William Byron will be looking to burst the NASCAR Cup Series playoff bubble in tonight’s race, the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hendrick Motorsports rookie William Byron enters the 24th race of the 36-race NASCAR Cup Series season, the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, at Bristol Motor Speedway well below the playoff cut line.
With just three races remaining, Byron sits in 21st place in the Cup Series championship standings, and he sits in 21st in the Cup Series playoff picture as well. He is currently 114 points behind teammate Alex Bowman, who sits in the 16th and final position in the playoff picture.
In other words, Byron essentially needs to win one of the remaining three races on the regular season schedule in order to qualify for the playoffs in his first season as a Cup Series driver.
That is exactly what the 20-year-old driver of the famed #24 Chevrolet is planning to do tonight in the 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) Bristol Motor Speedway oval in Bristol, Tennessee.
Heading into the 21st race of the season, the Gander Outdoors 400, at Pocono Raceway in late July, Byron had never finished a Cup series race in higher than 10th place. His only career top 10 finish was his 10th place finish in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway back in early April.
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But after leading 10 laps of the 160-lap race at the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Pocono Raceway triangle in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, Byron found himself finishing in a career-high sixth place finish even after he started all the way back in 38th.
Byron kept this momentum going in the next race, the Go Bowling at The Glen, at Watkins Glen International in early August. This race was just his second career Cup Series road course race, and he was not particularly known as a good road course racing driver throughout his time in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series.
But after starting in eighth place and finishing in 25th in the first road course race of the season, the Toyota/Save Mart 350, at Sonoma Raceway back in late June, Byron started in 16th and came through with an impressive eighth place finish in the race at Watkins Glen.
A 36th place finish in last Sunday’s race, the Consumers Energy 400, at Michigan International Speedway, that took place as a result of an early incident took away some of Byron’s momentum, but he was able to pick it back up again in qualifying for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.
Coming into qualifying for Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, Byron’s career-high qualifying efforts were eighth place qualifying efforts. In addition to qualifying in eighth for the race at Sonoma Raceway, he also qualified in eighth for the race at Chicagoland Speedway, the Overton’s 400, back in early July.
But Byron shattered his career-high qualifying efforts by qualifying in fifth place for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, and that is where he is set to start when the race goes green tonight.
With two of Byron’s last three finishes being top eight finishes, including a career-high sixth place finish in the race at Pocono Raceway, it would not appear that his qualifying effort for tonight’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway is a fluke.
As a result, Byron will look to challenge for the win in tonight’s race to burst the playoff bubble and send teammate Alex Bowman below the playoff cut line, and he will look to send teammate Jimmie Johnson down to the 16th and final position in the playoff picture. Johnson currently leads Bowman by 30 points in the championship standings.
Will William Byron earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory in tonight’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway to lock himself into the playoffs in his first season as a Cup Series driver, thus bursting the playoff bubble? Tune in to NBC Sports Network at 6:30 p.m. ET to watch the live broadcast of the race and find out.