CONCORD, N.C. – In his 50th career NASCAR Cup Series start, William Byron posted his fourth top-10 finish of the season last Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
“We had some really good parts of the race,” Byron said. “We kind of went for the points, which with the way the strategy was, it was hard to get back there. But we got a lot of points today, which was great. I know it doesn’t sound super good, but we had really good stages and really good runs there.”
While some competitors headed to pit road just prior to the end of Stages 1 and 2, Byron remained on the track through the green-checkered flag. That allowed him to earn 17 valuable stage points between his second- and third-place finishes in the first two segments.
He then used the final segment to advance back into the top 10 before crossing the finish line.
“We were able to go from 12th to ninth on that last restart and that was nice and we finished with a top-10,” the driver said. “So, hopefully we can go to Michigan and be able to improve on that even more.”
After an action-packed 400 miles, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 scored his second top-10 finish at the track in just his third visit to the “Tricky Triangle.”
“The guys did a great job on the car and this was a solid day,” he said. “We’ve had two (top-10s) in a row now. That’s great for us.”
His most recent top-10 finish came after starting on the pole for last Sunday’s race, making him the second-youngest pole winner at Pocono and tying him for the most pole wins in the Cup Series this season. With two consecutive poles and top-10 finishes, Byron is knocking on the door of his first win.
“Another pole is obviously awesome,” he said. “I have to work on some things and just clean it all up and I think we’ll be really close.”
Byron and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates will hit the track this weekend at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, June 9, at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.