LOUDON, N.H. – Throughout the NASCAR weekend, William Byron has had a running battle with the outside wall at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
In Friday’s qualifying session, Byron grazed the barrier with the right rear of his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but not severely enough to do irreparable damage.
On Saturday, however, the wall won.
Byron’s car broke loose in Turn 1 and clobbered the SAFER barrier, crumpling the entire right side of his Chevrolet. Crew chief Chad Knaus had no choice but to call for a backup car, and Byron will drop to the rear of the field for the start of Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“We’ve just been really loose, and I tried to drive through it and see if it would come to me better, and it didn’t,” Byron said after a mandatory trip to the infield care center. “It was even looser yet, and that was kind of the story, just got loose. Hopefully, tomorrow we can have a good, solid day and go from there.”
Byron indicated the Saturday accident was unrelated to what happened during qualifying.
“No, I was just making laps,” he said. “Trying to find grip and speed and just wasn’t able to do it.”
The Hendrick team suffered another major blow later in final practice. Already in a backup car, thanks to a broken drive shaft during Friday’s qualifying, Alex Bowman took a hard hit against the outside wall roughly 20 minutes into the session.
The team promptly rolled out Jimmie Johnson’s backup car, which will be rewrapped in Bowman’s livery for Sunday. Having posted no time during qualifying, Bowman already was set to start from the rear of the field.
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
