CONCORD, N.C. – With fewer than 25 laps to go in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, William Byron was running eighth.
But as the rookie continued to climb through the top 10 in the closing segments, he was caught in a multiple-car incident that ended his day early.
Though he left the race with a 34th-place finish, the driver was impressed with his team’s performance in the inaugural event on the taxing “roval” track.
"We were having such a good run today - staying in the top-10 most of the day,” Byron said. “It was definitely disappointing to have this happen so late in the race. We've run so good on the road courses.”
In the most recent road-course race at Watkins Glen, the rookie earned the third top-10 finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career with an eighth-place result.
And in Sunday’s event on the Charlotte road course, consistent racing saw Byron nearly pick up another top-10 road-course result on a day when he started outside the top 20 in 21st.
He was running inside the top five in Stage 2 before a tire issue forced him to pit road and dropped Byron outside the top 30. But he continued to battle back through the field.
In the final stage, he was running 24th when a caution flag waved and he headed to pit road. There, the No. 24 team elected to make a fuel-only pit stop, allowing Byron to win the race off pit road.
The strategy helped the driver leap nine positions into 15th for the ensuing restart – and when the green flag dropped, he jumped up another eight positions to move into seventh.
“This was a good challenge, and I felt like we were making the most of it,” the driver said.
Continuing to race inside the top 10 as the closing laps approached, the multiple-car incident on Lap 104 ultimately cut Byron’s day short.
The driver took a lot from the experience and felt his team made the most of its first race at the brand-new track.
“The ‘roval’ is a good, new challenge,” Byron said. “Maybe, we do better figuring out the restarts and clean up the track a little better because nobody could get any grip on the restart. But it was a good challenge."