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William Byron Explains How He Lost The Race To Ross Chastain

May 26, 2025  ·
  John Trent

William Byron shared his frustration with coming up a spot short to Ross Chastain in the Coca-Cola after winning the first three stages of the race and explained how Chastain got by him.

With 5 laps to go Byron found himself in lap traffic behind Joey Logano and his car got extremely loose. It allowed both Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin, who had just exited pit road a lap down to close on him. Chastain closed right to Byron’s bumper and then dove underneath and then slid up in front of Byron, who was forced to checkup after brushing the wall. Chastain would hold off Byron and take home the checkered flag and smash the watermelon on the front stretch.

Speaking to the media following the race, Byron shared how frustrated he was and how he let the win slip through his fingers, “Frustrated, obviously, just lost the race. It’s just frustrating. I don’t have any words for it. I wish I won.”

He then explained what went wrong, “He was catching me and I was trying to defend. I felt like I put a couple good defensive moves on and then just really didn’t get through 3 and 4, got really loose over there, and that was really it. He had a huge run down the front stretch. I tried to protect against that, but it was too much.”

As for why he got loose in 3 and 4, he did point to Joey Logano, “Yeah, for sure [Logano affected me]. He was doing the usual. What I didn’t like is that he kept moving around in 3 and 4. I don’t know what he was doing. … Really, I think was just in traffic a lot that run. You know, [Tyler Reddick] was running hard and lost a chunk there and then when he got loose it all just kind of added up.”

When asked if he was second-thinking any of his decisions, he replied, “No, I was trying really hard. If anything just overstepped a little bit. Probably the moment in 3 and 4 I got super loose was able to hang on to it, but I lost a bunch of momentum and that’s what gave him the run down the front stretch. So, I don’t know. I think if I try to defend any more into 1, probably just get loose and crash. I thought I put a good block on at the end of the straightaway and was just going to run the top to keep momentum and he was able to clear me.”

Next, he shared that it was “tough, but it’s a good lesson. I’m sure there’s a bigger plan in the future. Just got to understand what that is, keep working. I feel like our team’s ability and my abilities is really good right now, we just got to capitalize. Yeah, it sucks. … All you can do is just keep learning from it and move forward, there’s really nothing more.”

What do you make of Byron’s assessment on how Chastain tracked him down and passed him for the win?

NEXT: Brad Keselowski Disappointed After Top 5 Finish At Coca-Cola 600

Author: John Trent