William Byron agonized by ‘perfect race’ gone wrong in Darlington

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron had one of the most dominant performances of his NASCAR career in Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. However, he shared his frustration after an agonizing loss, as he finished the race in the runner-up spot behind back-to-back race winner Denny Hamlin.

Byron was in top form throughout the 400-mile race. He led 243 out of the 297 laps, won both Stage 1 and Stage 2, and looked like he was going to win easily. His car was fast, and his team did a great job preparing for the race weekend. Everything seemed perfect until the final green flag pit cycle, where he lost the lead for the first time and never got it back.

23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick took over the lead on lap 249 and led till a late-race caution period with 4 laps to go that kicked the race into overtime. All the leaders came in for a final stop, and that is when Denny Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing crew got him into the lead with a speedy stop. On the restart, Hamlin got a perfect launch and pulled ahead of the field. Byron tried to chase him down but couldn’t catch up in time.

Hamlin went on to win the race, beating Byron by just 0.597 seconds. Speaking on the pit road after the race, Byron shared (via SpeedwayDigest):

"First off, really proud of my team, bringing that level of effort and preparation, have a car like that. For us to execute like that, it was looking like it was going to be a perfect race. We were going to lead every lap. Was really proud of that."

"Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of the green flag cycle, we lost control there. Once we lost control, too late in the going to kind of get back up there. Yeah, it sucks. I'm sure it will sting a lot tonight. There's still a lot of positives. It stings in the moment, for sure," he added.

Despite the setback, Byron increased his lead in the drivers' standings from 16 points to 49 points. Hamlin moved up into second, having jumped six places after his 56th career victory.

---

William Byron on his close second-place finish in COTA

This isn't the first time William Byron has finished second in a tight closing-stage battle this season. Something similar happened in the Echopark Texas Grand Prix at COTA when he finished behind race winner Christopher Bell.

In the final laps of the race, Bell was fighting for the lead with Kyle Busch, and Byron was sitting behind patiently waiting for his opportunity to pounce for the lead. And while Byron did get a slight chance to make a move on Bell, he didn't want to ruin Bell's race with an overly aggressive move and settled for second. Speaking after the race, William Byron shared:

"I was really close. I felt like the battle between him (Christopher Bell) and Kyle (Busch), sitting there waiting for one of them to bobble or slide their tires. Bell got by him, and I felt like once he got clear, his car was super loose, and it kind of gave me a couple shots...I just couldn't get beside him. We've always raced really well together, so I didn't wanna move him blatantly."

William Byron will return to Cup Racing on Sunday, April 13, in the Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The race is scheduled to start at 3:00 pm ET.