William Byron suffered a bit of a setback in his quest for a NASCAR Cup championship.
Byron was docked 25 points and fined $50,000 for spinning out Denny Hamlin during Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. The penalty dropped Byron to 10th in the NASCAR playoffs standings as he looks to qualify for the Round of 8. He is now on the bubble eight points behind the cut line.
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Byron, driving the No. 24 car, spun Hamlin out with the caution flag already flying. He said he just ran out of room and did not really have a choice.
"I didn’t mean to spin him out over there, but I’m obviously pissed off and 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," Byron told NBC Sports.
Hamlin was not pleased either.
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"I’ll just add it to the list of guys, when I get a chance, they’re going to get it," Hamlin told NBC Sports after the race. "It all just works itself out. We’ll all be racing each other at some point. He’ll lose a lot of spots because he’s racing me.
"This is hard racing, obviously. I’m fine with hard racing but wrecking me under caution was not we were bargaining for," he continued.
Hamlin finished in 10th place despite the wreck. He sits in fifth place in the points standings – just 15 points ahead of Austin Cindric, who is in ninth place.
Hendrick Motorsports said it would appeal the discipline.
