William Byron was certainly pulling no punches after Saturday night’s crash at EchoPark Speedway. Talking to the media after the race, he was quick to attack the driving standards that caused one of the biggest crashes in recent Cup Series history.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver, running in fourth at the end of Stage 1, saw his place drop when a 23-car pileup on lap 69 saw him collected.
Starting from contact between Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin, viewers watched as the small trigger turned into chaos that saw over half the grid collecting damage.
His frustration was clear as he compared the level of driving to that of the Truck Series.
“Me and Carson [Hocevar] were kind of in that mix and [Kyle] Larson as well. So yeah, it just sucks, right? Like, you’re really not that worried about getting back to the front because it’s a hundred lap stage.
Austin Cindric, Team Penske Ford, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford, Ryan Preece, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford, William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Corey Lajoie, Rick Ware Racing Ford
Photo by: Krista Jasso / Getty Images
“And then we crash on the restart. You can be aggressive, like once you get kind of fully up to speed. I mean, obviously there’s jockeying on restarts always, but just try not to crash, you know?
“So I dunno why we crashed the whole field trying to get up to speed. We look like a Truck Series or something.”
The likes of Joey Logano, Corey LaJoie, Austin Cindric, and Chase Briscoe were forced behind the wall alongside Byron. Ten of the 23 cars didn’t make it back onto the tarmac, and the red flag was dropped to allow the track to be cleaned up.
“There wasn’t really a whole lot I could see,” Byron reiterated his point in a separate interview. “I was kind of catching the No. 22 [Joey Logano] with a little bit of a run. All the guys at the front had pitted during the stage break and cycled to the mid-20s.
“We were just running a great race in the top five. They all stacked up and at that point, I went right a little bit; the wreck was already happening and I just kind of got shoved into it.”
Finishing 37th, the driver was disappointed leaving the drafting-style track.
“I don’t really know what was going on. We were getting up to speed and everyone was throwing a lot of blocks or something, I don’t know.”
In this article
Alex Harrington
NASCAR Cup
William Byron
Hendrick Motorsports
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Subscribe to news alerts