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AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Before the season, it would've seemed preposterous for a rookie with one career NASCAR national series start to his name to be the clear-cut favorite with a week to go in the Camping World Truck Series campaign.
Now it's hard to process that William Byron won't be among the four drivers competing in the Championship 4 round of the inaugural series Chase at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Friday.
Byron, the 18-year-old Kyle Busch Motorsports phenom and winner of a series-high six races in 2016, was poised to make it seven on Friday at Phoenix International Raceway before losing an engine with nine laps remaining in the Round of 6 finale.
He'd led 112 laps to that point.
"(The motor) was a little bit hot that run," Byron said on pit road following the race. " ... I felt a little vibration a lap before that, but I was passing lapped trucks and I was poised to kind of ride and finish it out. But when I hit the throttle it just went dead. It started sputtering for a couple laps and I tried to flip through my boxes and just nothing took.
" ... It's just racing, I guess. It really is unfortunate when you're out there leading and have the best truck, executing the way we needed to all night. Just one of those deals, I guess. It's the worst possible time for it. We really wanted to compete for a championship. We were going to do that, for sure, but now we don't get the chance to. It's part of it. I guess we can go into Homestead and try to get a win. That's what we really want to finish out the year."
The engine failure saddled the young driver -- a sure lock for Sunoco Rookie of the Year, if it's any solace to him – with a 27th-place finish, allowing Timothy Peters to move past him in the standings to the fourth and final spot to race for the title in Miami.
Looking past the disappointment of Friday night, Byron's success this season has been nothing short of incredible, finishing in the top five in nearly half of his starts.
The domination the No. 9 team has shown makes it ever-so-slightly easier to digest.
"I just try and smile it off, I guess," Byron said. "The only satisfaction is that we had the best truck. We don't have the win, but the only satisfaction is that we were that dominant. I've been really happy with the team this year. (Crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) has been amazing to me and hopefully we can just finish it off. I know he's heartbroken like I am and we'll just debrief and go onto Homestead."
Given how disheartening it must be to know -- and have all of your competitors know -- that you're the driver and truck to beat, only to have it come down to a parts failure ... would Byron trade any of his wins to still be competing for the title?
"I definitely would like both (the wins and the championship) and feel like I can control both, but I would never take back the wins we had," he said. "It's gotten me to a new level; it's gotten this team to a new level with confidence and just performance.
"I would never trade those; they were awesome moments with my team. I was thinking about sharing another one with them tonight, but it just didn't happen."