William Byron suffered multiple issues late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 opener at Darlington Raceway that put his day to a sudden end.
The No. 13 seed spun from ninth place at Lap 316 of the Cook Out Southern 500, sliding to the apron of Turn 3 and back across Turn 4 before skidding to a halt at pit entry. Byron was able to re-fire his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet but only momentarily before his engine suffered a reported mechanical failure.
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Byron entered the event 85 points behind top-seeded Denny Hamlin for the series points lead in the first race of NASCAR’s postseason but was competing inside the top 10 for much of the second half of Sunday’s race.
Byron told USA Network he originally believed a tire was going down and felt something dragging. But as the field was filing for the restart, Byron’s No. 24 car began billowing smoke, sending Byron to the garage and bringing his day to a premature end.
Byron was not certain what exactly soured his engine when speaking to reporters after his race was deemed over, but he was saddled with a 37th-place finish with just six points earned, five of which stemmed from stage points.
“Still trying to figure it out,” Byron said of his mechanical issue. “But yeah, super odd, I don’t know. I had some sort of issue and then eventually something broke. Whatever, I’m not sure.”
Unofficially, Byron plummeted to 16th place, last, in the Chase standings with nine races remaining.
“I thought we did a good job to have good speed,” Byron said, “but just gotta continue working. So we’ll do that.”
The Chase continues at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sept. 13 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Contributing: Zack Albert