William Byron will start at the rear of Chicago Street Race after power steering failure in qualifying
Not a great start to the weekend for William Byron. He is now set to start at the rear of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race. Byron suffered a power steering issue and his team made repairs. That means he is going to the rear of the field.
William Byron was hoping to be able to keep his starting spot from qualifying. It just didn’t come together. With how important that power steering is going to be in the Chicago Street Race Sunday, it is a good thing they fixed it now.
Byron is going to have a rough day on Sunday. He will have to attempt to pass the entire field.
There were multiple drivers with issues in practice and qualifying. Josh Berry found the wall. Brad Keselowski made the fast 10 and then put his car into the wall. So, it’s not like Byron will be alone going to the rear.
Unfortunately for him, it is going to be hard to move up in this race. At least, I think it will be. We’ve never seen this track without a wet surface and narrow racing grooves. So, who knows how cars will be able to pass during the race.
Good news for Byron, he has three wins this season. Bad news? He has not been doing great in the last few weeks. A big of a summer slump. Byron has not won at race since Martinsville, and that was three months ago at this point, 11 races earlier.
Yes, Byron has a couple of P3 finishes and a runner-up from Iowa. But it hasn’t felt like he has been capable of winning a race in quite a while.
William Byron to the rear, Kyle Larson to the front
For Hendrick Motorsports, it wasn’t all bad. While William Byron and Chase Elliott missed out on the final qualifying round, their other two drivers made it. Both Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson raced for the pole today.
Larson and other drivers were a little thrown off by Shane van Gisbergen last season. He showed up and made the Cup Series regulars look regular. Larson embraces challenges from any driver who lines up with him, especially SVG at Chicago.
If he wants to be considered the best or one of a handful of the best drivers in the world, then this is how he proves it. SVG showed that he is likely the best road and street course racer in the United States now, not to mention down in Oceania where he raced Supercars.
Kyle Larson went out there and won the pole award for the Cup Series. He lost out on the Xfinity pole to van Gisbergen, but would not be denied in Cup qualifying. This is going to be a fun weekend of racing in Chicago.