(Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR photo)
LOUDON, N.H. — If last week’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway was a lesson in what not to expect from rookie points leader William Byron, Saturday’s UNOH 175 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway was a return to normalcy.
Byron put a lap four crash from a week ago behind him, qualifying on the pole and leading 161 of 175 laps en route to his sixth series victory of the season and a golden ticket into the second round of the Chase for the Championship.
His only challenge came after a caution on lap 54, brought out by a spinning John Hunter Nemechek and sending all the leaders to pit road.
Many drivers gambled on pit road, as Byron’s Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Christopher Bell took two tires and won the race off pit road, while Byron restarted fifth as the first driver on four fresh tires.
A third KBM Tundra — the No. 51 of Cody Coughlin — stayed out to lead three laps and brought the field back to a restart on lap 58, but was quickly overhauled by Bell and Byron, who dropped into the top two spots.
11 laps and one additional restart later, Byron was back in front to stay, getting an assist from the lapped truck of Tommy Jo Martins to pass Bell and set sail into the Loudon afternoon.
In all, the trio of KBM trucks combined to lead every lap of competition Saturday at Loudon, but it was Byron who was head and shoulders above the field and captured personal redemption for his lackluster performance in the Windy City a week ago.
“This performance is redemption for how bad a weekend we had last week (at Chicagoland),” Byron said in victory lane. “Everybody on this team has worked hard all season and they worked hard to keep pushing in spite of the troubles we had last race. To get a win no, when it counts in the Chase, feels so good.”
“I was so down on myself after last week, making the mistake I did when we hit the wall, so to come back and get this win is really good for our team and proves what we can really do.”
Despite Byron having a guaranteed berth now in the Round of 6, the rookie says he and his No. 9 Liberty University Toyota team have no plans of letting up and taking it easy before the next round.
“We just try and win, now,” Byron added. “Our goal each week is to go out and compete like we don’t have a win, because we want to perform at our best every time we’re at the race track. That’s our objective and we want to keep our momentum going throughout this Chase, so that we can make it to Homestead … because that’s the ultimate goal.”
