While battling for second position in the late stages of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader EchoPark 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, William Byron was squeezed slightly into the wall by fellow championship contender Denny Hamlin.
Here is a view of the incident, which sent Byron’s No. 24 car into the outside wall:
Tight racing between two #NASCARPlayoffs contenders! @WilliamByron | @dennyhamlin pic.twitter.com/PUY6hTv9N0
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 26, 2022
Byron didn’t like Hamlin’s move, and when the caution came out for race leader Martin Truex Jr. blowing a tire and backing into the wall on lap 268, Byron decided to exact revenge.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro pulled up behind Hamlin’s No. 11 car and sent Hamlin spinning through the infield grass.
Here is video of the chaos:
WHAT IS HAPPENING!?? CHAOS.
Race leader @MartinTruex_Jr has a flat right-rear tire and wrecks.
But, even crazier @WilliamByron spins @dennyhamlin in retaliation under caution! The No. 11 is obviously not happy.#NASCAR #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Xq2v1yEVqN
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) September 26, 2022
And here is how it looked from inside the No. 24 car:
Here’s an on-board look from William Byron’s car.
Byron gets into Hamlin, Hamlin spins. #NASCARPlayoffs
(via @NASCAR) pic.twitter.com/LwYPFh5FQl
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 26, 2022
And here is another look at all of the craziness:
Retaliation?
Take a look at what happened between @DennyHamlin and @WilliamByron. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/YjQ5khQgJ8
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 26, 2022
Following Byron’s retaliation, Hamlin sought out Byron on the track under caution and attempted to intimidate Byron and take his place in the running order back.
However, NASCAR ruled that Hamlin had to drop back to around 20th-position due to not maintaining pace car speed, while spinning out.
