NASCAR Cup Series: William Byron can’t afford to be Mr. Nice Guy

After getting spun by Brad Keselowski in practice for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, William Byron cannot afford to be the Mr. Nice Guy of the NASCAR Cup Series.

Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski attempted to wreck Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron seemingly out of the blue in practice on Thursday for the 36-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season’s 18th race, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, at Daytona International Speedway this Saturday night.

Keselowski had a run on Byron and simply refused to lift, and he admitted that afterward. His #2 Ford made contact with Byron’s #24 Chevrolet, and fortunately for Byron, he was able to save his car from spinning out and hitting the wall, but the damage inflicted on it will force him to use a backup car in tomorrow night’s race.

Here is a video of this incident.

Whether or not this had anything to do with Byron putting a block (like you’re pretty much supposed to do in restrictor plate races) on Keselowski in last year’s July race at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida has not been confirmed.

In reality, it was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who caused the contact with Keselowski from behind and resulted in the massive wreck that ensued, as at that point, Byron had not yet even completely blocked Keselowski. But Keselowski saw it differently, even though the wreck was unintentional in itself.

Here is a video of this wreck.

Given what Keselowski said after this block last year and what he said after Thursday’s incident, this very well may have been a form of “revenge”, even though Byron clearly did not put a block on him yesterday.

Here is what he said last year after he was taken out of this race, according to NASCAR.

"“I need to wreck more people so they’ll stop throwing bad blocks.”"

Here is what he had to say on Thursday, according to NASCAR.

"“Just had a big run. He put me in a position where I had to lift, and I keep telling these guys I’m not lifting. Just trying to send a message. I’m not lifting. I’m tired of getting wrecked at these (superspeedway) tracks. They’re all watching. They know.”"

Here is what Byron added, according to NASCAR.

"“It’s practice. I don’t think that was really necessary to turn us there…I didn’t really expect that, but that’s all right. It wasn’t like I changed four lanes down the backstretch and blocked him. I was just kind of holding my lane, and he just used his run to drive into my left rear.”"

As I have previously stated, there is probably not a more mature, respectful, classy and non-controversial individual in the NASCAR garage than William Byron, and he’s the youngest full-time driver in the field at only 21 years old. Reverend Franklin Graham even publicly complimented him last year before he made his Cup Series debut.

Can you imagine racing a 200 mph NASCAR race car in the #Daytona500 at 20 years of age? Well, William Byron did…

Posted by Franklin Graham on Monday, February 19, 2018

In literally anywhere else in the world but in the NASCAR Cup Series, his overall attitude and character would make him one of the most desirable candidates/employees/volunteers.

But he can’t afford to be NASCAR’s “Mr. Nice Guy”, especially after Keselowski effectively used him as a prop to “send a message” to everyone and basically not only admitted it but boasted about it for all the world to hear afterward.

Put Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch in front of Keselowski instead of Byron. Is Keselowski still “refusing to lift” in a practice session, much less admitting it afterward with a “they’re all watching…they know” remark?

We saw something similar last season with Martin Truex Jr. While many fans have expressed concern with some of the things that Truex Jr. has said and done this season in his first year driving for Joe Gibbs Racing that he hasn’t said and done in the past, he was effectively “Mr. Nice Guy” last year in his final season driving for Furniture Row Racing.

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He was moved out of the lead by Team Penske’s Joey Logano on the final lap of the round of 8 playoff race at Martinsville Speedway. Logano ended up winning the race ahead of Truex Jr. in third place.

He talked the talk, stating that Logano “won the battle” but “ain’t winnin’ the damn war [championship]” following this race, but with only a handful of laps remaining in the Championship 4 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he watched as Logano passed him for the race lead on the high side before going on to win his first career championship. Truex Jr., the reigning champion at the time, had to settle for second place after not even attempting to get retaliation.

Being “Mr. Nice Guy” did not work.

We saw something even more similar two seasons ago with Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, now one of Byron’s three teammates. Elliott was poised to win the round of 8 playoff race at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the Championship 4 in just his second full season in the sport, but with just over two laps remaining, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin wrecked the then 21-year-old, only to end up finishing the race in seventh place anyway after causing another wreck following the ensuring overtime restart.

With Hamlin poised to advance to the Championship 4 on points two races later at ISM Raceway in the round of 8 finale, Elliott made slight contact with him, doing enough to send him into the wall and cause one of his tires to go down. A few laps later, that tire gave out, sending Hamlin hard into the wall and ending his race and his championship aspirations.

Not being “Mr. Nice Guy” worked.

Of course, we’re not even halfway through the season, so it’s not like we’re talking Championship 4 here with Keselowski and Byron.

But being “Mr. Nice Guy” is only going to get Byron further taken advantage of, and with him being far more of a playoff contender this season than he was last year (12th place in the championship standings and five positions above the playoff cut line as opposed to 23rd and out of the playoffs), he could potentially end up in situation similar to Truex Jr. last year and Elliott in 2017, and he simply cannot afford that.

Will William Byron race Brad Keselowski any differently after what Keselowski did to him in practice for tomorrow night’s race? Will he race anybody else any differently if they try to take advantage of him like Keselowski did? Tune to NBC tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway.