William Byron takes massive hit in Brickyard wreck with AJ Allmendinger
A very hard end to the afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for William Byron. His 24 car slammed into the inside wall in the Brickyard 400. Stage 2 of this NASCAR race is coming to an end soon, and Byron is already out of the race.
The 24 car won the Brickyard 400 in 1994, 2004, and 2014. It will not find Victory Lane in 2024. A hornet’s nest on the restart involving Chase Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, and eventually, AJ Allmendinger caused everything to fall apart.
The Brickyard 400 is only going to get more intense as laps tick away. For William Byron, his day is already over. He will watch the finish from his RV.
William Byron has not had a great summer of racing. His speed has been lacking, he’s gotten into a few moments like the one above, and he hasn’t been as imposing as he was early in the year.
There have been a few issues for Hendrick Motorsports today at Indianapolis. So, Byron is a DNF. Before that, Chase Elliott was hit with a pass-through penalty for a “blend-line violation.” Alex Bowman just doesn’t have the speed. Kyle Larson had to hit pit road again for a loose wheel.
So, someone is going to have to step up for HMS.
As a result of the wreck, AJ Allmendinger and Harrison Burton were also DNFs.
William Byron, Harrison Burton on Indy wreck
William Byron and Harrison Burton both left the care center and spoke to the media afterward. Byron was a little more fired up than he usually is in instances like this. Being wrecked out of the Brickyard 400 is a tough pill to swallow.
Chase Briscoe was blamed by Byron.
“We just got back there and the restarts are crazy,” Byron said to PRN. “Everybody’s trying to get all they can get. The 14 [Chase Briscoe] pulled up in front of me and stopped. I had to check up and got run over.”
Meanwhile, Harrison Burton had no idea what happened.
“It’s hard to really say,” Burton told PRN. “I haven’t gotten to watch it very much, looked like we were three-wide and got tagged in the right rear. I don’t know, hard to say what happened really. When I got hit, I didn’t even know what hit me.”
So, William Byron is done at Indianapolis. Harrison Burton and AJ Allmendinger are as well. When they came to the track today I’m sure this is not how they pictured their day ending.