Byron thinks Iowa win can build momentum for NASCAR playoffs

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — William Byron was already locked into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and was second in the regular-season point standings heading into Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway.

Still, Byron didn’t like how things were going heading into the closing stretch of the regular season.

Byron had five finishes of 27th or worse in the last eight races, and coming to a track where he has had success in the past, he wanted to regain some confidence with the playoffs approaching.

"I think we’ve been fast every weekend," Byron said. "I mean, I can’t think of a week when we’ve been slow, it’s just the results haven’t come together. And it was starting to wear on us a little bit and starting to create some kind of, ‘What’s going to happen next?'"

What happened next, though, was Byron getting his second win of the season on Sunday, gambling on fuel mileage for a win that he thought had changed the momentum of his season.

Byron went the last 144 laps of the 350-lap race without a stop, and a third stage filled with caution flags helped him conserve enough fuel to get to the finish.

He left Iowa Speedway, where he has now won in all three of NASCAR’s series, with an 18-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott for the regular-season title.

"This is going to kind of put the pendulum the other way," Byron said.

Byron won the season-opening Daytona 500, and has eight top-10 finishes this season, including three second-place finishes. But he had a 37th-place finish at Atlanta, a 40th-place finish at the Chicago street race, and 31st-place finish at Dover. He was 16th last week at Indianapolis, when he had to make a late pit stop for fuel.

Surviving to win this one is something that crew chief Rudy Fugle expected.

"He’s an awesome driver," Fugle said. "I think he’s the best driver, all-around, in the field right now. He’s mine, and I should say that. But I really think he’s maturing and getting the experience to show that off. He’s very well-diversified, and then he’s a fighter. He’s got a hard line and fights through anything. There’s no quit in him."

Byron had fuel-mileage issues late at Michigan, and again last week at Indianapolis. Even with that, Fugle knew he could still gamble with his driver.

"Those are things that he’s gotten better as well over the years, rolling with the punches and what happens next," Fugle said. "And next thing you know, you’re leading and you get a chance to win."

Byron admitted he was nervous as the laps dwindled on Sunday.

"I knew what to expect," he said. "I knew what to look for, and all that in terms of if I ran out of fuel. But I was just thinking about preserving as much as I could, doing a lot of different things in the car, lifting early and just not using a lot of throttle percentage. So just the guys did a really good job coaching me on what to do."

Byron thought there was a little fuel left in the tank at the end.

"I felt like if I could get off of (turn) four, come into the white (flag), I could win the race," he said. "So that’s kind of what was in my head. And that was mostly true. When I did the burnout, at the tail end of the burnout, I had the fuel pressure come up. So I don’t know how many laps that would have been."

Now, Byron said, he has new fuel to get to the playoffs.

"I really feel like we needed to win a race like this, we deserve to win a race based on how we’ve grown all year, and it just wasn’t happening," Byron said. "It’s is just a big relief for us to have one kind of go our way. We’ve just been running so well this year, I feel like this is going to be a big momentum boost for our team."

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