William Byron climbed out of his car on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway and immediately collapsed next to it.
There were a lot of reasons for it. It was a miserably hot day at a track where speeds are not high enough to keep the car cool. It was so hot that Byron said it was blurring his vision. His helmet fan also failed partway through the race.
The entire weekend was also mentally taxing.
Byron entered the race 30 points above the cutline, but a poor qualifying effort (16th) combined with scoring no stage points throughout the afternoon, left him susceptible to elimination. Byron persevered to a 13th place and eight points above Denny Hamlin.
He survived but it did a number on him in the process.
“It means a lot,” Byron said. “I’m sure I’m going to go home and really think about it. I’m happy for Ryan [Blaney], he deserved (the win). They were really fast today. I’m really happy for my team, I can’t state that enough.
“With 50, 60 to go, it was so blurry inside the car and I just wanted to pull in but you’re not going to do that. I was going to have a failure or do something first. So, just really proud of the team. They gave me the opportunity. This is my dream. I love to race cars, I didn’t grow up doing it, but I love what I do and they believe in me.”
Byron also spent most of the race fighting an ill handling race cars, something that certainly didn’t help the heat exhaustion. There were countless times where Byron told crew chief Rudy Fugle that he couldn’t do anything more behind the wheel.
“It was pretty awful,” Byron said. “I was optimistic we had the car in practice, we were kind of OK on averages. The car was loose in, tight center, not what you’d really want, but I was just hopeful the track was going to come to us or something, and when we qualified the way we did, I was like, ‘Oh no.’ I was so nervous sleeping last night. I don’t think I said a word to Erin (Blaney, girlfriend) on the way here in the car. Just so nervous. I had that feeling in my stomach.
“It’s nothing against all the work we put in, but I didn’t have the feeling in the car that I wanted. I knew it was going to be a battle. But when you get in those battles, I think you underestimate how tough it’s really going to be, and when you’re running 21st or whatever, it’s not fun back there. It was really tough.”
Fugle was feeling every bit as beat up as his driver but kept working towards a solution too.
“My heart did not do well, however long that race was, it was tough,” Fugle said. “I didn’t feel great about yesterday but I was convinced we would make it better. We didn’t at the start of the day for sure. We spent most of the first half making huge swings. We were about to go a lap down at the end of stage 2. Got a lucky caution. We made wholesale adjustments and then we were in the ballpark.
“If we could have got track position, I thought we could run sixth or eighth. But we didn’t but anyway, we did what we had to do, stayed in the hunt. The driver, he gave it everything he had, so proud of him, no mistakes by the pit crew. Great year to put us in this position and now we get to race for a championship.”
For his part, Fugle said Byron really validated everything he has believed about his driver, and the whole team.
“I learned what I’ve always known, that we had enough, our best is enough,” Fugle told Sportsnaut after the race. “All we’ve earned, the first two races of this round put us in this position, plus 30 and we needed all of it.”
Byron said Fugle kept him focused and motivated even during the worst of the race before getting the car right.
“I trust him like a brother,” Byron said of a crew chief he has had twice, both in Trucks and Cup. “He has known me since I was an infant in racing. 18 years old. He knows all my strengths and weaknesses and makes me better for it.”
His boss, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, said the adversity Byron and Fugle faced will continue to make them stronger.
“You race long enough, you’re going to be in situations where it’s not good and you’re like ‘I would love anything to hop out of this car right now’ because you’re frustrated,” Gordon told a small group of reporters after the race. “Things aren’t going the way you want them to go. You’re hot.
“Those are the days where you truly build the team of what you’re made of, what your team is made of. So I think good comes out of it even though it’s a struggle.”
Fugle and Byron are both confident ahead of Phoenix, feeling there is nothing from Martinsville that could bleed over into the championship race.
“We have to go back to the drawing board a little bit,” Byron said. “We’ve trusted our sim a lot and it didn’t work this weekend but we’re going to turn it around. We’ve won there in the past and we have a lot of good notes that will get us where we need to be.”
Fugle was even more optimistic.
“Completely didn’t car, different set-up,” Fugle said. “Outside of the rules package being the same, it’s a different track and we feel super good about it. We get a 50-minute practice session so that’s refreshing. We’re going to attack it.”
The previous driver of the No. 24, Gordon, is expecting big things from his successor over the next week.
“I’m proud of what they’ve done all year long that they get to enjoy what this next week — get this behind them – but go enjoy this week has to offer because whether you win the championship or not, it’s just super cool to be a part of the experience,” Gordon said. “And I feel like they’ve really worked hard to earn that this year.
“I honestly think they have a great shot at it, too.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.