DARLINGTON, S.C.: Late in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, it appeared that William Byron would score his third NASCAR Cup Series win of the season but contact from second-place runner Joey Logano coming to the white flag not only ruined Byron’s day but left the Hendrick Motorsports driver fuming after the race.
Following a nine-car crash on Lap 261, Byron swiped the lead away from the pole sitter Logano on the Lap 268 restart and led the field for the next 24 laps and at one point built a comfortable lead with his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE that left many feeling without a late race caution Byron would score his second Cup Series victory within the past month.
But as the race creeped towards the checkered flag, the deficit between Byron and Logano shrunk with Logano putting intense pressure on the four-time Cup Series winner within the last five laps of the race.
With two laps to go and traffic in his path, Logano closed the gap in Turns 1 and 2, but as the two cars screamed off the backstretch into Turns 3 and 4, Logano gave Byron a shot into the rear bumper of Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro which got his car loose and connected with the Turn 4 wall with Logano scooting by on the inside to the lead and eventual race win.
With Hendrick Motorsports execute and former No. 24 Cup driver Jeff Gordon shaking his head in disbelief in a race that featured a throwback paint scheme to the four-time Cup Series at the track dubbed “Too Tough To Tame,” the damaged cut down a tire on his automobile on the last lap and sent him into the outside wall in Turn 2.
Byron managed to limp his battered No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet back to the checkered flag to finish 13th, more than 15 seconds behind Logano.
After the race, Byron was irate over the contact from Logano.
“He’s just an idiot,” sounded Byron. “He does this stuff all the time. “I’ve seen it with other guys.
“He drove in there 10 miles an hour too fast, and with these Next-Gen cars, he slammed me so hard it knocked the whole right side off the car and no way to make the corner.
“Yeah, he’s just a moron. He can’t win a race, so it does it that way. I don’t know, we’ll — yeah, it was close racing on the restart. We were faster than him. Obviously at the end the right rear started to go away, and yeah, he didn’t even make it a contest.”
The punt from Logano seemed to be retaliatory from the Lap 268 restart where the two drivers raced hard and nearly crashed before Byron escaped with the race lead.
“Yeah, you’re not going to put me in the wall and not get anything back,” said Logano after netting his first win of the season. “That’s how that works.”
Byron, of course, had a different point of view.
“I mean, we were really close off of 2 and I think it spooked him and got him tight, and he was right against the wall and I got the lead,” Byron said.
Speaking to members of the media post-race, Gordon also offered his insight on the move. “I would have liked to have seen it done different,” explained Gordon. “I’m sure Joey is going to justify it and William will have it in his pocket.”
“Wins are important and hard to come by, but you think about doing at Martinsville; not Darlington and that’s what makes this stand out.
“William’s got a payback for Joey coming at some point.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
