CONCORD, N.C. – A sweep of three stages in NASCAR Cup Series points races means victory for a driver except one — the Coca-Cola 600.
The ultimate endurance test of man and machine in NASCAR’s longest event holds four equal stages of 100 laps, and while William Byron stumped the field for the first 300 laps, the flames of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet were fanned in the final laps as Ross Chastain snuck by Byron with six laps to go to steal the crown-jewel trophy in the Queen City.
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“It’s just frustrating,” a dejected Byron said shortly after exiting his vehicle. “Don’t really have the words for it.”
Byron did everything right Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
On top of snagging three playoff points, he led a whopping 283 laps; the most in this event since his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson led 327 circuits in his 2021 Coke 600 triumph.
With Byron’s toughest challenger, Denny Hamlin, fading and eventually having his night derailed after a fueling issue on the No. 11 team’s final stop, it looked like the No. 24 was ready to become just the seventh driver to win both the Daytona 500 and Coke 600 in the same season.
But pitting a few laps later on the money stop, Chastain had the fresher tires and the better car in the final 10 laps to get by Byron.
“He was catching me, and I was trying to defend. I felt like I put a couple good defensive moves on and then just really didn’t get through [Turns] 3 and 4,” Byron said. “Got really loose over there and that was really it. He had a huge run down the frontstretch, tried to protect against that, but it was too much.”
Byron’s dominance wasn’t a cruise by any stretch of the imagination. He was passed by Larson in the opening frame of the race before the No. 5 wheelman hit the wall and ultimately spun on Lap 46.
Then came a heavyweight tilt from Stage 2 onward with Hamlin as the two swapped the lead in a quintessential NASCAR battle in front of a sold-out crowd.
The two Cup Series stars exchanged the lead 15 times before the final pit stop separated the two for the home stretch.
Trying to hold the lead while skirting through lapped traffic, Byron had a close call with Tyler Reddick after the No. 45 got loose off Turn 2 and hit the outside wall just in front of the No. 24.
Then, Joey Logano, who was fighting to stay on the lead lap, gave Byron fits as he tried to get around the defending series champion.
“He was doing the usual,” Byron said of Logano’s defending. “What I didn’t like is he just kept moving around in 3 and 4. I don’t know what he was doing. I think just was in traffic a lot that run. The 45 was running hard, and then lost a chunk there when he got loose. I think just it all kind of added up.”
A former Cup driver who knows a thing or two about the ups and downs of a 600-mile race happens to be Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, whose first Cup win came at Charlotte in 1994.
The four-time series titleholder was straightforward on Byron’s result, but was satisfied with the No. 24 team’s performance and what it equates to in the standings.
“Overall, it was a really good race,” Gordon told NASCAR.com. “Disappointed when you dominate and run that well and don’t get it done. So I feel for William and the team, but also, there’s a ton to be proud of him. I thought he just drove a super impressive race today.
“I’m pretty sure he probably has the points lead now, and, you know, it’s like points leads great, and there’s points for that. But you want to win races and get those playoff points. I think overall, you just take away how strong they were in the toughest race, and I feel like because of that, they’ll continue to build some momentum.”
Byron will indeed leave Charlotte with a 29-point buffer atop the Cup Series standings after previous leader Larson failed to score stage points and had an early exit from the Coke 600 after getting caught up in a multicar wreck on Lap 247.
For at least the next week, however, the points lead is only a consolation to what could’ve been another feather in the cap for Byron, who is already building quite the resume in his Cup Series career at just 27 years old.
“I’m sure there’s a bigger plan in the future, so just got to understand what that is,” Byron said. ” Keep working. I feel like our team’s ability and my abilities is really good right now. We just got to capitalize. It sucks. All you can do is just keep learning from it and move forward.”