‘Let’s pitch a perfect game.’ Charlotte’s William Byron chased NASCAR history at Darlington
William Byron flirted with perfection in the NASCAR race at Darlington on Sunday.
The 27-year-old standout driver for Hendrick Motorsports led the first 243 of 297 laps in the Goodyear 400, sweeping the stages and keeping himself in front of the pack after every trip to pit road throughout most of Sunday’s Cup Series race.
Byron would have needed a caution at some point during the final stage to pull off the green-flag-to-checkered-flag performance. His 243 laps led are still the most in a NASCAR race since 2000, when Jeff Burton led all 300 laps in a victory at New Hampshire.
“I was thinking: ‘Let’s pitch a perfect game here,’” Byron said after climbing out of his car on pit road after the race. “I felt like we were in a position to have a perfect game — perfect race, I should say — and that would have been pretty impressive.
“It sucks. But nobody’s at fault. Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of us. This is turning into a big strategy place, and we just couldn’t keep control.”
‘It stings in the moment’
Byron led the most laps to open a race at Darlington over 127 Cup races in the iconic track’s history.
It’s a situation with which Denny Hamlin, who ended up winning Sunday’s race despite leading just 10 laps, can relate. Hamlin led the first 381 of 382 laps in a race at Richmond in 2008 before a late flat tire gave the race to Clint Bowyer.
Byron lost his lead to Hamlin after pitting under the green flag, and the caution prompting overtime gave the Charlotte native another chance. But a perfect pit stop gave Hamlin the lead, and Byron found himself disappointed following a second-place finish.
“For us to execute like that, it was looking like it was going to be a perfect race,” Byron said. “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 {it was} too late in the going to kind of get back up there.
“It sucks, and I’m sure it will sting a lot. There are still a lot of positives, but it stings in the moment.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Let’s pitch a perfect game.’ Charlotte’s William Byron chased NASCAR history at Darlington."
