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William Byron looked well on his way to his second win of the 2022 season on Sunday at Richmond Raceway, but a tire-changing strategy from Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick cost him.
William Byron fell short in the final five laps when Hamlin and Harvick took the lead from the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro. The reason Hamlin and Harvick were faster was because they used the fresh tires with 47 laps left.
The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 winner prepared to defend Martin Truex Jr. for the win and he didn’t expect such a push from the veteran drivers in the final stages of Sunday’s race.
During the post-race interview, Byron admitted that he had no other option than to focus on a top-5 finish when the veteran drivers made their push. Byron went on to add:
“Thought we probably did the best job we could. It didn’t quite work out. I thought there at the end they told me I was just racing the 19. I’m like ok I got him, but then the 4 and the 11 were on a totally different planet. That’s just part of it. There wasn’t anything I could do about them, so it was probably four or five to go and Brandon (Lines) was coaching me on keeping the tires underneath it and having good exits and entries. Especially making those guys go around me on the top was definitely better.”
“In the middle of the race, we were terrible”: William Byron
William Byron’s short track experience proved to be very helpful in the early and late stages of the race. However, Byron feels that he did terribly in the middle stages of the race because he could not get into the corners.
As a result, he was unable to turn in consistent laps. Speaking about the performance in the mid-stage of the race, Byron said:
“The times that guys would get underneath me was really, really hard to get back connected and get a good lap put together. In the middle of the race, we were terrible and we just couldn’t get in the corner at all and if you can’t get into the corner you can’t put consistent laps together. It’s nice to have a run like we had today.”
With a P3 finish at Richmond, Byron gained 43 points and now stands in 4th place in the points table with 218 points, one win and three top-5 finishes.
