William Byron wins weather-shortened Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway

For his fourth win of the season, William Byron was in the right place at the right time. He is the Quaker State 400 winner after rain ended the race. To avoid another Daytona 2022 moment, NASCAR brought the cars to pit road under a red flag. After discussing it and looking at the incoming weather, officials decided to call it.

This was a weekend defined by what the Fords were doing. Eight of the top ten in qualifying were blue ovals. However, as the race progressed into the night, teams figured out their setups. Drivers that weren’t doing as well were able to stay out on certain cautions and gain track position. This Atlanta track provided some great racing tonight.

William Byron was one of the drivers that wasn’t great in qualifying. However, the 24 team and Byron figured it out and by the time the weather made it to the track, he was the leader. This is his fourth victory of the season and his second at the new Atlanta, since 2022.

NEWS: Tonight’s race has been called due to weather.@WilliamByron is the winner at @ATLMotorSpdwy. pic.twitter.com/4RxPWi6AMa

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 10, 2023

This race was fantastic and it was a shame that it had to end before it was completely over. Bad weather once again forced NASCAR to make a difficult decision. In a weather-shortened event, there was still some great racing. William Byron had to earn this win.

The Ford camp kept up their great qualifying sessions going with some awesome laps on the rack. For pretty much the entire race, the Fords were dominant and held their own. Seeing Team Penske and RFK and Frontrow Motorsports all compete against one another for top-5 positions was awesome.

William Byron wins. Daniel Suárez, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, JJ Yeley, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were the top 10.

William Byron wins after red flag for rain

This red-hot race in Atlanta under the light ended with a fizzle as the rain moved in. However, we saw an Atlanta track that was aged a little more. There was three-wide racing throughout the field.

Ryan Blaney won the first stage. Afterward, Brad Keselowski won the second stage and had to make the heartbreaking decision to pit based on fuel versus the weather. At least his crew chief did. This led to AJ Allmendinger taking the lead with 10 other cars that stayed out after the break.

William Byron restarted fourth after the second stage break. He would find the lead not long after the final stage began. As he moved around Allmendinger, Daniel Suárez came into the picture. This is where Byron earned his win. He fought off a really fast 99 and when the rain started to fall, he was in the lead.

With 82 laps to go, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece wrecked to bring out the caution. In order to avoid an incident like last year’s Daytona 400 to end the regular season, NASCAR was cautious with restarting.

Soon, after 185 laps, NASCAR pulled out the red flag. After looking at the weather, the race was called and William Byron was declared the winner. He is now a playoff favorite, as if he wasn’t already, and is really putting together a solid season. Eight career wins, four this year.