William Byron takes aim at Joey Logano as Denny Hamlin blamed
Denny Hamlin caught heat for his role in William Byron being overtaken by Ross Chastain but it was Joey Logano who was criticized by the Hendrick star.
William Byron “didn’t like” Joey Logano’s driving in the closing stages of the Coca-Cola 600 - despite Denny Hamlin being blamed by fans online for costing him the win.
Byron was overtaken by Ross Chastain late on at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a thrilling end to the Crown Jewel race. Byron, who won Saturday’s Xfinity race, had dominated by leading over half the race but left disappointed.
The majority of his race was spent battling at the front with Hamlin, who fell out of contention when he had to pit for fuel after a mistake on an earlier pit stop.
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Just before Chastain overtook Byron, Hamlin had held up the No.24 as he came around to lap his No.11 car.
That led to a number of Hendrick Motorsports fans criticizing Hamlin online for his impact on the race's outcome.
But a few laps earlier, Byron had encountered similar issues with Joey Logano. The No.22 Team Penske car made it hard to pass, with the dirty air he created giving Chastain chance to reel Byron in before eventually completing the pass.
Asked if he was affected by Logano, Byron said after the race: “Yeah, for sure. He was doing the usual.
“What I didn’t like is he just kept moving around in three and four and I didn’t know what he was doing.
“But was in traffic a lot that run. The 45 was running hard and then lost a chunk there when he got loose, then I think it all kind of headed up.”
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In his Amazon Prime Video interview, he also alluded to the role of lapped traffic as he broke down the closing stages of the race.
He said: “I was just defending, but he was catching me and I was trying to just defend and I was getting a little bit tight.
“The scenario there, with just the cars we were around, it was tough. Got a run on me, he was able to get to the bottom and clear me off of two, so just disappointing.
“To lead that many laps, such a great effort by our whole team, I guess, could’ve anticipated that last run a little better.
“I ran in dirty air for a long time and heated my tires up, then lost a bunch of time when the 45 crashed in front of us, so it sucks. We’ll just keep going and keep trying to put races together like that.
“It’ll be good in the long term I guess but really wanted this one. Just a bummer, right? But try to learn from it.”
