Eyes On Byron: Byron Finishes 12th At Circuit Of The Americas

William Byron finished 12th following a day at the Echopark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas March 27. 

Byron started in 24th position and moved his way up as high as 20th in stage one. Crew Chief Rudy Fugle elected to pit Byron with four laps to go in stage one for better track position. While Byron finished 23rd in stage one, he was rewarded with an eighth place restarting slot in stage two thanks to cars pitting in front of him. 

Byron would settle in around seventh for most of the stage. With Byron’s playoff spot locked up thanks to his win at Atlanta last week, Fugle elected to not race for stage points, bringing Byron in with four to go in stage two. 

However, Byron was penalized for being too fast entering pit road. The resulting penalty was a pass-through pit road at pit road speed (40 mph). This caused Byron to lose all his track position, and he finished near the back in stage two. 

In the final stage Byron started in 27th. He hung mainly between 13th-18th for most of the stage. The race went into overtime, and Byron, restarting in 19th, took advantage of chaos in front of him to squeeze into a 12th place finish. 

Byron will next race at nearby Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia (2 hours from Lynchburg) in the Toyota Owners 400 at 3:30 p.m. on FOX. Byron has a career best finish of seventh there in the spring of 2021. This kicks off a string of three races within three hours of Lynchburg with Richmond, Martinsville and Bristol. 

Lipowski is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter

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