William Byron claims "humbling" NASCAR Xfinity win at Indianapolis

Byron, a 19-year-old native of Charlotte, N.C., out-dueled veteran Paul Menard and hung on to win Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The win is Byron third of the season, all coming in the last five races.

“I’m just really thankful to be here,” Byron said on pit road after completing a victory burnout. “I have a lot of great people around me. It’s very humbling to be in Indianapolis and win.

“I can’t believe that tire held on. That was awesome.”

The final 20 laps, Byron complained of a growing vibration of right-front tire, likely a sign of extreme wear.

After he passed his JR Motorsports teammate, Elliott Sadler, for the lead with 16 of 100 laps remaining, had to fend off challenges from both Joey Logano and Menard.

“This is so cool. This is awesome,” Byron said. “I’ve never been to a Brickyard 400 or an Indy 500 but I watched it as kid. It takes a lot to win these races and to win here is so special.”

Byron’s victory came as part of a successful test of a new aero package at IMS, which included spoiler changes, the use of a 7/8-inch restrictor-plate and aero ducts on the front bumpers.

The race produced series track records in lead changes (16) and different leaders (eight).

Logano finished third, Sadler was fourth and Cole Custer completed the top-five.

“I thought I had a chance at catching William,” Menard said. “But he was better than me in Turn 1. Everywhere else we were pretty even.”

Stage 2

Sadler inherited the lead when several of the race leaders elected to pit with three laps left in the segment and claimed the Stage 2 victory when the race went under caution.

Justin Allgaier, who was leading, was one of the cars that pit before the Stage break but overshot his pit stall. His crew began work on the car before he corrected its position, then when Allgaier left the stall, he ran over the air hose.

Shortly after reaching the track, his right-front tire appeared to dislodge causing Allgaier to come to a rest in Turn 2, which brought out the caution.

“I think you are definitely seeing a lot closer racing out here than we’ve seen here the last couple of years,” Sadler said during the break.

Brennan Poole ended up second in Stage 2 followed by Daniel Hemric, Brendan Gaughan and Brandon Jones.

The first incident of the race occurred on Lap 39 when Ryan Sieg got into the back of Spencer Gallagher, which also collected the cars of Tyler Reddick and Blake Koch.

The race returned to green on Lap 45 with Busch in the lead followed by Logano and Custer.

Garrett Smithley spun after getting hit from behind by Mario Gosselin on Lap 50 to bring out the fourth caution of the race. Busch led on the restart on Lap 53.

Stage 1

Byron passed Busch on Lap 23 of the 30-lap first segment and held on to claim the Stage 1 victory. That was only the second Stage win by Byron this season.

Logano ended up third, Custer was fourth and Poole was fifth.

Sadler, who started from the pole, led the way until a competition caution was displayed on Lap 15 to allow teams to check tire wear.

During the round of pit stops, Erik Jones got spun by Poole and got his No. 20 Toyota stuck sideways. Jeb Burton was also penalized for speeding on pit road.

Busch was the first off pit road, but Hemric – who had to pit early in the race due to debris on his grille – stayed out and took over the lead on Lap 21. Busch took over the lead almost immediately after the restart.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	9	William Byron	Chevrolet	100		26
2	2	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	100	0.108
3	22	Joey Logano	Ford	100	3.656
4	1	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	100	5.987	22
5	00	Cole Custer	Ford	100	6.227
6	16	Ryan Reed	Ford	100	6.423
7	48	Brennan Poole	Chevrolet	100	11.415
8	21	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	100	14.294	1
9	33	Brandon Jones	Chevrolet	100	16.348
10	3	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	100	16.474
11	19	Matt Tifft	Toyota	100	28.695
12	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	100	31.076	44
13	62	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	100	31.210
14	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	100	31.288
15	14	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	100	32.116
16	4	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	100	34.213
17	11	Blake Koch	Chevrolet	100	34.923
18	96	Ben Kennedy	Chevrolet	100	43.162
19	24	Jeb Burton	Toyota	100	48.257
20	28	Dakoda Armstrong	Toyota	99	1 lap
21	0	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	99	1 lap	1
22	01	Harrison Rhodes	Chevrolet	99	1 lap	1
23	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	99	1 lap
24	07	Ray Black Jr.	Chevrolet	99	1 lap
25	5	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	99	1 lap
26	78	Tommy Joe Martins	Chevrolet	99	1 lap
27	90	Mario Gosselin	Chevrolet	99	1 lap
28	23	Spencer Gallagher	Chevrolet	99	1 lap
29	99	David Starr	Chevrolet	99	1 lap
30	52	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	98	2 laps
31	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	98	2 laps
32	40	Chad Finchum	Toyota	98	2 laps
33	8	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	93	7 laps
34	74	Mike Harmon	Dodge	90	10 laps
35	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	86	14 laps	4
36	13	Timmy Hill	Dodge	40	60 laps
37	42	Tyler Reddick	Chevrolet	38	62 laps
38	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	23	77 laps
39	89	Morgan Shepherd	Chevrolet	22	78 laps	1
40	93	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	9	91 laps