8 months ago, a harrowing yet bizarre crash unfolded. It happened in the Xfinity Series race in Daytona, with 30 laps remaining. A group of Chevrolets was coming to pit road when Kris Wright missed a braking cue. As a result, the former Our Motorsports driver barrelled into the pit row traffic ahead of him. Wright blamed it on “super bad miscommunication with the spotter.”

Yet he bore the brunt of the blame, as Richard Childress’ grandson, Ty Dillon, is doing at present.

The Kaulig Racing driver had entered the South Point 400 with an ill-handling car anyway. Yet the No. 10 Chevrolet had a bigger misfortune awaiting, as Ty Dillon wrecked with William Byron. The No. 10 left the race in an absolutely battered shape. However, a rival team’s spotter figures that Dillon could have done more.

Ty Dillon’s nerve-racking fiasco explained

Well, most fans raised their eyebrows at William Byron. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was one of the top contenders in Las Vegas, as he led for 55 laps. He was also running second with 31 laps to go, just before the chaos unfolded. With no sign of warning, the No. 24 Chevrolet rammed straight into the rear bumper of Ty Dillon’s No. 10. That left jaw-dropped fans wondering why Byron undertook this bizarre mishap.

However, the issue of communication, both between the spotters and the drivers of the rival teams, tilts the blame more towards Dillon. “Ty would be the one I put the most fault on just because he didn’t execute his entry very well,” said Freddie Kraft, spotter for the No. 23 Toyota.

The 23XI Racing spotter shared his own dissection of the incident. While Ty Dillon claimed he tried to wave and his spotter also tried to communicate that the No. 10 was pitting, William Byron’s fold denied it. On a recent episode of ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’, Freddie Kraft narrowed down that confusion to hand signals.

“My hand signals for pitting and I’m going to the bottom are the same,” Kraft explained. “Miscommunication is the best term for it because I don’t know. Obviously, nothing was done maliciously.”

He continued how William Byron may have misinterpreted the messages from Ty Dillon‘s team. “Usually, if they’re right behind me or whatever, they’ll know, especially if we’re battling for position. But it’s possible that the spotter of the 10 did like pitting…and you hear the spotter of the 24 tell William that the 10’s going to run the second or third lane. Because I think that maybe if he did see a hand signal saying down, he might have thought that he was going to give him the bottom… And that was the message that got relayed…that can be easily confused with I’m pitting or you’re going to you go to the bottom.”

At the end of the day, both drivers’ days ended in a confused mess. While Ty Dillon’s day was not going very well from the beginning, William Byron’s disappointment may have been worse.

The first sign of heartbreak

William Byron has been on a glorious ride during the regular season. Between clinching his second Daytona 500 victory in a row and winning at Iowa Speedway, Byron fetched 10 top fives and 15 top tens. He topped off this spectacular run with a regular-season championship in Daytona. However, as soon as the playoffs began, the No. 24 Chevrolet went for a spiraling ride. Darlington presented a pan-HMS disaster, as three drivers somehow persisted until the Round of 12. Twin top ten finishes perked up Byron’s hopes for the Round of 8, as he entered Las Vegas with a good advantage.

With 31 laps to go, Byron was in good shape, being 22 points above the cutline. However, the accident with Ty Dillon crippled the championship hopeful, as Byron left the race 15 points below the elimination line. And Talladega’s carnage has yet to arrive on the Round of 8 schedule. So maybe the Las Vegas debacle was the first sign of heartbreak in Byron’s 2025 title run.

So Byron’s disappointment hit home for fans: “Yeah, I mean, just as good as we were, and just as good as the race was going, for random s— to happen like that, it just sucks. So, I don’t know, I can’t believe it. I obviously would never do that. During the cycle, you’re anticipating guys pitting, and it just sucks.” 

The concerning debacle in Las Vegas left both Ty Dillon and William Byron in dire straits. Let’s see if the latter can retrieve his pace for the playoffs.