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 Now 18, Byron has a win in the series he watched as a child. But
it took a strong truck and a stroke of good luck for Byron in Friday
night's Toyota Tundra 250 and reach Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway
for the first time in five series starts.
Driving the No. 9 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Byron was third
when front-runner Johnny Sauter led Ben Rhodes into Turn 3 on the
final lap of overtime.
Rhodes drove his truck hard to the inside of Sauter, clipped the
left rear quarter panel of Sauter's truck and sent both vehicles
spinning toward the outside wall. When NASCAR threw the 11th caution
of the race, Byron had the lead, and two-time series champion Matt
Crafton was running second.
 "I just got ran over by a bozo ... I guess he's just brain dead," an
irate Sauter said after the incident. "It's just unfortunate that
sometimes you can't race the way you want to."
For Byron, who became the ninth NASCAR Next driver to win a national
series race, there was only joy.
"It was crazy the last couple of restarts, and I had the lead there
on the green-flag run (before the caution that forced overtime), and
I was really just praying for no cautions, but you have to earn it,"
Byron said.
"And my crew chief, Rudy Fugle, really told me about that on all the
restarts. He's like, 'This is how you earn it,' so I just can't
thank (sponsor) Liberty University enough. This is a dream come
true.
"I was six years old watching Truck races. Didn't start racing until
I was 14, and just to be in a Toyota Tundra like this is amazing."
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The last lap wreck wasn't the first time in the race that Byron
benefited from contact between two trucks in front of him. Moments
after a restart on Lap 135, the trucks of Crafton and Timothy Peters
collided, breaking the momentum of both trucks and shuffling them
out of the top 10.
Byron inherited the lead, shed eventual fourth-place finisher
Christopher Bell after a brief battle and streaked away to a lead of
4.5 seconds before caution for Tyler Reddick's spin on Lap 164.
Sauter took full advantage of the restart in overtime, diving to the
inside and surging into the lead with Rhodes passing Byron for
second in the process. Sauter appeared to have the race in hand
until Rhodes made his kamikaze move and wrecked the leader in the
final pair of corners.
NOTES: With the victory, Byron is all but assured of qualifying for
the first Camping World Truck Series Chase. ... Peters finished
eight and holds an eight-point lead in the series standings over
Daniel Hemric, who ran third.
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