CONCORD, N.C.—While Ryan Blaney had the fastest car—and won the Coca-Cola 600 on Monday night—once again, William Byron remained in the hunt.
Certainly, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet benefitted from starting first and securing the number one pit box after qualifying was rained out on Saturday.
But as other drivers battled a variety of obstacles, Byron stayed the course to finish second and score his seventh top-five of 2023.
“I’d say he dominated,” Byron said of Blaney. “We hovered around the top three all night. Anytime we would get good track position and get the lead, the run would go the way we need it to in terms of our car. Having a quick restart and getting strung out, that usually helped us—it would kind of get us bunched up.
“I felt like there were a couple of guys that had more pace overall than us and could just take advantage in the first three to four laps. And then we kind of settled out in 3rd or 4th.”
Byron led 91 laps—including 55 in the first segment en route the first stage win. He restarted Stage 2 at the point, but was passed by Christopher Bell 10 laps later. Throughout the course of the night, Byron found himself mixing it up at the front with Blaney providing fans with epic side-by-side action.
“It was fun,” Byron said. “I enjoyed it. I have trust in how he races—and he caught me off guard with the last three, restarting first. And I thought about that, man. I tried that in the simulator actually, and I just never did it throughout the night.
“I was getting good pushes from the (No. 5, Kyle Larson). When he got wrecked—or whatever happened there—I lost my help. Anytime you have the same engine, you can kind of match your push up pretty good. So yeah, Blaney caught me off guard that last restart. But I think he was that good and he would have cleared me any way.”
After finishing eighth in Stage 2, the No. 24 Chevy was shuffled out of the top 10. After green flag pit stops, he quickly regained his footing. Byron finished fourth in Stage 3 and regained the lead out of the pits to start the final 93 laps.
As the race evolved from day into night, other contenders emerged for the end game. Through attrition—and driver error—Byron never lost sight of Blaney. Although he couldn’t pull off the Coca-Cola 600 win, every week Byron is in the conversation.
“It’s cool,” Byron said. “We feel it as a team. We don’t really pay too much to the headlines, but I think that for us, as a team, we know where we’re at. We know where everybody else is, too. And I feel like we’re always in that in that hunt and contention and in the top five. Honestly, I think being outside of that top five is kind of disappointing for us and we quickly kind of rebound from that.
“We’re just working well together, getting the balance of the car close, getting the car just really competitive and close before the before the race to be able to go out there and have pace to run in the top five. I feel like even that one time, when we got put towards the back, we knifed our way through and got back to 5th or 6th. So I think it’s just a testament to the strength of the team.”
Crew chief Rudy Fugle with Byron’s progress. Since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2020, Fugle has enjoyed watching the 25-year-old racer’s evolution. Not only has Byron scored a career-high three wins this season, but at third in the NASCAR Cup standings, he’s the top HMS driver. Byron currently sits four points behind leader Ross Chastain.
“Tonight was a challenge—a lot different than what we have had,” Fugle said. “That’s what makes me so proud of this team and William. I really don’t know if we had but a fourth or fifth-place car for speed, but we hung in there. Obviously, the pit stall and the pit stops were amazing, but we always got better. Our balance was pretty close on the long run. If we got set back, we could always move forward.
“The fact that he kept his head for 600 miles, it pretty amazing. That’s all the growth and the things we need to do to be successful on the days when we’re not the fastest car. It was good. I’m proud of him. He puts in the work—and that makes everyone else work harder. We have a lot of trust and faith in each other, and you can feel it throughout the entire team.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer.
