William Byron takes major NASCAR Cup playoff hit in freak crash at Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — William Byron saw his NASCAR Cup Series playoff chances literally take a major hit in Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Byron collected 17 stage points and led three times for 55 laps. The last lap was lap 231, six laps before a freak crash changed everything.
Ty Dillon slowed coming to pit road on the bottom of the track right as Byron was speeding out of turn four in second.
“I didn’t know, I didn’t have any indication. If I had any indication, I would’ve been higher [up on the track] and not run full speed into the back of him. That was a huge hit,” Byron said. “Just bummed out.”
Like Byron, Dillon’s spirit was crushed more than his body. His mind was in disbelief, wondering what went wrong with their process to where Byron didn’t know he was pitting.
“That’s kind of how we’ve operated all year is the spotter will let him know,” Dillon said. “He was so far back then that I don’t know if he couldn’t see [I waved my hand down the backstretch] or I didn’t get it far enough out. My spotter said he let the 24 know so I don’t know if it was a lack of communication. I didn’t mean anything egregious getting on pit road. I was looking forward, trying to hit marks and get on as efficiently as possible because you’re still racing for everything out there, I hate it for them.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. I’ll probably stew over it for hours and go look at my in-car to see if he waved,” Byron said.
Sunday marked the first time Byron had led double-digit laps since Iowa, 10 weeks ago when he won. He has led double-digit laps 10 times in the 2025 season — but only those two times in the second half of the season.
Sunday was a major opportunity and all he had to show for it was a 36th-place finish and a destroyed racecar.
“These opportunities are few and we had a really good car today, in contention to win, but everything has to go right in this Round of 8, and that was something major that was out of our control,” Byron said. “We just gotta go win the next two.”
Talladega is nerve-wracking but Byron has some serious reassurance. He has averaged 40.4 points per NextGen race there and a seventh-place finish there in the era. He leads the field in both categories.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com