NASCAR lets William Byron keep P9 starting spot at Kansas after adjustments due to faulty part

Despite making adjustments in practice, William Byron will keep his starting spot due to a parts issue, according to NASCAR. The issue with Byron’s car was a faulty upper control arm and was not due to an error from Hendrick Motorsports.

William Byron qualified P9 and was set to start from the rear. Kyle Busch hit the wall in practice and had to make the decision to pull out a backup car. He will start from the rear as well as Ty Gibbs who both had tire failures.

Byron did not have a tire issue, he didn’t wreck on his own. Since the part was not right, NASCAR is allowing the adjustments to be made and allowing him to keep his starting spot in the top-10.

UPDATE …
NASCAR states that William Byron will NOT have to drop to the rear for Sunday's race. After conferring with the team and evaluating the part, NASCAR determined it was NOT a team issue … it was an issue with the part.

— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) September 9, 2023

This is a decision that is surely going to go over well with fans. No conspiracies at all about Hendrick Motorsports getting different treatment. Of course, it doesn’t look great, but it is far from a conspiracy. This is the era of single-source parts and decisions like this can be made by NASCAR.

William Byron leads the Cup Series in wins with five and he also leads the series in stage wins with eight. He leads the overall points by one over Kyle Larson. However, that win from last week puts Larson into the Round of 12 already.

William Byron starting P9 at Kansas

You can say that William Byron has a good history at Kansas. Two top-5s, six top-10s, and he won the pole award there earlier this season. However, it is a track that he has struggled with at times. We will have to wait and see what kind of day it is for him when the green flag drops on Sunday.

For what it’s worth, Byron has qualified P9 on two previous occasions. In both of those races, including the September race a year ago, he finished P6.

Byron and his teammates Larons and Chase Elliott were all top-10 cars in the final qualifying round. However, it is going to be hard to compete with the Toyotas. Christopher Bell is the pole winner and he might end up pulling off a win tomorrow.

Then again, he was the pole winner last week and he struggled all day and had some awful luck.

Are we going to see Wiliam Byron emerge from the back of the top-10 and win his sixth race of the season? Is it fair that NASCAR is letting him keep his starting spot?