LONG POND, Pa. – William Byron earned his second career top-five Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finish during Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
Byron’s charge to the front though wasn’t simple and the Hendrick Motorsports driver called his day stressful as the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 fought track position throughout the 163-lap before finally going in the right direction during Stage 3.
After qualifying eighth on Saturday afternoon, Byron’s time was disallowed after his team failed inspection Sunday, sending him to the rear of the field for the start of the race.
Finishing Stage 1 in 22nd and Stage 2 in 18th, adjustments by crew chief Chad Knaus brought Byron’s car alive during the final 59 laps of the race.
With 50 laps to go, Bryon had climbed to 10th but made his final trip to pit road following the Lap 114 caution for Ryan Preece.
A two-tire stop and plenty of fuel, Bryon restarted sixth and was challenging for fifth when Knaus instructed his driver to start saving fuel to make it to the finish. Dialing back his lap times around the 2.5-mile speedway, Bryon dropped from sixth to eighth but when a Lap 153 caution waved, it allowed the break that Bryon needed to ensure he had enough fuel to race to the finish.
Restarting eighth with four laps to go, Byron picked up two positions before the caution waved again sending the race into overtime.
A two-lap shootout saw Byron take advantage of restarting on the outside and power to fourth and fend off Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick behind him to collect his second top-five finish of the year and second of the month behind his career-best finish of second at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway earlier this month.
“It was a tough day,” said Byron despite earning his 11th career top-10 finish. “We didn’t really have a lot going our way. In the first stage and even the second stage, we were just kind of hanging on. We just found a way to kind of make it work.
“We had good strategy and just found a way to kind of settle in there in a decent spot and save the right amount of fuel. We ran out of fuel coming across the line, so that was great. We saved the right amount of fuel and that was about it.”
“I felt like the guys did a good job with strategy and being able to maximize on restarts. We got fortunate on a couple of things. We go on from it and move onto Watkins Glen.”
Byron’s seventh top-10 finish of the season keeps him safely in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings heading to Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International where he finished eighth last year in the Finger Lakes of New York.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
