Those looking at the final results of the Pocono 400 from Sunday would see pole sitter William Byron listed with a ninth place finish.
In fact the Hendrick Motorsports driver had a much better day amassing 45 points as he seeks a playoff spot, second only to Brad Keselowski. Kyle Busch who won the race scored 40 points himself though considering his pit strategy it could have been much more.
“We had some really good parts of the race. We kind of went for the points, which with the way the strategy was, it was hard to get back there. But we got a lot of points today, which was great,” said Byron after the race.
Byron led the first 22 laps of the race and later added three more as he hoped for a late race caution which never came.
“I know it doesn’t sound super-good, but we had really good stages and really good runs there. So, we were able to go from 12th to 9th on that last restart and that was nice and we finished with a top-10, so hopefully we can go to Michigan and be able to improve on that even more.”
“We were definitely as fast as (Busch) at the start of the race. I don’t know how the race would have progressed. But, it took us a long time to get by guys and that was just something that kind of was a hindrance,” Byron said.
“But overall the guys did a great job on the car and this was a solid day. We’ve had two in a row now. That’s great for us.”
“I wish it was a little easier, but it felt like any time I got within striking distance to somebody, I just couldn’t quite get there and I’d lose as much as I gained and then I’d have to work that all back for 10 laps and then lose it again,” the No. 24 Chevrolet driver said.
“It was just really hard. I don’t know if that was just me or what, but it was hard to complete (the pass). The only times I could really make a move was when I just went in there and almost crashed the guy trying to do it and just got so close that it got loose.”
“There were very few times I could get that close, but if I could, that was how I passed guys.”