Only one chance for William Byron to advance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was to win – and he he almost did.
Early on in Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval, Byron showed that he had a car capable of winning on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course.
He led the most laps (30) of any driver, and late in the last stage, he was closing in on leader Denny Hamlin and second-placed Tyler Reddick.
On Lap 91 of 109, Reddick collided with Byron as the two entered the backstretch chicane, leading Byron to miss the chicane. He subsequently received a stop-and-go penalty, dropping him to 12th in the standings and out of contention for the win.
In the final laps, Byron made his way back to third, but he hit the wall between Turns 5 and 6 on the next-to-last lap as he desperately sought to pursue eventual race winner Kyle Larson.
No win, no chance
Byron was one of four drivers eliminated from title contention this season if he didn’t win.
“We had a really good car in two of the three races in this playoff round and today we had an amazing car, probably capable of winning, but just didn’t have things go our way there,” Byron said.
“At that point when I got up to third, my tires were shot, and there were only two laps to go. I wasn’t going to win, and made a mistake to not finish third, but at that point I was just mad.”
After the race, Byron went to talk with Reddick about the incident on pit road, where Reddick stated that he had “flat out made a mistake.”
“Yeah, I know it was a mistake, but it doesn’t make any difference,” Byron said. “The awareness there in that situation where a guy is there in the playoffs and the first guy on new tires is probably going to win the race.
“There was just a lack of awareness there. I feel like if the roles were reversed, I would be aware.”
Byron held himself responsible for his 11th-place finish.
“At the end I was just at a full rage, so I didn’t really care about finishing third because that wasn’t going to do anything for me in the playoffs,” he said. “It sucks now that we didn’t finish third, but overall, we were in position to win.
“We were leading on the long run, the caution comes out, we pass all the guys on new tires, and we were the first guys on new tires. That’s all you can do.”
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