Byron Quietly Conitnues NASCAR Success

Another quiet day for William Byron ended in his seventh-straight top-10 finish in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway on Sunday, placing him a career-high fourth in the points standings. 

The defining moment of the race for Byron came after a caution on lap 142 for a spin involving the No. 6 of Ryan Newman during a pit cycle. Byron had already had a solid day going, placing fourth in stage one, but he had fallen a few places back to seventh in stage two before pitting during the aforementioned pit cycle. Byron was relegated to 13th place in a mess of lead lap and lap down cars for the restart. 

Byron would keep his nose clean in the craziness of the middle of the pack as crew chief Rudy Fugle crunched a strategy together. Byron would pit with 52 laps to go as his charge back into the top 10 began.

Byron would play follow the No. 18 car of Kyle Busch as the two gradually moved their way forward during the final 30 laps of stage two. Byron finished stage two in eighth place, and would remain quiet the rest of the day, finishing in seventh place. 

The NASCAR Cup Series season is now a quarter of the way done, and Byron has quietly emerged as a solid contender during the early portion of the season. During these first nine races, Byron has amassed seven top 10s – which is already half of his career high of 14 achieved in 2020. He has also spent five weeks in the top 10 in points, which is the same number of weeks he spent there the first three seasons of his career combined. 

William Byron will compete next in the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, Sunday at 2:00 p.m. on FOX. William Byron came within half a straightaway of winning at Talladega last October before settling for fourth place. However, Byron has historically struggled there with an average finish of 19.67. 

Talladega is the longest oval track in NASCAR with a length of 2.66 miles. It was built in 1969 to essentially be a slightly longer and faster version of Daytona. Talladega’s most distinguishing feature is the start finish line location near turn 1 as opposed to in the center of the tri-oval. 

Joshua Lipowski is a Sports Reporter. Follow him on Instagram at @j_lipowski23.