NEWTON, IA – William Byron was already locked into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and was second in the regular-season point standings heading into Sundayโs race at Iowa Speedway.
Still, Byron didnโt like how things were going heading into the closing stretch of the regular season.
Byron had five finishes of 27th or worse in the last eight races, and coming to a track where he has had success in the past, he wanted to regain some confidence with the playoffs approaching.
โI think weโve been fast every weekend,โ Byron said. โI mean, I canโt think of a week when weโve been slow, itโs just the results havenโt come together. And it was starting to wear on us a little bit and starting to create some kind of, โWhatโs going to happen next?โโ
What happened next, though, was Byron getting his second win of the season on Sunday, gambling on fuel mileage for a win that he thought had changed the momentum of his season.
Byron went the last 144 laps of the 350-lap race without a stop, and a third stage filled with caution flags helped him conserve enough fuel to get to the finish.
He left Iowa Speedway, where he has now won in all three of NASCARโs series, with an 18-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott for the regular-season title.
โThis is going to kind of put the pendulum the other way,โ Byron said.
Byron won the season-opening Daytona 500, and has eight top-10 finishes this season, including three second-place finishes. But he had a 37th-place finish at Atlanta, a 40th-place finish at the Chicago street race, and 31st-place finish at Dover. He was 16th last week at Indianapolis, when he had to make a late pit stop for fuel.
Surviving to win this one is something that crew chief Rudy Fugle expected.
โHeโs an awesome driver,โ Fugle said. โI think heโs the best driver, all-around, in the field right now. Heโs mine, and I should say that. But I really think heโs maturing and getting the experience to show that off. Heโs very well-diversified, and then heโs a fighter. Heโs got a hard line and fights through anything. Thereโs no quit in him.โ
Byron had fuel-mileage issues late at Michigan, and again last week at Indianapolis. Even with that, Fugle knew he could still gamble with his driver.
โThose are things that heโs gotten better as well over the years, rolling with the punches and what happens next,โ Fugle said. โAnd next thing you know, youโre leading and you get a chance to win.โ
Byron admitted he was nervous as the laps dwindled on Sunday.
โI knew what to expect,โ he said. โI knew what to look for, and all that in terms of if I ran out of fuel. But I was just thinking about preserving as much as I could, doing a lot of different things in the car, lifting early and just not using a lot of throttle percentage. So just the guys did a really good job coaching me on what to do.โ
Byron thought there was a little fuel left in the tank at the end.
โI felt like if I could get off of (turn) four, come into the white (flag), I could win the race,โ he said. โSo thatโs kind of what was in my head. And that was mostly true. When I did the burnout, at the tail end of the burnout, I had the fuel pressure come up. So I donโt know how many laps that would have been.โ
Now, Byron said, he has new fuel to get to the playoffs.
โI really feel like we needed to win a race like this, we deserve to win a race based on how weโve grown all year, and it just wasnโt happening,โ Byron said. โItโs is just a big relief for us to have one kind of go our way. Weโve just been running so well this year, I feel like this is going to be a big momentum boost for our team.โ
