CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, William Byron raced inside the top 10 for the majority of the afternoon. But he found himself 13th when a red flag was displayed due to rain – and that is where he would finish when the inclement weather caused the race to be called.
“I wish I would have known that we were going to get rained on there, but from the looks of it, it seemed like we were just going to have the normal stuff that we’d had all day,” Byron said. “Disappointing we couldn’t get a top-10, but overall we ran really well.”
Starting the day in 14th, Byron quickly moved up six positions within the first three laps and was running eighth early on, and consistent racing throughout the opening segment helped the driver earn an eighth-place finish in Stage 1.
He battled the handling of the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after the team took two tires during a caution in Stage 2, but Byron continued to race hard to pick up a 10th-place result in the middle segment.
“I knew it was going to be solid today – it just fired off,” Byron said of his car. “It a lot of fun when it’s that way. We were seventh-to-eighth all day here and we were 10th last week all day, so just got to finish them off. But I think we know what we need to do there.”
Though he didn’t get the top-10 result he was hoping for when rain cut the day short, Byron believes the No. 24 team continues to head in the right direction.
“I think that is the best car we have had this year,” the driver said. “We were able to run top seven or top eight. We still need to work on a few things, but I think overall we really had a good balance and really just seemed to hold on pretty good. I wanted some longer runs, but it was a pretty good race for us.