AVONDALE, Ariz. – Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rookie William Byron earned his career-best finish in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway.
Byron’s lead lap 12th place finish came on the heels of leading 15 laps in just his fourth Cup Series race. Byron was also the second-best amongst the Hendrick Motorsports brigade behind Chase Elliott who finished third.
Overall, the weekend was a success for Byron who qualified a season-high 11th. But, it was the team’s two-stop strategy following a Lap 191 caution that put Byron on the point against Aric Almirola who also had a similar strategy.
While Byron was unable to fend off the challenges of his competitors on four-tires, Byron remained hunkered down inside the top-10 until he pitted with 59 laps to go for tires and fuel.
Trapped a lap down, Byron was able to fight back and get back on the lead lap but ran out of laps to contend for his first top-10 finish.
“I think the two tires worked for us, just the way our car was handling, we were really tight all day and we couldn’t really get that out of it,” said Byron. “But, the middle stage of the race we started running closer to the top 10, ninth or 10th I think and that was the perfect call at the time.
“I was a little, I guess, not sure if it was going to work out just because we had done it already one time. But, it worked out, we could kind of keep some clean air and I think that was a net gain for sure.”
Still, Byron bested his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman (13th) and Jimmie Johnson (14th).
The reigning Xfinity Series champion has endured a rough transition to Cup in his first three races of 2018 finishing no better than 18th at Atlanta Motor Speedway two weeks ago.
Sunday’s performance, however, proved that there is some light at the end of Byron’s tunnel.
“I mean, I think it just showed myself that I can do it that I can do those restarts up there,” he added. “I know I have the pace up there to run until our handling kind of took over, but I felt like if we can really start to hone in on what we need a little better we are going to be right there.
“It’s going to take a little bit of work, but it was fun to at least be up there a little bit.”
With some momentum to work off, Byron heads to Auto Club Speedway next weekend where he has just one prior start at the 2.0-mile oval last year where he finished fifth after starting sixth for JR Motorsports.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
