William Byron’s crazy, rainy night in Georgia ended up in Victory Lane.
Byron notched his NASCAR Cup Series-leading fourth victory Sunday evening, winning the rain-shortened Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
With rain approaching AMS and the race official after reaching Lap 130, Byron put his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet past leader AJ Allmendinger and to the point on Lap 167.
Following the seventh caution and a brief red-flag period, NASCAR declared Byron the winner as the rain pounded the 1.54-mile superspeedway.
Of the scheduled 260 laps, only 185 were completed.
Byron, 25, overcame a penalty and a spin to record his eighth career win.
“I don’t completely understand this one,” said Byron, who led 20 laps in securing his second Atlanta win. “I’ve never had a rain victory like this. We went spinning through the infield, destroying the bottom of the car and dragging it around. … Once we got toward the front, we were OK.
“Just a crazy night.”
With 75 circuits remaining when the race was called, Byron said he and his team were fortunate to be out front.
“Today was definitely a lucky break,” he said. “I can’t overstate that. We were in the lead, but there were a lot of laps to go.”
Rounding out the top five finishers were Daniel Suarez, Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch.
Starting for the 36th and final time at AMS, 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick, 47, finished 30th in the 19th race on the schedule.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver won his first Cup Series race in 2001 in just his third start, replacing Dale Earnhardt after the seven-time series champion was killed weeks earlier in the Daytona 500.
In a fantastic finish to Stage 1 that resembled Harvick’s first win over Jeff Gordon 22 years ago, Ryan Blaney edged hard-charging Kyle Larson on Lap 60, keeping his No. 12 Team Penske Ford ahead by a mere .028 seconds.
However, Larson brought out the fourth caution on Lap 93 when he got loose and was struck by Erik Jones’ No. 43 Chevy. Larson’s No. 5 Camaro eventually blew a tire while on the apron and coming to pit road, severely damaging his right-front quarter panel.
With bad weather rolling southwest of the track, the field tried to storm to the front, chasing Chris Buescher and Allmendinger as Lap 130 neared to make the event official.
With Buescher’s No. 17 Ford out front, the fifth caution happened on Lap 123 off Turn 2 when Jones and Corey LaJoie made contact, collecting Ross Chastain and rookie Ty Gibbs.
As Stage 2 ended, Alex Bowman’s No. 48 got loose and turned Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota for the sixth caution. Brad Keselowski — winless and needing playoff points — earned the stage win under caution.
–Field Level Media
