William Byron spent most of Sunday looking like the driver who was finally about to break through for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.
He swept both stages, led a race-high 94 laps and controlled the pace for much of the afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway. Then, over the course of one green-flag pit cycle, everything changed.
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Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe and crew chief James Small timed their final stop perfectly, emerging with fresher tires and cleaner air before tracking Byron back down. Fifty laps from the finish, Briscoe completed the pass and never looked back, leaving Byron to settle for fourth despite having arguably the fastest car in the field.
It was a frustrating ending, but also another sign that the No. 24 team may finally be trending in the right direction.
A race that slipped away on pit road
Byron entered the final round of green-flag pit stops with control of the race, but Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Rudy Fugle elected to bring the No. 24 Chevrolet to pit road one lap later than Briscoe.
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That small difference proved costly.
Briscoe’s fresh tires allowed him to erase the gap almost immediately, and once he reached Byron, clean air became the deciding factor.
Those final laps left Byron wondering what more his team realistically could have done.
“Those guys were just fast,” Byron said. “I mean, even when I was leading, they could just stay right with me, and everything had to be perfect. And ultimately, we got jumped there on the cycle, but it’s hard to know.”
He added:
“I feel like if I was perfect that last run, I could have gotten a little closer and just didn’t quite have the pace that they had. I don’t know… that was probably pretty maxed out for us. They just eventually got the clean air, and it was hard to defend.”
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Fugle acknowledged afterward that the team tried to extend the run slightly longer than Briscoe but simply came up short.
“We wanted to run a little longer, and we were right at the one-lap gap to the 19,” Fugle said. “It was probably just under. I was hoping for a faster pit stop and the best clean in and out that he could get and just missed it by a little bit.”
The results finally match the speed
The disappointment of losing a race Byron appeared capable of winning was balanced by another encouraging performance from the No. 24 team.
After finishing third at Pocono Raceway a few weekends ago, Byron backed it up by leading the most laps at Chicagoland and sweeping both stages before finishing fourth.
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The back-to-back performances suggest Hendrick Motorsports has found something on intermediate tracks after searching for consistent speed earlier this season.
“I think we’re starting to gain,” Byron said. “I think, honestly, it makes a lot more sense now the way the car feels. And now in the last two oval races, we’ve had a shot to win. Here and Pocono, we’ve been top four, so yeah, we’ve just gotta keep inching up on it and hopefully find a little bit.”
Fugle sees the same trend.
“I think since Dover, we’ve been making small gains,” he said. “And the results haven’t always shown it, or hardly ever shown it until recently, but we’ve just got to keep our heads on straight and keep making small gains, and we’ll get where we need to be by the time the playoffs start.”
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Byron may have left Chicagoland without the trophy, but after leading 94 laps and sweeping both stages, the No. 24 team left with something almost as valuable: confidence that its speed is finally catching up with its championship expectations.
