William Byron wasn't interested in commenting on Hendrick Motorsports' disappointing run at Darlington Raceway. He had little patience to rehash the day's events but ultimately blamed 'bad pit stops' for the whole ordeal.Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson all recorded a mid-pack finish in the Southern 500. Alex Bowman finished further back at 31st, while Elliott had the best result among the four with a P17 finish. Larson began among the top 5 but slid to a P19 finish. On the other hand, Byron's 21st-place finish marked his worst placing in the last six races.Heading into the weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway, Byron was asked about his poor run at Darlington, and the No. 24 driver didn't have it in him to discuss it any further."I've talked about it a lot. I don't really want to talk about it anymore, but I feel like, you know, the first half, we probably were just kind of in a good track position spot. And then we had some bad, you know, bad pit stops honestly and got back towards the back and then we just couldn't really recover," he said. [1:03 onwards]William Byron entered the playoff opener as the regular season champion. He was, however, second in the playoff standings and tied with Kyle Larson, with the latter edging him out over total wins this season. Byron currently ranks sixth in the standings, a four-place drop after his Darlington woes.The two drivers captured top-10 starts for Sunday's race at Gateway. Fans can watch the Enjoy Illinois 300 at 3 PM ET on USA and HBO Max.William Byron reflects on his chances at WWT RacewayWilliam Byron broke down his chances at World Wide Technology Raceway. The 1.25-mile track is similar in shape to Darlington's egg-shaped oval but has a flatter layout."There's some tire fall off but it's very much a track position race. So there's all those different aspects. I think it races more like a Pocono or an Indy in terms of the strategy and it's just, yeah, it's difficult to pull off passes, so you have to qualify well and you have to stay up front," Byron said via aforementioned source.In his three starts at Gateway, William Byron has logged an average finish of 14. He finished 15th in his last attempt at the Midwest oval. Notably, his best result at the track comes from an eighth-place finish back in 2023, when he began at seventh.He starts a spot above this time around, and if Byron's comments are anything to go by, his qualifying would help secure a top-10 result on Sunday. Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin secured his third pole of the season at Gateway.