DARLINGTON, SC– On throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway, it appeared that William Byron, in his No. 24 Jeff Gordon 2015 Homestead-Miami Speedway throwback paint scheme, was going to run away with an easy win.
The Goodyear 400 on Sunday (April 6) was beginning to draw criticisms on social media due to the lack of racing near the front of the field due to the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet having an old-fashioned dominating race on a weekend celebrating the history of the sport where races like that were the normality.
No NASCAR Cup Series driver since Jeff Burton in 2000 had led every lap of a race and it appeared it would happen for the first time in the Next Gen era and over 20 years. Byron started the race from the pole and led the first 243 laps, appearing to cruise to a straightforward win. The Lady in Black had other plans.
During the race, the first pit stall was the advantage with having great stops keeping him out in front winning the races off of pit road. Green flag pit stops began in stage three. Byron relinquished the lead to Tyler Reddick during that cycle and never got it back. Byron then faced an uphill battle in traffic racing Christopher Bell, leader Reddick and Ryan Blaney who made his way through the field.
A caution for Kyle Larson fell with five laps to go bringing everyone to pit road for tires and an overtime restart. Unfortunately for Byron, on that sequence of pit stops, his team did not get him back out in the lead and he finished second to Denny Hamlin.
“We just needed to control the race under green and we lost it there with that sequence,” Byron said post-race. “The No. 45 [Reddick] went and we lost some positions there, that was the difference.”
Byron had no favors from the driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, saying, “The No. 20 [Bell] did a great job blocking and keeping us behind, it took me a long time to get around him.”
Byron felt like even though he only has one win, his No. 24 is stronger than last year when they had three wins overall.
“I don’t think we ever had this performance in us last year,” he added. “We had more wins but that was capitalizing on the end-of-the-race moments or having great track position. I wish we had it there but this fuels the fire for the next few weeks coming up.”
Rudy Fugle, crew chief for Byron’s No. 24 HMS Chevy, also spoke about the dominating performance that came up short at the end.
“It just didn’t work out,” he said. “Everything comes down to execution, it’s the whole segment, not just the pit stop.”
Fugle echoed Byron’s comments about the team’s performance this year of the team despite not winning as many races early on as last year.
“We’re stronger,” Fugle continued. “I feel like we have been faster and executing better. We’re stronger as a team. The success that we’ve been having since Kansas [Speedway in the 2024 playoffs] is unprecedented in this car. It’s a really strong team, really good in every category, great driver and leadership. We just keep getting stronger.”
Gordon, HMS Vice Chairman, also spoke about Byron’s execution that came up one spot short at The Track Too Tough to Tame.
“Winning the pole and leading all those laps was a dominating performance by the No. 24 team,” Gordon said. “You have to finish it off and these things are hard to get everything exactly right but I thought they executed flawlessly. The green flag pit stops switched things up and were the game changer and others had great pit stops. The No. 11 [Hamlin] came out in front and were able to pull off the win so that’s great for them.”
Leaving Darlington, Byron is still the points leader 49 points over Hamlin.
