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Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron's appearance in the NASCAR Playoffs Martinsville elimination race was anything but easy for the #24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver. Despite winning a total of six races over the course of the season, the 25-year-old driver had not qualified for the final round of the playoffs set to take place in Phoenix.
Heading into an unusually hot Martinsville Speedway last Sunday, the Charlotte, North Carolina-native race was filled with attrition.
Coupled with the hot conditions, the #24 crew battled a sub-par car, which did not allow Byron to make any moves during the Xfinity 500, let alone run at the front.
The team managed to finish in P13 at the end of the 500-lap race despite these issues, enough to ensure Byron's spot in the Championship 4. William Byron was seen sitting on the ground by the side of this car after the race, seemingly exhausted.
He elaborated in post-race interviews on how his helmet fan also failed on a day when temperatures were already soaring, pushing him to the brink of unconsciousness.
He elaborated on pennlive.com and said:
"“My helmet fan wouldn’t work, my face is bright red. My cool shirt, all that stuff was great, but when your head is just blowing like a hair dryer, it’s really tough. With 50, 60 to go, man, it was so blurry in the car. I was going to faint before I was going to get out of the race. Just really proud of the team."
William Byron's condition as he exited his machine last Sunday was all the proof one needed of how physically taxing motorsports can be.
William Byron's crew chief, Rudy Fugle, on the team's performance in Martinsville
With William Byron quite vocal about how his car felt during the race, calling it "Hell in a bottle" at one point, crew chief Rudy Fugle summed up what was a difficult day for the team.
Elaborating on how changes to the setup on the fly are a shot in the dark, he told jayski.com:
“It doesn’t get any more stressful than that, you can’t do anything for these long runs. You’ve got to work on the car and it’s super hard to pass even when you get the car better. We were not good enough to drive through the field and there were a couple of guys that were good enough to drive through.”
William Byron will be seen challenging for the title next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.
