NEWTON, Iowa — With 50 laps to go, William Byron’s chance at his third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season appeared to have evaporated after he stalled his truck leaving pit road and fell to 11th in the rundown Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.
However, Byron was able to fight back from that miscue and put on a show coming through the field, making a daring three-wide pass of Cole Custer and Ben Rhodes in turns three and four with 10 laps to go and holding off Custer on a green-white-checkered restart to win his second consecutive and series-leading third NCWTS race of the season.
For the 18-year-old from Charlotte, N.C. — who just graduated from high school last month — the win moved his career winning record to 33.33% in the Trucks, as he notched his third win in just nine series starts after leading 107 of 200 laps in the Speediatrics 200.
“My gosh, this is awesome,” Byron said of his overall performance. “Just to be a part of Kyle Busch Motorsports and to have the group of guys that I do working with me and supporting me is amazing. I’m so fortunate to be in the position I’m in right now. We had a couple of setbacks tonight — I stalled it on pit road and struggled through some of those late race restarts — but I just kept after it and we were there when it counted.”
“I never could have dreamed we would have this kind of start to my Truck career, with three wins now and being in the position we’re in to fight for a championship. I’m so blessed to be working with Kyle and Samantha, (crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) and this whole KBM team. We never gave up tonight and we got it done.”
The race’s first caution didn’t fly until lap 43, when Parker Kligerman lost a left rear tire entering turn three after contact with Austin Wayne Self and smacked the outside wall, driver’s side first. The impact caused terminal damage to the No. 92 Ford for Ricky Benton Racing, and Kligerman saw his hopes of contending for the Chase Grid evaporate in a cloud of tire smoke, finishing 31st.
Though Nemechek won the race off of pit road after the opening round of stops, it was William Byron who charged to the lead on the restart at the 54th round. Using the outside lane to gather momentum, Byron surged around Nemechek exiting turn two and never looked back, opening up almost a five second lead before the expiration of the caution clock drew the second yellow of the race at lap 103 and ended a 20-minute, 50-lap green flag run.
Another round of pit service allowed Nemechek, who had faded to the back end of the top five, to climb back to second as Ben Kennedy fell from a strong runner-up to eighth due to issues jacking the truck up on the left side. None of that was of any consequence to Byron, however, as he used the same outside power down to retain the lead on the race’s next restart at lap 110 and ran off to a second’s advantage in less than 10 circuits.
A crash on the frontstretch involving Kaz Grala and Rico Abreu, who were running 16th and 18th at the time, again ended a long green flag run and brought out the third caution of the race with 53 laps remaining — sending the leaders down pit road for service as the final quarter heightened the intensity at the front of the field.
That served as the turning point of the event, with five trucks taking two tires in an effort to gain track position and Nemechek coming out as the first truck on four fresh tires in sixth. Byron, meanwhile, dropped all the way to 11th after leading 97 consecutive laps thanks to the stall-out he had trying to leave pit road.
Just as it appeared that Nemechek would be in position to challenge for the win, he had to come back to pit road for a missing lug nut on the left rear, dropping him to 20th and out of contention for the win as Reddick led the field back to green from the outside lane with 44 laps to go. As the No. 29 Ford F-150 pulled out to a five truck length lead over Kennedy, Ben Rhodes quickly charged from sixth to third on his fresh tires as the race wound into its final stages.
