By Jerry Jordan, Editor
LEBANON, Tenn. – NASCAR Cup Series driver William Byron had his sights set on a good run in the Rackley Racing 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway but the engine on the No. 27 machine let go, ending his night early.
“I haven’t ran these motors before but it seemed like it was stumbling a couple of times down the backstretch,” Byron told Kickin’ the Tires. “I got into (Turn) 1 there and let all the way out of the gas and it stumbled really bad like it lunged and then never really picked up RPMs again off of (Turn) 2, so by the time I got back over to (Turn) 1 it was game over.
“I am not sure exactly what happened. It was a bummer deal but it was good until then.”
Byron said he wasn’t sure if the engine was down the entire time he was on the track because it was acting strange. He radioed to his crew that when he would come up on other drivers he would have to “pounce on them” to try and make a pass.
“It seemed like we just couldn’t quite get a clean pass so I had to get it on the restarts,” he said. Looking ahead to Sunday’s Cup Series event, Byron said although they weren’t many, the laps he did get would help. Byron had worked his way up to seventh at one point.
“I got some track time, so it’s good in that regard but I hate it for the team,” Byron said.