Saturday was a curveball for all of the racing fans. Only half of the supposed eligible quartet made it to the final segment. In the end, it was William Byron who managed to hold the pole position for Sunday’s season-crowning race.
Byron clocked in around a whopping 132.597 mph. This marked the fourth pole of Byron’s career this season.
Even though Byron managed to enter the race with a pole position and amazing confidence, an underlying issue with his car proved to be the factor that pulled him down.
On top of the technical malfunction. The Phoenix race track is a known enemy of Byron. The track was ever so unforgiving to Byron. Even after securing a pole position at the racetrack. The championship seemed to slip away from his hand.
So Close, Yet So Far
For the last three seasons, the Phoenix championship consistently crowned the racers who held the pole position.
Byron is familiar with this, which is why he was looking to secure his position as a pole position holder. And he succeeded to a great extent. Byron managed to finish the race ranking third.
Still, as fate would have it, Byron lost the position. So, here’s what happened in Byron’s own words,
“Once the track rubbed in, we got really tight. So, and especially when we lost the lead, you know, on track, we just had a big balance shift and got tight back in, you know, second to fifth and just couldn’t gain a lot of speed through one and two and just kind of having to really overslow the car and get it to the bottom. So that’s all we had there. You know, I felt like we brought a good car this weekend, and really, until the track kind of changed. […] It stinks to come up short.”
This shows that racing as a sport is highly unpredictable, and there are a lot of factors that come into play. Even if you manage to secure an amazing position to lead with, a faulty car can ruin everything.
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