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William Byron crashes out of Las Vegas playoff race after violent collision with Ty Dillon

ProfilePhotoby: Nick Geddes10/13/25NickGeddesNews
William Byron
Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

A good day for William Byron has ended in a bad one. Byron is out of Sunday’s Round of 8 playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after crashing from second place in Stage 3.

Byron, who just a few laps earlier surrendered the lead to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson, was coming off Turn 4 as Ty Dillon was attempting to enter pit road. Dillon slowed up on the racetrack and Byron said he never saw Dillon wave to indicate he was trying to pit. Byron slammed into the back of Dillon’s No. 10 Chevrolet at full speed.

Byron had a potential race-winning No. 24 Chevrolet at Las Vegas. He led 55 laps, one of the faster cars on the racetrack throughout the day. Byron picked up some valuable playoff points, but he’ll finish 36th.

“I never saw him wave,” Byron told NBC Sports. “I didn’t see any indication that he was pitting, and it was probably 12 to 15 laps after we had pitted, so I thought the cycle was over. Nobody said anything to my spotter, from what I know. I had zero idea. Everybody’s been wrapping around the paint relief around the corner and that’s what I’d been doing to have a good lap. I was watching him thinking, OK, he missed the bottom here and then he just started slowing. I had no idea what was going on.

“I’m just devastated. I had no indication, so I obviously wouldn’t have driven full speed into the back of him like that.”

William Byron posts DNF at Las Vegas after brutal crash

Dillon said he was told by his spotter that Byron’s spotter was informed he was coming to pit road. He isn’t sure what he could have done different in that moment.

“My spotter told me that he let the 24 spotter know that I was coming to pit road,” Dillon said. “Maybe I didn’t wave him off enough, but I feel like at this level, you kind of trust your spotter to do that. I don’t know what we do different there.

“… Hate it for the Hendrick guys, hate it for Chevrolet that it had to happen that way. I’m not even looking at the mirror at that point. I’m just trying to hit my points and get on pit road. He hit me hard, so it’s an unfortunate way for that to happen.”

It’s devastating for Byron, who will surely have to make up some ground in the next two races. He’ll be thinking about this one for some time if it knocks him out of the playoffs.