Eyes On Byron: Byron Finishes Third At The Toyota Owners 400

William Byron came back from early struggles to finish third while leading 122 laps in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway April 3. 

Byron qualified in second, putting him on the outside of the front row to start the race. Stage one was uneventful for Byron as he sat in second and finished there to end the stage. During the pit stop, things changed.

Byron pitted under the stage caution, but he had issues and lost six spots, falling to eighth place. After the stage started, Byron could not run as well in traffic and fell to 13th by the time stage two ended.

After falling to 15th before an early caution in the final stage, Crew Chief Rudy Fugle elected to roll the dice and keep Byron out on 10-lap-old tires. The move paid off as Byron inherited and held onto the lead for the majority of the final stage.

Instead of pitting two times for fresh tires during the final stage, Fugle elected to pit Byron only once. Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were on far newer tires, and each chopped into Byron’s lead over the last few laps. With five laps to go, Hamlin passed Byron for the lead, and Harvick followed soon after, forcing Byron to settle for third. 

This was Byron’s third top-five finish of the season and his second time in three races leading more than 100 laps. This was also his best career finish and first career laps led at Richmond.

Byron will compete next in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at nearby Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia (a 90-minute drive from Lynchburg). The race can be seen on Fox Sports 1 at 7:30 p.m. April 10. 

Martinsville has been a very good track for Byron and Hendrick Motorsports as a whole. Byron has four top-ten finishes, three of them being top-five finishes. Hendrick Motorsports cars have won 25 races at Martinsville with its first win in 1984 (Geoffrey Bodine). 

Lipowski is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter