The first mulligan of the 2026 Chase goes to William Byron.
And he didn’t exactly ease into it.
Byron came into Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway as the No. 13 seed in the Chase, 85 points behind top-seeded Denny Hamlin. Nine races remained after Darlington, which meant there was plenty of time to make up ground.
Then again, there is “plenty of time” and there is “please don’t look at the standings.”
Byron is now firmly in the second category.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver had been running inside the top 10 for much of the second half of Sunday’s race and appeared headed for a respectable opening night in the postseason.
Then, on lap 316, his evening decided to become considerably less respectable.
Running ninth, Byron suddenly spun, sliding down to the apron in Turn 3 before crossing back through Turn 4 and eventually skidding to a stop at pit entry.
It was a bizarre incident, particularly because Byron didn’t immediately know what had gone wrong.
“I’ve never had that happen,” Byron said. “I felt like I had a flat left-rear tire in (turns) one and two, so I slowed down quite a bit and I was going to pit and try to be early on the cycle.”
That seemed reasonable.
Unfortunately, Darlington apparently had other plans.
Byron was able to refire his No. 24 Chevrolet, but only briefly. As the field prepared for the ensuing restart, smoke began pouring from the car, and what had looked like a tire problem quickly appeared to be something considerably more expensive.
Byron was done.
“I’m not sure, it was super odd,” he said. “I don’t know if I was blowing up in that process and got oil on my tire or what.”
Whatever the cause, the result was brutally clear.
Byron was credited with 37th place and, unofficially, fell all the way to 16th — last among the Chase drivers — 114 points behind the championship lead.
That is quite a way to go from ninth to last without actually getting caught up in somebody else’s mess.
It also turns the next nine races into something of a mathematical rescue mission.
The good news is that Byron had a fast enough car to run inside the top 10 before the mechanical issue struck. The bad news is that NASCAR’s new Chase format is not particularly interested in awarding style points for having a good car until it stops working.
“We had an eighth or ninth-place run going,” Byron said. “But it was just an unfortunate end to the evening for this No. 24 Valvoline Restore & Protect Chevrolet team.”
That may be the understatement of the evening.
The Chase is supposed to be about surviving nine races, managing pressure and avoiding the sort of disaster that can turn a championship contender into a mathematical afterthought.
Byron managed to check the disaster box in Race No. 1.
At least he got it out of the way early.
Now comes the hard part.
With 114 points to make up and nine races remaining, Byron doesn’t necessarily need to panic. But he does need to start behaving like the William Byron who arrived at Darlington expecting to fight for a championship rather than the William Byron who left looking for a tow truck.
The Chase is long.
His patience may have to be even longer.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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