William Byron clinched the NASCAR Cup Series regular season title Saturday night at Richmond Raceway after finishing 12th in the Cook Out 400. His nearest competitor for the title, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, fell out of the race before the halfway mark. Elliott finished last, 38th, after being collected in a multi-car crash in Turn 3.
The regular-season championship will give Byron an additional 15 playoff points to start the postseason. It’s also his first regular-season title.
“It feels [really] good,” Byron said. “The best 12th-place finish we’ve ever had. We did a good job … we got some damage there with the big crash, and that hurt us a little bit. Honestly, there were runs we were pretty good. We drove up to sixth, seventh and eighth, and then that second-to-last run, we were third, and I thought, ‘OK, we’re in a good spot.’ That set of tires was not good for us, and fell off really hard.
“Proud of this team. Really proud of the effort all year. We’ve done a good job through a lot of adversity, and it feels really good to check this one off the list. In the back of our mind, I think we had that in mind this year just to try to be consistent, and even through some adversity I feel like we were consistently fast and up at the front. Just really proud of this team – all the guys who work back at the shop, Hendrick engine shop, Chevrolet… It feels really good.”
Byron also caught a piece of the same wreck that took Elliott out in Turn 3 on lap 198. Kyle Busch spun Chase Briscoe to start the melee, then caught Elliott to send him into the outside wall. Elliott came across the track in the path of Byron, who was going around the outside of the carnage.
“I was kind of losing my mind there for a minute,” said Byron. “Just felt like there was so much going on. It was such a balance of trying to balance tires all night, and it got crazy on those couple of restarts. That one restart was kind of the tipping point.
“We had, honestly, some really good runs tonight. I was happy with the end of Stage 1 and the beginning of Stage 2, and throughout Stage 2 was pretty good. The beginning of Stage 3, we climbed forward and had that one set of tires that we put on, that we fell way back.”
Byron led the point standings for 20 of 25 races. He also leads the series in stage points earned.
The final regular-season race will be held next Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. Byron won the season-opening Daytona 500 at the facility and has the opportunity to become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2013 to sweep both Daytona races.
“We’re going to have to figure out the game plan there, for sure,” Byron said. “I only feel like I know one way, and that’s to go as fast as I can, so I’m probably going to try to be up front and do all the things that it takes to win the race, just knowing the potential is there to be in a crash or whatever. You can’t drive around in bubble wrap; you have to go out there and do your job and try to get a good finish. Usually you crash more if you’re conservative. Yeah, go out there and be aggressive.”
Byron will start the postseason with at least 32 playoff points.
