William Byron made it to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race after last weekend's controversial finish at Martinsville Speedway, but he had to wait 28 minutes after the white flag dropped to confirm he made the cutoff. Only 28 minutes and yet time may have stood still for Byron as NASCAR officials determined if he or Christopher Bell would advance to the Championship 4.
"Yeah, I mean, it was excruciating," Byron told Newsweek and other media. "I felt like it was so long. I was honestly numb to whatever was going to happen. I was honestly just preparing for not being in, then thinking about how I felt. Like we did all we could do. It is what it is at this point. It was a lot of waiting. I felt like the longer I waited in some ways that it wasn't going to work out. But yeah, it did."
The controversial ending and subsequent ruling that put Byron in the Championship 4 over Bell may have left some NASCAR teams splintered but the No. 24 squad has bonded through the difficult times.
"No," Byron said. "Like, I haven't ever felt as bonded to my team as I am now. We had a meeting on Sunday night about it. I feel like we've turned the page really, really quickly. For me personally, I've blocked out a ton of the noise. I haven't looked at social media. I don't really care. I'm just focused on trying to get the #24 car as fast as I can. I think past experiences have probably helped fuel that where I've been through enough BS in my Cup career where I kind of know what to focus on and what to block out."
The camaraderie couldn't happen at a better time for Byron with a NASCAR Cup Series championship on the line this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. The low-banked one-mile oval in the Sonoran Desert has been kind to Byron. In 13 career starts at Phoenix Raceway Byron has one race win, two Top 5 finishes, seven Top 10 finishes and an average finish of 11.8. Solid numbers, but Byron will need resolve and resiliency to win his first career Cup Series championship.
"I just feel like we've been really resilient this year," Byron said. "I feel like nothing has really phased us. We've never really gotten too high or too low. This whole, I'd say the first round was the rockiest part of the playoffs for us, and once we kind of got our routine in the rhythm, I feel like we've been pretty status quo. So yeah, I just think resilient is what I'm about."
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