If you weren’t at the track, the only time you saw William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday (April 12) was when it was getting lapped under green.
Bristol hasn’t been a kind track to Byron throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career (in fact, it’s the only active Cup track where he hasn’t led a single lap), but his performance this weekend was especially jarring.
After qualifying 34th and dropping a further three spots for unapproved adjustments, Byron got lapped on lap 38 and went two laps down by lap 108. He ended the day five laps down in 30th, only finishing ahead of Cody Ware and six other cars with crash damage or mechanical failures.
No matter what adjustments the team made, the car never found any speed or made any significant improvement as the race went on. The only solace Byron and the No. 24 team found on Sunday was the checkered flag that put their race out of its misery.
Starting in the back didn’t help Byron’s case, but a bad time trial wasn’t necessarily a death sentence on Sunday. Todd Gilliland qualified 35th, got the free pass on lap 145 and used a two-tire strategy call in the final stage to finish sixth. But Gilliland at least had a good enough car on race day to overcome his poor qualifying run, while Byron didn’t have the speed on either Saturday or Sunday.
Bristol was arguably Byron’s worst complete race of the entire Next Gen era, as it was just the second Cup race since 2022 where he didn’t spend a single lap inside the top 15. The only other race came at the Chicago street course last season, where he ran one lap before his No. 24 broke down. In every race in the last four-and-a-half years, he had a car good enough to run at least a handful of laps in 15th or better.
But not Sunday.
It doesn’t make Byron’s performance look any better, but Hendrick Motorsports outside of Kyle Larson looked completely lost in Thunder Valley.
Alex Bowman returned to Bristol after missing the last four Cup races with vertigo symptoms, but the No. 48 Chevy — which doesn’t have a finish better than 22nd all season — was slow once again. Bowman qualified 27th, ran toward the back and finished last after getting collected in a multi-car crash.
Chase Elliott was no better than a 15th-place car, and he uncharacteristically crashed on his own twice: the first time to bring out the caution with 22 laps to go and the second time on the final lap to end the day with a 22nd-place finish.
Larson led 284 laps and finished third behind Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney. But considering that Larson combined to lead 873 laps and win the last two Bristol races where the tires didn’t explode into smithereens, even his day could be considered one below expectations.
It’s been a struggle for HMS to start the season, as the team is still adapting to the new Chevrolet body and only has one win in the first eight races. Things aren’t all bad, as its three drivers who have run every race are top seven in Cup points. Even Byron’s disastrous Bristol outing only dropped him from fifth to seventh in the standings.
But when an elite team and elite driver have that atrocious an outing, especially after having an entire off week to prepare, alarm bells will be ringing.
It’s a long season, however, and it’ll only take a good run or two to make Bristol a distant memory. Joey Logano was absolutely horrendous at Darlington Raceway a few weeks ago, finishing 33rd and three laps down on speed while his two teammates finished in the top five. But Logano’s had a solid bounce back since that disaster with finishes of third and seventh in his last two races.
If Byron runs great at Kansas Speedway this weekend — a track where he’s come close to winning at multiple times in the past — all will be well. Bristol, right now, is merely a freak occurrence. A freak occurrence where the team needs to burn the tape and never speak of it again.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf