“It didn't seem like he had to worry”: Rick Hendrick’s star William Byron laments fuel outage on his Michigan loss to Denny Hamlin
William Byron was left frustrated after a tough weekend at Michigan International Speedway, which ended in disappointment. The Hendrick Motorsports star finished 28th during Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400, after running out of fuel with just over a lap remaining.
Byron started fourth at the 2-mile track, led the most laps (98), won the second Stage, and was in position to challenge for the win. He battled Denny Hamlin for the lead near the end but ran dry with just two laps to go and finished last on the lead lap.
During a post-race interview with FOX Sport’s Bob Pockrass, he reflected on the heartbreak after fighting hard in a race dominated by fuel management.
"It was hard to save enough [fuel] oviously and keep the lead and that’s what kind of drew him [Hamlin] in. It seemed like he could just run hard. It didn’t seem like he had to worry about fuel at all and I was kind of having to do both. He got me there, for sure, but I was going to run out... It didn't really matter because we ran out," William Byron said.
That miscalculation handed the victory to Hamlin, who secured his third win of the season and tied for the most wins with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.
"Just trying to go for the win" - William Byron on aiming for the win over playing it conservative for the regular season championship
William Byron has collected one win, seven top-5 and nine top-10 finishes in the first 15 races of the 2025 Cup season. The 27-year-old renewed his contract with Hendrick Motorsports through 2029 last month and remains one of the top championship contenders.
He collected his first win this season at Daytona, recently had a runner-up finish at Charlotte, and a fifth-place finish at Nashville. Michigan saw Byron’s fourth finish outside the top 20 this season, despite being one of the fastest cars on track week after week.
During the same interview with Bob Pockrass, the Cup points leader also addressed whether he was going to play it conservative for the regular championship title or go for the win.
"Just trying to go for the win. I felt like we had one of the dominant cars all day and, unfortunately, when you’re so close to a window like that and you run out front, you burn a lot more fuel. So, yeah it was trying to manage both, but it sucks," William Byron said.
The NASCAR Cup Series will now head to Mexico City for its first points race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez on June 15.