William Byron dominates at Darlington but still falls short: 'It will sting a lot'

DARLINGTON, S.C. — William Byron opened the Cup race Sunday at Darlington Raceway with an unprecedented 243 laps led at the difficult 1.336-mile egg-shaped oval.

It was a historic domination for the majority of a race that had an additional 50 laps remaining (plus what would be four overtime laps). And Byron left with the historical moment of having the most dominant first 80 percent of the race but with no trophy.

Pitting a couple of laps later than other drivers during a green-flag pit cycle, Byron lost about six seconds to Tyler Reddick. 

Ryan Blaney, who pitted about seven laps later than Reddick, was even further back but was able to rally — thanks to the stark difference in the number of laps on their tires.

As Blaney took the lead with three laps remaining, Kyle Larson slowed and got run into by Bubba Wallace, spinning Larson and causing a caution. On the ensuing pit stops, Denny Hamlin’s team ripped off a quick pit stop to put him out front. 

Hamlin held on for the final two laps for the win. Byron settled for second. Christopher Bell finished third, Reddick fourth and Blaney fifth.

The ending left Byron, Reddick and Blaney wondering what could have been.

"It sucks," Byron said. "I'm sure it will sting a lot tonight. There's still a lot of positives. It stings in the moment for sure."

Byron had the most to feel disappointed about. Rarely does a driver dominate as much as he did at Darlington.

"For us to execute like that, it was looking like it was going to be a perfect race," Byron said. "We were going to lead every lap. I was really proud of that. 

"Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of the green flag cycle, we lost control there. Once we lost control, [it was] too late in the going to kind of get back up there."

That opened the door for Reddick and Blaney. 

Reddick said Blaney was able to get to him because he was mired in traffic behind drivers who had fresher tires.

"Us and the 12 [of Blaney] were on similar strategy, similar pace. So we were trying to just do something to get us some clean air [with the pit strategy]," Reddick said.

"And it worked. But you can only find so much of that around here. You're eventually going to find a group of cars, some with fresher tires that you are going to kind of get stuck behind."

Blaney said he was pushing hard for part of the rally. And he noted that he tried to balance not punishing his car to the point where it would then get slower versus needing to go fast enough to catch Reddick.

"I felt really good about kind of the pace I needed to have and how my car was going to fall off," Blaney said. "And honestly, when I got to fifth, I was like, ‘Damn, he's really far away. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get there.’

"But those guys just hit a cliff and I just never did. I kind of kept trucking, and when I got to second, it was like, nine [laps] to go. I kind of had tongue out for four laps, but then I'm like, all right, I think I'm going to have enough and he started hitting the fence and stuff like that."

Reddick hitting the fence eventually resulted in Larson being spun.

"I feel like I was really far down in the middle [of the track], and [Reddick] was just door-jamming me, and he put himself in the crap [marbles that collect in the upper groove] and Larson ended up getting spun," Blaney said.

"I knew I couldn't hit the fence and ruin my shot. So it almost worked out,"

Blaney summed up all three days for these drivers with the way he described his emotions.

"I’m proud of the effort that we had," Blaney said. "I’m obviously disappointed in the result. I thought we could have won the race."

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.