HAMPTON – Introducing William Byron, lord of NASCAR over the first half of this season, now the leader of this wild bunch in race wins (four).
It has come to this: Nothing can stop Byron. Not spinning Tilt-A-Whirl mishaps. Not pit road penalties. Not some of the closest, hardest racing of the season. Not even bad meteorology.
That fourth victory came Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Quaker State 285. The evening was meant to be 115 miles longer, but a green blob that lurked on the weather radar for much of this race eventually crept over AMS, rain-shortening the madness.
“I don’t completely understand this one,” Byron said at the conclusion. He had plenty of company.
But apparently it is the 25-year-old Byron’s time – after all, he now has as many wins this season as in his prior 180 races stretching back to 2018. And when it’s your time, the process isn’t always rational.
His coming of age hasn’t escaped the notice of the prior tenant of his No. 24 car, Jeff Gordon. The four-time NASCAR Cup champion is now management with Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports team.
“I see a spark in (Byron and his team) this year, just the way they’re clicking and communicating, the chemistry between the whole team” Gordon said. “It has been exciting to see this blossoming career of a young talent and what that might be able to do long into the future.”
What he did with the present was impressive enough.
The obstacles to overcome Sunday were many.
There was a pit row penalty at the close of the first stage of the race.
Then how about getting turned around in a collision with Corey LaJoie122 miles into the race, going a lap down while his pit crew applied Band-Aids to the damage? Now this is going to get kind of technical, so stay with us here. The extent of the damage, as Byron put it: “They were taking a lot of stuff out the right side, and I thought, man, it’s probably pretty hurt.”
Then there was the constant threat of rain hanging over the proceedings, prodding all these guys to race as if each lap might be the last. Among their many other duties, crew chiefs were being asked to play Al Roker for a night. And as Byron’s man, Rudy Fugle assessed his meteorological talents, “I’m terrible. I was probably 20 laps off (predicting when the rain would hit). My wife’s a science teacher. I keep hoping some of that would rub off, but it hasn’t.”
And yet somehow, despite it all, there was Byron at the end fending off Daniel Suarez and A.J. Allmendinger when a three car mishap behind them brought out one last caution, preserving Byron’s lead as the rain began to fall.
“It’s easy to give up, pack it in,” Byron said. “We kept working on the car, got aggressive with the changes and got aggressive with the strategy, too.”
One of the biggest losers to the weather was Brad Keselowski, running at the lead at the conclusion of the second stage of the race, 246 miles in, just minutes before the race would be called. He lost much valuable track position when he decided to pit during the break between stages, while others behind him stayed out. He finished sixth.
“We had 12 to 14 laps left of fuel and that was not enough. We ended up running 15 laps or so (after the stage 2 break). I think we made the right call. We just needed the rain to be 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later,” Keselowski lamented.
Others left in Byron’s wake included a couple of the biggest pre-race notables.
Dawsonville’s Chase Elliott came home looking for a season-saving victory but instead finished 13th. At least among the fleet of 180 mph billboards, Elliott had the coolest paint scheme. This week’s design was inspired by a 13-year-old leukemia patient treated at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Kayleb Duran-Rodrigez likes campfires shared with family and friends, his design reflecting that on Elliott’s hood. A little more inspiring than the usual smoked ham/auto lubricant/gutter guard messages that make the rounds on Sunday.
But that fine looking car spent the evening shuffling around the middle of the pack, never sniffing the top 10.
Then there was Kevin Harvick, a 3-time winner here on his final run before retirement. He had to be satisfied going down Memory Lane rather than Victory Lane Sunday, finishing a distant 30th.
Harvick was involved in the racing equivalent of Jack Nicklaus hitting a ceremonial tee shot at the Masters, riding up front in a pre-race pace lap alongside the relic No. 29 car driven by owner Richard Childress. That was the same ride Harvick inherited after the death of Dale Earnhardt, the one in which he won his first-ever Cup race here in 2001 just weeks after Earnhardt’s fatal crash at Daytona. As Harvick did during his victory lap 22 years ago, Childress honored Earnhardt’s iconic number by holding three fingers aloft as he circumnavigated the track. Those in the seats old enough to know, joined him.
No, Sunday would be about celebrating an up-and-comer who has now won two of the last four races at AMS.
Byron may not possess the brightest personality. “I’m pretty reserved, I’m introverted. I think I’m getting more comfortable around the racetrack and this setting,” he said.
But Gordon likes to think he has a fitting successor.
“It’s about building superstars and recognizing their faces and names to help grow the sport,” Gordon said. “We’ve lost a lot of them in a short period of time. William is on the cusp of that.”
Byron is in no rush to be fitted for any crown just yet. A certain level-headed approach seems to play well whether all hell is breaking loose on the track or all praise is coming his way off it.
Rightly he notes, “We still have like half a season to go. Everything we’ve done to this point is great but if we suck from here on out it’s not going to be fun.”
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