MARTINSVILLE, Va. – It was an eventful Saturday for Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Within the first two minutes of first practice, Byron appeared to suffer a tire failure at the famed Virginia paperclip oval and tagged the wall of Turn 2 causing right side damage to his Chevrolet.
He immediately took his car to the garage for repairs and was done for the session. Before the crash, Byron was third quickest overall.
“That sucks when you show up your third time here and you can’t make laps,” said Bryon. “You don’t expect it to blow off of turn two. It was good to just get that out of the way and get it out of my mind.”
Byron explained he had no warning of the tire failure.
“That’s the tough thing because here, the air pressure is so low,” he explained. “The pressures are building, and you feel like you are on flat tires to begin with, so there is nothing out of the ordinary to feel that way. It was just confusing when the third lap came around. It did the same thing and then it took off.
“When it cut, it just took off towards the wall. That was unfortunate.”
With the car repaired, Byron returned to the track during final practice and quietly placed 23rd quickest in his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Not satisfied with the result, Byron’s crew chief Chad Knaus went to work and made several tweaks to Byron’s Chevrolet for qualifying which saw the No. 24 team emerge as the top-qualifying Hendrick Motorsports team for tomorrow’s STP 500 with sixth fastest overall.
“I am kind of optimistic, but we have had a rough day,” said Byron. “These two-day shows are tough, and we started out with a flat right front and hit the wall. Then in second practice, we were way behind because we didn’t have enough practice time.
“The guys made a lot of great changes to get it right going into qualifying. We were really struggling over the bumps over both ends really and getting on the concrete. We will see what happens, should be fun.”
The NASCAR Next alumnus explained that the damage wasn’t severe, especially with no chassis damage and he was thankful his Hendrick team was able to repair the car without any major complications.
“With the way the Martinsville cars are with the center of gravity and the weight in these cars, you want to keep your primary. It was really important that we fixed it, but it wasn’t that bad,” Byron explained. “We had to replace the splitter, the pan, and some of the right front suspension was a little bent. So, no big deal. No chassis damage.”
For Byron, it was his third top-10 starting spot in five races – with a pole in the season-opening Daytona 500 and a seventh at ISM (Ariz.) Raceway two weeks ago.
The strong starting position was a sigh of relief for the former Xfinity and Truck Series champion who has struggled in his previous two outings at the 0.526-mile oval.
During his rookie season, Byron finished 20th and 39th respectively. He bettered his previous starting position by five spots after qualifying 11th last October.
Now, the Charlotte, N.C.-native eyes his first top-10 of the season or fifth of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in one of the most anticipated slugfests of the year.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
