There was a second throughout Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Collection championship-deciding race in Phoenix when Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron thought he may need a shot at holding his Penske rivals off, however it was fleeting.
Byron stayed out longer than Penske’s Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney earlier than making his closing cease on lap 247, which probably set him up with tires roughly 15 laps more energizing than his rivals for his closing stint. That hope lasted all of 1 lap after Zane Smith crashed and triggered a warning, throughout which the 2 Penskes and fellow championship contender Tyler Reddick of 23XI all took the chance to make stops of their very own beneath yellow.
They rejoined properly behind Byron, who mentioned he briefly thought he had sufficient of a niche to maintain them at bay earlier than the looks of the Penske automobiles in his mirrors instructed in any other case.
“I did,” he mentioned when requested whether or not he thought he had them lined. “However simply pretty much as good as they received by means of (Turns) 1 and a couple of, it was similar to, man, now they’re proper on me. I feel going into the restart, I believed I had sufficient of a buffer and I didn’t actually really feel like one lap on tires was that large a deal. I don’t suppose it was.
“I simply suppose that they have been quick on the quick run all weekend, and that was our wrestle. We have been first rate all through the run, however couldn’t actually take off with a ton of pace. It wasn’t an enormous shock, however they have been on me a little bit bit faster than I believed they’d be.”
All through the race Byron was quick sufficient to maintain the Penskes in vary, however not quick sufficient to have interaction them over a full run.
“I’d simply praise Penske as an entire,” he mentioned. “That they had the 2 finest automobiles right this moment, and it was actually a battle between them all through the day. I used to be simply hoping that they’d make some errors and stand up in there.”
