CONCORD, N.C. – With fewer than 25 laps remaining Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, all four Hendrick Motorsports cars were running inside or very near the top 10.
Then, some unfortunate air flow as Jimmie Johnson and William Byron were racing side-by-side turned the No. 48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, triggering a multiple-car incident.
“Honestly, I think we just got side-drafted going into (Turn) 3 and got me a little bit free and then I think I just packed some air on his left rear,” Byron explained.
Johnson concurred.
“It looks like a racing thing there,” he said after watching the replay. “Something got him off the bottom. I was in the second lane and he came up near my lane and then packed air underneath us, and around it went.”
Both the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and the No. 48 Chevy were caught up in the incident, though Johnson nearly avoided damage.
“Unfortunately, when I was sliding, the No. 12 car hit us and bent something in the rear end,” he said. “It wasn’t the same after.”
The driver described the car as “super draggy and slow” on the final restart, though he was still able to move from 16th up to 12th before the checkered flag waved.
Byron wasn’t as fortunate, as the damage to the No. 24 Chevy forced him to the garage, ending the rookie’s day early.
He was scored 29th.
“It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t get to the end of the race, but we’ll learn from it and come back here in the fall and hopefully have an even better run,” he said.