Heartbreaking. That’s one way to describe William Byron’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 55 laps at the South Point 400, and even looked likely to cruise his way into the Championship 4 with a victory. But everything changed on Lap 236 when Byron slammed into the back of Ty Dillon’s No. 10 Chevy while running second, forcing both drivers to retire prematurely at Sin City.

With just two races remaining before the season ends, Byron needs to get his act together to fulfill his championship hopes. With fixtures at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville on the horizon, will the North Carolina-native pull off a clutch result in the coming weeks?

William Byron has his eyes on the prize

The stage was set for William Byron. The 27-year-old entered Sunday’s race fourth in the Cup Series playoff grid, four points above the cutline. Starting in 5th place, he quickly gained track positions as the laps ticked on, and even won Stage 1 by finishing above Kyle Larson. However, the situation quickly took a turn for the worse after a vicious crash destroyed both Chevrolets, relegating Byron to 36th place, dropping him 15 points below the cutline going into the YellaWood 500.

When asked by FOX’s Bob Pockrass if the result in Vegas would change the way he would approach the next few races, William Byron candidly said, “No, we just gotta go and win one of the next two. Doesn’t really change.” However, he couldn’t help but feel emotional after the result as well, admitting, “Just bummed out. You know, these opportunities are few. We had a really good car today. In contention to win. Everything has to go right in this Round of 8, and something major went wrong. I feel that was out of our control.”

The path ahead is far from easy for Byron. In his 15 appearances at Talladega Superspeedway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver hasn’t won a single race at the venue yet, despite finishing runner-up twice. However, he did end up on the podium at Jack Link’s 500 earlier this year, and will try to build on that result next weekend.

As for Martinsville, William Byron did win at the short track in last year’s Cook Out 400 and entered Victory Lane at the venue in 2022. Considering those factors, the No. 24 Chevy driver has reasons to be optimistic, despite his disastrous finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But while he has shown the speed consistently this year, Rick Hendrick and Co. will be praying Lady Luck is on his side in the weeks ahead.

Ty Dillon shares his side of the story

Unlike William Byron, Ty Dillon was racing for nothing but pride at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Struggling with handling issues, the Kaulig Racing driver was attempting to get back onto pit road when the incident occurred, forcing him to settle for a 37th-place finish. While the narrative revolved around the No. 24 Chevy being wrecked and the possible playoff implications, Dillon’s side of the story was largely overlooked.

Sharing his thoughts afterwards, the 33-year-old said, “My spotter told me that he let the No. 24 spotter know that we were coming to pit road. Maybe I didn’t wave him off enough, but I feel like at this level, you trust your spotter to do that. I don’t know what we do different there.”

However, the stories didn’t add up. Byron outright rejected the claim in the post-race interview, going as far as to say, “I never saw him wave. I didn’t see any indication that he was pitting.” With just a handful of races remaining, the HMS driver will look to put this incident behind him and focus on getting results at Talladega and Martinsville. After all, after a season full of consistent results, how heartbreaking would it be to miss out on a shot at the championship?