William Byron is back in the playoffs.
The fourth-year driver has yet to be a factor once in the playoffs, but for the third straight year, he’s gonna be there, and while he probably doesn’t belong on the list of cup contenders just yet, and it’s only his second career win, it’s time to include him in the list of expected playoff drivers. Michael McDowell? Shocking. Christopher Bell? Noteworthy. William Byron? He was probably getting in one way or another.
The Winner
Byron led the most laps and won the second stage. He was kind of quiet about it—Chris Buescher leading was more exciting, and Tyler Reddick had the fastest car at the end (needed a few more laps)—but it was a solid victory for the 24 car.
The Race
It was a clean one. Buescher led early and won stage one, Martin Truex led for a while, Brad Keselowski led for a while, Kyle Larson had some success…not a whole lot else to say. Not boring, necessarily—plenty of intrigue. But no fireworks.
Notable Names
Reddick finished 2nd.
Truex finished 3rd.
Larson finished 4th.
Kevin Harvick’s team had some struggles finding the right setup, but they and he pulled it together to finish 5th.
McDowell was 6th.
Ryan Newman, in the Oscar Mayer car, was 7th.
Kurt Busch was 8th.
Alex Bowman was 9th.
Kyle Busch was 10th.
Denny Hamlin was 11th.
Austin Dillon was 12th.
Chase Elliott was 14th.
Keselowski was 16th.
Chase Briscoe was 18th.
Buescher wound up 19th.
Bell was 20th.
Bubba Wallace was 22nd.
Cole Custer was 23rd.
Joey Logano led for a bit, but wound up 25th.
Erik Jones was 27th.
Matt DiBenedetto was 28th.
Ryan Blaney was 29th.
Aric Almirola was 30th.
Thoughts, Implications
Byron wasn’t a lock for the playoffs, even if his win isn’t all that surprising, which means the bubble shrunk a bit further. Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Atlanta are coming up before the Bristol Dirt Race, so I suppose the expectation the next three weeks is for more of the standards to pick up wins before we get who-knows-what at Bristol. If they don’t, we could get to that spot where it takes two wins to be absolutely certain of a playoff berth.
Buescher leading was fun. It was fun to see the 17 car doing well again, with Roush Fenway having fallen so far over the last 15 years. And Reddick’s charge was fun—would’ve been cool for him to win one, but hopefully that comes for him later this season.
What’s Next
Las Vegas next weekend. Another 1.5-miler.
Videos, Fun Stuff
Not the most video content, but here are a few nuggets.
Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney had the biggest contact of the day:
(again, not a lot of video content)
Chase Elliott lost control and Brad Keselowski responded with mercy:
The restarts were good:
