William Byron backed for Championship 4 despite Las Vegas disaster

William Byron suffered NASCAR playoff disaster in Las Vegas on Sunday, but it is not time to write off the Hendrick Motorsports star’s championship dream just yet.

Byron will head for Talladega this weekend some 15 points below the Cup Series cutline after a promising race at the South Point 400 ended in a devastating wreck.

The driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet had won the first stage and was leading the postseason Round of 8 opener up to lap 232, when things started to unravel.

First Byron lost his lead to Kyle Larson, and some five laps later his day ended in bizarre circumstances when he smashed into the back of Ty Dillon’s No. 10 Chevrolet. Dillon had slowed to enter pit road - a fact Byron was unaware of.

So instead of a big points haul in his bid for a spot in next month’s championship decider in Phoenix, Byron - classified as the 36th finisher overall - now has much work to do to salvage his playoff bid.

Despite the doom and gloom, one man still very high on Byron's title dream is NASCAR legend Kyle Petty.

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Byron and Hendrick showed up at Vegas

Petty explained: “We saw Hendrick Motorsports - with William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson - show up at Las Vegas! They dominated that race.

“Early on we saw the 5 of Kyle Larson just drive away from the field. In the first segment we saw William Byron drive away from the field. We haven’t seen that from the Hendrick cars since early early in the season - so they were back.

“Then late in the race we see William Byron get in an accident as the 10 car of Ty Dillon comes to pit road. What does that do to his championship hopes, does it kill him? I don’t believe so, because we’re going to Talladega and Talladega is up in the air man, up in the air.

“We saw William score major points yesterday in the stages but we also saw him lose in that final stage. Doesn’t make any difference - he’s only down 15.

“You all know, everybody knows, Talladega and the big one goes hand in hand. You gotta play it safe, you’ve just gotta be in the right position, but you’ve gotta be up front to score those stage points.

“So I think that William Byron can recover from this, because we’ve seen the Hendrick cars have speed.”

Byron an 'innocent victim' - Kyle Petty

Petty provided his take on what caused Sunday’s wreck, determining that Byron had been “an innocent victim”.

He claimed: “What caused that thing yesterday was lack of communication - we’ve been doing it a thousand years, when you’re coming to pit road, drop your hand out the window, tell the guy behind you. You see it all the time.

“You pass a guy, you wave at him to say ‘hey I’m around you, appreciate you giving me some room’. So why not drop your hand out and tell the guy you’re coming to pit road. Ty says his spotter told him all about it - I’m gonna have to throw the BS flag on that. I’m gonna have to throw it a little bit on that.

“We have one of the best spotters in the business that spots for William Byron - he didn’t see anything, he didn’t say anything. It was a mistake by Ty Dillon, a mistake by Ty Dillon’s team and a mistake by Ty Dillon’s spotter that cost William Byron that. I’m gonna go to my grave saying that.

“I don’t know all the intricate details, but what I saw on the racetrack tells me that this was an incident where the guy that hit you from behind, it wasn’t his fault. It was the guy that got hit, it’s his fault. William Byron was an innocent victim in this.”

Petty still expects Byron to make the championship four when NASCAR arrives in Phoenix for the title decider next month.

“As I look at it, I’m telling you, he will recover, I have Byron going all the way to Phoenix in my final four.”

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