Apr
Over most of Sunday’s race at Circuit of the Americas, William Byron and Tyler Reddick did appear to be engaged in a one-on-one competition for the victory, but numerous overtimes ultimately cost Byron an opportunity at the championship.
The final 75-lap race, which included three two-lap overtimes because of many accidents late in the race, was led by Byron and Reddick together for 69 of those laps.
The lead was changing often between Byron and Reddick throughout one stretch of the final stage.
On lap 64, Reddick gained the lead finally, while Byron, who started on the pole, was still in contention to win because he lined up second to begin the first overtime and third to begin the second.
As Kyle Busch and Alex Bowman collided at the start of the third overtime, Byron was dropped back to fifth, and that was where he finished the race.
“It was alright. I probably could have done better on those restarts. I gotta look,” he said. “I just kept getting pushed wide, and it seemed like the last one didn’t happen for some reason. I just gave up too much track position.
“Good to get a top-five. We had a good race car, I think a top-two race car I think, really, with (Reddick). He was a lot better than everybody else but I thought we were a close second.”
Byron was seeking victory in his first race on a road course after setting a record by winning the pole on 4 distinct road courses. Throughout his relatively short career, he has developed into an outstanding road racer, but he has not yet reached Victory Lane.
Yet Byron stated that he had relished the back-and-forth battle with Reddick.
“It was really fun. Tyler is great and they were great all weekend. Tyler’s been great on the road courses. We made it a battle for sure every time with crossovers, out-braking each other – that was a lot of fun,” he said.
“I hate that it kind of got down to restarts there at the end. I got shoved off one time in second. We probably could have done some things different.
“We had good speed but Tyler was so fast all weekend. I felt like when I got the lead that I was slipping and sliding. That was fun.”
We bring out some of the most well-known NASCAR drivers’ apparels , all of which are available at reasonable costs. Visit our link now if you are interested in the racing clothing collection!
Nascar, NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Hendrick Motorsports, Circuit of the Americas
