Apr
Prior to a late-race collision on Sunday that cost him the win, William Byron once more looked certain to win the NASCAR Cup Series.
Byron, who completed 117 of the 400 laps he led at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, took the lead after a series of late-race green-flag pit stops.
Kyle Larson was the first driver off pit road and held the lead on the restart with 21 laps remaining after Tyler Reddick spun out, which brought out the caution.
In an attempt to pass Larson and fight for the lead, Byron was racing furiously, yet he was hit by Christopher Bell when the field briefly went four-wide. On lap 380, Byron’s No. 24 Chevy collided with the wall, and he limped home in 24th position, the last car on the lead lap.
“It looked like … (Bell) just overcooked the corner and had the fronts locked up and nailed us in the left rear. So, I was just kind of restarting fourth there and trying to stay tight to (Josh Berry) and get a good restart. I just got tagged in the left-rear.” Byron said.
“So, yeah, just a dive bomb move on the inside on his part and it is what it is. I had a great race car. It was looking like it could be another win before the caution.
“That’s the way it goes.”
Byron has led 385 laps so far this season, more than any other racer and more than half of his total from all of last year (746). Following his two victories, Byron has already qualified for the playoffs and is now third in the series rankings.
Bell later apologized after blaming others
After the race ended, Bell first seemed to criticize Ross Chastain, who was on his inside, for the situation that led to the collision with Byron.
“It was a pretty standard restart with (Chastain) behind you,” Bell said. “I tried to protect from him going to the inside and he still made it three-wide there at the last minute and there wasn’t enough room.
Bell, though, claimed he had seen the accident’s video and took responsibility for it in a tweet put on his Twitter account after the competition.
Bell claimed that almost the entire race was a “uphill battle” even before the collision.
“We needed (the race) to stay green. It didn’t work out today,” Bell said. “It was pretty disappointing. I felt like we had enough speed in our (car) to be up there all day, but I had a couple of restarts that put us in the back.
“We would lose spots when the yellow flags would come out.”
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