Extremely disappointed William Byron questions Joey Logano following Coca-Cola 600

William Byron had the dominant car in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But the dominant car doesn’t always win as despite leading 283-of-400 laps, Byron was beaten to the checkered flag by Ross Chastain.

Chastain had the fastest car during the final long run. Byron, who had been on the offensive all night to that point, now had to play defense. Lap traffic made his life difficult, especially when he came up on Joey Logano. The three-time champion moved all around the racetrack, refusing to make it easy for Byron. That allowed Chastain to get a run coming out of Turns 3 and 4 and make the race-winning pass on Lap 395.

Byron was obviously frustrated after the race. He certainly feels like Logano might have cost him.

“Yeah, for sure. He [Logano] was doing the usual,” Byron said, via Frontstretch. “What I didn’t like was he just kept moving around [Turns] 3 and 4. I don’t know what he was doing. Really, I think, was in traffic a lot that run. The 45 [Tyler Reddick] was running hard, and we lost a chunk there. It all just kind of added up.”

William Byron takes points lead despite Coca-Cola 600 disappointment

In the moment, it was hard for Byron to see a silver lining. He had a chance to win the Coca-Cola 600, one of NASCAR‘s Crown Jewel events. Aside from Denny Hamlin, no one had anything for his No. 24 Chevrolet for a majority of the race.

But here’s the positive: Byron swept Stages 1-3 and accumulated enough points to overtake Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson for the Cup Series points standings lead. So, while Sunday was a disappointment, Byron and his team are still in great shape.

But obviously, Byron didn’t want to talk about that. This was one stung and will for at least the next few days.

“Frustrated, obviously. Just lost the race, so, yeah. It’s just frustrating,” Byron said. “I don’t really have any words for it. I wish I won. … He [Chastain] was catching me, and I was trying to defend. I felt like I put a couple good defensive moves on and just really didn’t get through [Turns] 3 and 4 — got really loose over there — and that was really it. He had a huge run down the frontstretch, and I tried to protect against that, but it was too much.”