During the first two stages of Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, everything went according to plan for William Byron. The No. 24 was a fixture in the top 10 for the first 150 laps of the race. Under caution on lap 168, Byron won the race off pit road and captured the lead, putting him in perfect position for the stretch run to the finish.
However, the trip down pit road was not so clean. As Byron pulled out of his pit box, he made contact with Cole Custer, sending the No. 41 spinning backward into its own pit box. Byron appeared unscathed at first glance, but a closer look at the front bumper of the No. 24 revealed that the right front edge of the splitter was damaged. Byron also reported to his team that the steering was out of alignment. With the splitter damage and steering issue, FOX’s broadcast team was quick to speculate that Byron would not be competitive for the rest of the race.
In the end, Byron finished 13th. It certainly was not the outcome the No. 24 team hoped for, given their performance earlier in the race. However, Byron’s final result does not tell the full story. He was able to battle back from what threatened to be a much worse finish. He was also able to hold on to the overall points lead over teammate Kyle Larson (though Larson cut the gap from 31 down to 13). Considering how the end of the race descended into chaos, Byron weathered the storm much better than most of his competitors.
In the first place, the broadcast booth’s prediction that Byron would be a sitting duck on the restart did not come to pass. The No. 24 fired off well and held the top spot until a crash on the backstretch brought the caution flag back out. Restarting the race again on lap 179, Byron maintained his lead initially, but it soon became clear that the No. 24 was holding the other front runners up. Once Larson completed the pass on lap 190, Byron started falling through the field.
As Byron drifted back toward 10th place, things got serious for the No. 24 team. The crew did have the ability to make some repairs in the pits, but doing so under green would cost them too much time. Completely repairing the car would be pointless if the repairs cost Byron 4-5 laps on track. The team’s solution, therefore, was to bring Byron into the pits with 68 laps to go, a point just inside the No. 24 team’s fuel window. By pitting earlier than everybody else, the team hoped that Byron could make up more time on the field with fresh tires, even though his Chevy was still damaged. However, the strategy required the race to stay green long enough for everyone else to complete the pit cycle.
The gamble did not pay off. On lap 220, Jesse Love’s crash on the backstretch triggered another caution while Byron was still a lap down to the leaders. Once again, the No. 24 team had to readjust its strategy. With the leaders pitting under caution, Byron had the opportunity to take the wave around and return to the lead lap, but doing so would sacrifice an opportunity to fix the car under caution. To complicate matters, Larson was still leading the race and making the wrong decision here could easily cost Byron the points lead.
In the end, the No. 24 team opted for the wave around, which turned out to be a good decision. The race was green for only four laps until Kyle Busch spun in turn 4, bringing out another yellow flag. This caution finally gave the No. 24 team the opportunity it needed to fix the car without losing laps. However, Larson was still the leader, and the repairs dropped Byron outside the top 25 with only 33 laps to go in the race’s scheduled distance. It still seemed like even a decent finish was out of reach for the No. 24 team.
However, the cautions did not end with Busch’s spin. Two more multicar crashes turned Texas’ backstretch into a junkyard. Byron was able to dodge them both, picking up additional spots from the drivers caught up in the accident. Meanwhile, at the front of the field, Larson was fading, losing the lead to Michael McDowell on lap 244 and falling behind Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain. It looked like the No. 5 just could not fire off well on the short green flag runs that ended the race. An overtime restart after McDowell’s crash decided the race, with Logano holding off Chastain and Blaney for the win and Larson finishing fourth. With all the excitement at the front of the field, few likely noticed that Byron nearly got back to the top 10.
The end of Sunday’s race was sloppier than Churchill Downs was one day earlier for a very rainy Kentucky Derby, but whether you are racing horses or automobiles, there is order in chaos if you know where to look. Byron and his team were forced to revise their strategy multiple times and make crucial calls in the face of adversity. The No. 24 never returned to the top 10 after the green flag pit stop, but the team’s improvised plans worked well enough to get Byron to the finish and hold on to the points lead. They responded to a difficult situation the way championship-caliber teams do. It is critical that the No. 24 team shows some resiliency now and maintains Byron’s fast start to the season.
After 11 races, Larson is the only driver within 83 points of Byron in the overall standings. The regular season title is shaping up to be a battle between the Hendrick Motorsports teammates. If Byron prevails, he and his team can look back on Texas as a race that made a big difference.
Bryan began writing for Frontstretch in 2016. He has penned Up to Speed for the past eight years. A lifelong student of auto racing, Bryan is a published author and automotive historian. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio and currently resides in Southern Kentucky.