"He chose to run me out of racetrack" - William Byron after on-track collision with Denny Hamlin during NASCAR Texas race

The first race of the Round of 12 for the 2022 NASCAR playoffs at Texas Motor Speedway saw things heat up between William Byron and Denny Hamlin. Both playoff contenders came to blows in the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, trying to solidify their chances of winning the championship this year.

The 500-mile-long race had everything covered in terms of searing heat in the city of Fort Worth, Texas, along with a rain delay that stopped the race momentarily, not to mention the tire issues throughout the field. Despite all these talking points from the race, the highlight came as Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin came to blows which each other after a rain delay.

The confrontation between the playoffs duo started when they battled for position side-by-side, and Hamlin washed wide due to dirty air from the car in front of him, eventually pushing Byron towards the fence. The #24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver retaliated as a show of displeasure towards the #11 Toyota Camry TRD driver and went on to spin him out in one of the ensuing caution-flag periods.

Byron elaborated on the incident post-race and said:

“Yeah, he (Denny Hamlin) ran me out of room. We’re lucky we finished. It was really, really hard contact. It wasn’t like just a light contact or anything like that. Yeah, I didn’t mean to obviously spin him out over there. Obviously, I’m pissed off just not going to get run like that. We’ve always raced so well together. I don’t know what it was all about. The #19 (Martin Truex Jr.) took his air away, he ran out of racetrack, so he chose to run me out of racetrack completely.”

Watch the complete interview below:

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NASCAR to re-evaluate William Byron spinning Denny Hamlin under caution-flag period

NASCAR Senior Vice President Scott Miller came out with a public statement on behalf of the governing body following the incident between William Byron and Denny Hamlin during yesterday's Round of 12 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Miller spoke to the media post-race and said the governing body will re-evaluate if any penalties need to be levied on Byron, and said:

“So, I’ll have to be honest with you Bob (Pockrass), when we were in the tower we were paying more attention to the actual cause of the caution up there and dispatching our equipment. The William Byron Denny Hamlin thing we had no eyes on.”

Watch the complete interview below:

Watch NASCAR go live from Talladega Superspeedway next weekend for the second Round of 12 race of the 2022 playoffs season.