It’s been a while in victory lane from Hendrick Motorsports’s William Byron in the No.24 Chevy Camaro on what has been his first road course Cup win, having started from 2nd in Stage 1 before he went one better thanks to the McDowell pit penalty not long after the restart & stayed there through the end at Watkins Glen.
With four wins so far this year, he’s now tops the drivers’ points ahead of this weekend’s regular-season finale at Daytona. We thought the race was gonna be last week’s winner from Indy again in Michael McDowell (No.34 Ford Mustang) at Front Row Motorsports thanks to a great start from 3rd that got him the Stage 1 win. But then there’s drama when a penalty by going past a few pit boxes + a mechanical issue later on sadly saw his day done early. His team-mate Todd Gilliland (No.38) had a great day though from 25th to a solid 2nd half finish in 11th.
While McDowell does have a Playoffs spot being locked up safe, there are others who will walk into a much win situation like Daniel Suarez (No.99 Chevy for Trackhouse – early spin) & Chase Elliott (No.9 Chevy for Hendrick – running out of fuel). Although Austin Dillon (No.3 Chevy for Childress) may been spun on the last lap with Kyle Larson (No.5 Chevy for Hendrick), but he’s the defending winner of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 there as anything can be possible for AD to race yet another year in the Playoffs.
