William Byron Explains What Was Needed to Stop Denny Hamlin from Beating Him to NASCAR Win in Richmond

At the Richmond Raceway, Denny Hamlin scored one for Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing. In the process, he beat Kevin Harvick and William Byron to Victory Lane. Speaking later about the race, Byron still felt that he had a legitimate shot at winning the race. He lamented, “Yeah, we needed five less laps.”

His team ultimately told him that he was racing against the #19 of Martin Truex Jr. Unfortunately, Harvick and Hamlin rocketed away and he stood no chance. He acknowledged that a large part of it was down to different tire strategies. In the end, the #24 driver was just focusing on nailing his entries and corner exits.

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What did William Byron say about missing out on the win?

He said, “Just didn’t quite work out there. There were times when lappers were passing me, getting me out of shape. Especially if they got to me on the corner exit. It would really get me out of shape. I had to manage the throttle so much, I mean I was only quarter throttle. So as soon as I would slip them or heat them up, it was game over. Just trying to keep that pace. I thought we did the best job we could, but it didn’t quite work out.”

The driver observed that his rivals on the top lane performed better than those on the bottom lane. As for his own race, he felt that he was doing alright, but came a few laps shy of the victory. His short track experience proved quite useful in the early and late stages of the race. However, he thought he did ‘terrible’ in the middle stint because he could not get into the corners. Owing to that, he was unable to turn in consistent laps. Now, Byron will be looking ahead to Martinsville next weekend.