substantial history together, as the duo earned seven wins in William Byron’s only season in the Gander Outdoors (then called Camping World) Truck Series, finishing a blown engine short of a championship for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Fugle has spent the last few seasons as crew chief for many others at KBM, including the 2017 Gander Outdoors truck championship with current Cup Series rookie Christopher Bell. This will be Fugle’s first time as a crew chief at the Cup Series level.

“Rudy will fill this role really well,” Byron said on Sirius XM NASCAR radio to Daniel Trotta and Larry McReynolds, “We have a great history together. He’s just a tremendous talent and a really hard worker.”

However, just before the engines fired on Wednesday, another bombshell announcement rocked the NASCAR garage. Disgraced driver Kyle Larson found his second chance, announcing he will be William Byron’s teammate driving the No. 5 for Hendrick Motorsports next season.

“Excited to have Kyle as a teammate!” Byron said on his twitter account on Wednesday, “Gonna be a fun 2021.”

Kyle Larson lost his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing earlier this season after saying a racial slur on a live stream while doing an iRacing invitational back in the spring. However, Larson has completed NASCAR’s requirements for reinstatement, and will be reinstated Jan. 1, 2021. Many people, including NASCAR’s only Black driver, Bubba Wallace, have been clamoring for Larson to get a second chance.

After a crazy 71 hours, Byron settled in for what turned out to be an uneventful day. Byron restarted 12th on lap 60 but worked his way up to seventh after a restart on lap 81. He would improve one more spot to sixth to complete stage one, earning five stage points.

However, due to varying strategy, Byron would start stage two behind the 8-ball restarting in 17th. Byron continued to show speed, however, methodically moving his way up to 10th before green flag pit stops on lap 201.

A slow pit stop would push Byron back further, however. Byron would end up finishing in 13th place in stage two, earning no stage points.

Byron and crew chief Chad Knaus attempted to gain some track position by stopping for fuel under the stage break on lap 213. Byron restarted in 10th, but fell back to 14th quickly after the restart. With Texas being notoriously hard to pass on, Byron would only gain one more spot the rest of the night, finishing in 13th.

The 13th-place run ended Byron’s streak of three straight top 10’s, and puts Byron 12th in the points standings. Byron enters the final two races 29 points behind 11th-place Austin Dillon. If Byron finishes 11th in the points, it would be a career best.

Byron will compete next on Sunday afternoon in the Xfinity 500 at the nearby historic Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. Byron narrowly missed victory there last October, finishing second (only .373 seconds behind winner Martin Truex Jr.), while also finishing eighth there back in June. The race will be at 2 p.m. on NBC.

Martinsville is the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit, and the only track to be on the Cup Series calendar since the series’ birth in 1949. Many of the legends of the sport have been successful there, including Richard Petty (15 wins), Darrell Waltrip (11 wins), Jimmie Johnson (nine wins), and the one who made the No. 24 famous, Jeff Gordon (nine wins). 

Joshua Lipowski is a Sports Reporter and the host of the “Further Than the Cheap Seats” podcast. Follow him on Instagram at @j_lipowski23.