William Byron's performance at Darlington Raceway was one rarely seen in modern NASCAR, absolutely dominating the majority of the race. Byron led every lap in Stage 1 and Stage 2, going on to lead the first 243 (of 297 total) laps, without a single lead change.
The last time a driver led every single lap in a Cup race was Jeff Burton almost 25 years ago, but Byron's chance of completing the NASCAR version of a no-hitter did not pan out the way he hoped it would.
Despite a shocking show of dominance, all it took was one round of green-flag pit stops to unravel Byron’s advantage.
No one passed him on track, but Byron fell back to third as Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell pulled off the ‘undercut’, through the cycle of green flag pit stops. Now in traffic for the first time, Byron struggled to make forward progress. He ended up losing more spots to Ryan Blaney and eventual race winner Denny Hamlin, who both had fresher tires after running long in the previous run.
A late-race caution paved the way for Byron to find a way back up to second, but it was still a bitter loss after showcasing such dominant speed from the 24 car.
"First off, really proud of my team, bringing that level of effort and preparation, have a car like that," said Byron. "For us to execute like that, it was looking like it was going to be a perfect race. We were going to lead every lap. Was really proud of that.
"Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of the green flag cycle, we lost control there. Once we lost control, too late in the going to kind of get back up there. Yeah, it sucks. I'm sure it will sting a lot tonight. There's still a lot of positives. It stings in the moment, for sure."
Byron, who won the season-opening Daytona 500, continues to lead the championship standings with a 49-point advantage over his closest competition.
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