KANSAS CITY, Kan: William Byron’s race at Kansas Speedway was like a rollercoaster at Cedar Point.
It had highs and lows.
Fortunately for the Hendrick Motorsports driver, he was able to recover from several early race setbacks to finish third after starting the AdventHealth 400 from the pole.
Sailing out to cruise control in the early laps of the race, Bryon’s control of the race began to unravel just a few minutes after the green flag waved as his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro got loose and lightly tapped the wall which not only cost him the race lead but the slight damage quickly changed the handling characteristics of his race car.
To add insult to injury, Bryon also sped on pit road under green flag conditions which made at the time the situation worse and put Byron two laps in the arrears by the end of Stage 1.
After some strategy failed to work to their advantage in the early portion of Stage 2, Byron was able to get the free pass on Lap 149 which put him back on the lead lap and set up more than a 100-lap run of recovery.
In Stage 3, Byron sliced and diced his way back through the field and quickly elevated himself back toward the top-10.
By Lap 190, the Charlotte, N.C.-native had muscled back to 11th but lightning-fast pit stops by his pit crew gained him spots and put him in a position to not only climb back inside the top five but inherited the race lead at Lap 213 and lead the next eight laps before Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson swiped the lead away.
Despite his best effort, the handling changed slightly because of the lack of grip Byron had with his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro taking him out of contention for the race win, but he held off a relentless Bubba Wallace for a strong third-place finish.
“It was an amazing effort by our No. 24 Liberty University Chevy team,” said Byron. “We all but wrecked twice, went three laps down and came back to finish third – it’s just incredible. It’s just a testament to the strength of this race team.”
Byron said the long 46-lap run to the finish made his car looser and that doomed his opportunity for a third win in 2023.
“The tail wasn’t exactly right there at the end. t was knocked over and the car was really loose towards the end of any longer run,” Byron explained. “A tough situation, but really happy with that effort. Just a great job by this whole Liberty University Chevy team. They gave us a really hard fight, so good to come home third.”
Heading to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for the first of two races this season from the track dubbed “Too Tough To Tame” – Byron sits ninth in the Cup Series championship standings, 73 points behind leader Ross Chastain.
After 12 of 36 races this season, Byron has an average finish of 14.3.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email: [email protected].
