William Byron spins Denny Hamlin under caution in the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway
On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series unloaded in Fort Worth, Texas. The 1.54-mile oval of Texas Motor Speedway hosted the opening round of the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Both Denny Hamlin and William Byron are playoff drivers.
Watch the Denny Hamlin vs William Byron video below.
With 73 laps to go, William Byron and Denny Hamlin were in a battle for 2nd. Hamlin worked to his inside into turn one. He cleared him through the center of the corner but Byron rolled the outside lane and pulled to the rear rear of Hamlin off turn two.
As they exited turn two, they came within inches of each other. It doesn’t appear that any contact was made. However, Byron knocked the outside wall hard off the corner.
In that situation, the exhaust backfired from the exhaust pipes on Hamlin’s machine. That showed that he lifted.
Still, Byron bounced off the wall and went onto defense. He emmidelty turned down the track and sidedrafted Hamlin all the way down the backstretch. Byron pinched Hamlin’s entry into turn three. As they fought, Austin Dillon drove around both of them on the outside.
Byron spin Hamlin under caution
With 67 laps to go, race leader Martin Truex Jr picked up a flat tire. As spun, hit the wall and brought out the caution.
Seconds after the yellow lights came on, Byron was still in the throttle. He drove into the rear bumper of Hamlin off turn four, despite the caution. Hamlin was sent spinning through the infield grass.
At this point, Hamlin wasn’t done. Under caution, Hamlin re-joined the field in the 2nd position. NASCAR disallowed that move noting Hamlin failed to maintain speed.
Byron then passed Hamlin, under caution. At that point, Hamlin had enough and he began pushing all over the rear quarter panels of Byron, under caution in a possible attempt to spin Byron out.
Kyle Busch reacts
Kyle Busch was the first car out of the race after hitting the wall in turn four. However, he reacted moments after Byron spun Hamlin under the caution, “No penalty for this?! Depends on who you are I see.”
Kyle Busch is currently a teammate to Denny Hamlin. However, it was recently announced that he’ll join Richard Childress Racing in 2023.
Kyle Busch to race for NASCAR team Richard Childress Racing in 2023
#11 Team Radio
#11 team radio: “I haven’t seen a replay of it. But, good grief, but if he’s mad about what happened off of two, you got tight underneath him.”
The team added, “How do they not put the No. 24 to the tail for that? I mean, good grief, the man wreck you under caution. That’s not a penalty. What are we doing?”
Denny Hamlin responded over the team radio, “I’ll give him the penalty if he comes back to me.”
Texas Race Results: September 25, 2022 (NASCAR Cup Seres)
William Byron comments on Denny Hamlin
“Yeah, he ran me out of room, bent the toe link and we’re lucky we finished,” William Byron told NBC Sports after the race.
“It was really hard contact. It wasn’t like just a light contact. I didn’t mean to spin him out over there but I’m obviously pissed off. I’m just not going to get run like that.”
“We’ve always raced so well together. So, I don’t know what it was all about. The No. 19 took his air away, so he ran out of race track. So, he chose to run me out of race track, completely.”
“Again, it’s not like it was light contact. I thought we were going to be done.”
Was the spin under caution on purpose?
Byron was asked if he ran into him on purpose off turn four.
“Obviously, yeah. I went to go show my displeasure. I didn’t mean to hit him and spin him out.”
“There’s a ton of guys that do this and go do something like that, and do it all the time. But yeah, I’m just not going to get run like that.”
“There’s really no reason. We’re running 2nd and 3rd, I think. Had a shot to win and killed our car, for sure. That was a bummer.
Byron was asked if he’ll talk to Hamlin.
“Yeah, I guess so. We’ll talk, we’ve never had issues, so I didn’t really get it. But, I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh, I don’t normally have issues with this guy, I’m not going to be mad about it.’ It was uncalled for and I feel like we handled it.”
NASCAR reacts to Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain incidents
Denny Hamlin comments on William Byron
“I guess we can just wreck each other under caution,” Denny Hamlin stated. “I tried to wreck him back
“But, I don’t think we touched, I gotta look, “Hamlin added of the initial incident.
“Obviously, he threw us through the infield, under caution.”
Hamlin was made aware that Byron intends to have a conversation with Hamlin.
“I keep hearing these guys. But, I’ll just add it to the list of guys, when I get a chance, they’re going to get it.”
NASCAR didn’t issue a penalty to either driver during the race. However, the official penalty report isn’t issued until Tuesday or Wednesday. Though in this case, a penalty isn’t likely.
Hamlin adds Byron to the list
“It all just works itself out. We’ll be racing each other at some point and he’ll lose a lot of spots because he’s racing me. This is hard racing. I’m fine with hard racing.”
Hamlin added, “But, wrecking me under caution is not what we were bargaining for. It cost us all our track position, I thought we were in a great position to win.”
Hamlin has already issued payback to Ross Chastain for contact earlier in the season. Hamlin grabbed the win at Pocono but was later disqualified.
Denny Hamlin crashes Ross Chastain for Pocono win; Payback (Video)
Hamlin disqualified after NASCAR win at Pocono Raceway
“If you’re going to allow it then I’m just going to get all my teammates to take out all the competition under caution,” Hamlin later added to Bob Pockrass.
“I mean, this is what we chose, right? It’s funny, every week because we got something new that is laughable. But, just add this to the list.”
Denny Hamlin vs William Byron
Texas Motor Speedway
Video
William Byron
In-Car Camera
Video
Click here to view the current playoff standings after Texas
Links
Denny Hamlin | William Byron | Texas Motor Speedway | NASCAR
