William Byron apologizes to Denny Hamlin for late caution following NASCAR Championship heartbreak

Everything looked set up for Denny Hamlin to finally capitalize on some superb racing for his first Cup Series championship. He had built a sizeable lead in the final race at Phoenix and just needed to avoid a caution… then William Byron blew a tire.

Byron slammed into the wall and out came the caution. Suddenly a sure thing for Hamlin had turned into a game of roulette. He came out on the losing end, ultimately falling to Kyle Larson on the overtime restart.

Just about everyone at the track outside of Larson and his team was in a state of shock after the race. Most felt that Denny Hamlin deserved a long-awaited Cup Series crown. It just wasn’t meant to be, Hamlin said.

After the race, William Byron was quick to come over to Hamlin to offer his apology for the late caution. According to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, the driver of the No. 24 car walked up to Hamlin in the media center after the race, put a hand on his shoulder and simply said: “Hey. Sorry, bud.”

He would later explain the moment to reporters present. He simply felt terrible.

“It just doesn’t seem right, you know?” Byron said, via Gluck. “He had beat us and we’re running second and it’s four laps to go and you go into the wall and cause a caution. I don’t want to be that guy. That sucks.”

After the caution for William Byron’s wreck, Hamlin had opted to head down pit road like most of the drivers in the field. The decision was on him and his team: take two tires or four?

They ultimately opted for four, giving Hamlin maximum grip down the stretch and the ability to maneuver the car around as well as anyone in the field. But it came with a cost. The pit stop was slow, and Hamlin sacrificed six spots worth of track positioning.

It proved fatal. Hamlin defended the decision to take the tires. But ultimately, it was the William Byron caution that proved the death knell.

“We took four tires and I thought that was definitely the right call,” Hamlin said. “Just so many cars took two there, and obviously put us back. But the team did a fantastic job. They prepared a championship car. It just didn’t happen.”