Despite coming up short, Byron on top of standings after Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The opening Round of 12 at Kansas Speedway looked promising all weekend for William Byron, who left the race weekend first in points for the first time since February.

Byron finished the Hollywood Casino with a Stage 1 victory, runner-up race finish, and a 52 total points — a race high — to leave the race with a six-point lead over Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell.

Byron led 24 laps en route to his third second-place finish since his last win at Austin in May.

“I feel like (race winner Ross Chastain) got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys,” Byron said. “Once I got clear of them, my balance was OK. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second.

“Damn it, I wanted that one really bad. It just sucks, man. You’re so close, and you know going to Talladega you know what that is. So just sucks, but proud of the effort.”

Through the race

After polesitter Christopher Bell dominated the majority of the first stage, Byron, who started sixth, took his Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro to the lead with 8 laps to go after the No. 20 got loose right in front of the No. 24, making contact with the Turn 1 wall. Byron would lead the final eight laps and win stage 1.

Byron continued to lead into the first opening laps of Stage 2 and would remain in the Top 5 for the rest of the Stage, finishing P4. Teammate Alex Bowman won the Stage 2, his first of the year.

In the final Stage, Byron continued to race comfortably in the top-five, but everything changed when Kyle Busch spun from the lead with 32 laps to go.

Martin Truex, Jr. led the field to the final restart with 20 laps to go, with Byron restarting P3 (on the inside row) behind Ross Chastain. Chastain and Byron quickly took over P1 and P2 after Truex got hung up off turn 2, making it a two-horse race heading into the closing laps of the Hollywood Casino 400.

Although Byron inched closer and closer to Chastain’s No. 1 Camaro, the bright orange Kubota Camaro’s strong performance all day proved to be the winning ticket, holding off Byron’s late charge.

Byron heads to next Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway as the series leader, with a six-point lead over Bell and Blaney and a 34-point margin over ninth-place Tyler Reddick, the first driver below the cut line for the next round.

Byron has a mixed track record at Talladega—though he has finished second there twice, in 13 starts, he has an average finish of 15.3 with four finishes outside the top-20. However, in his last three starts, Byron has an average finish of 5.3.