William Byron's crew chief confronts counterpart on Brad Keselowski's team on pit road
The crew chief of the No. 24 team of William Byron confronted the crew chief of the No. 6 team of Brad Keselowski after a pit road incident during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Monday.
The incident occurred in Stage 1 during green flag pit stops after Byron made his way to his pit stall. Byron flew through Keselowski’s pit stall as members of the No. 6 pit team prepared for Keselowski’s arrival. The result was a close call involving Byron and Keselowski’s jack man. It prompted No. 24 crew chief Rudy Fugle to pay a visit to No. 6 crew chief Matt McCall.
Fugle told Jamie Little of Fox Sports that the two teams had an agreement that Keselowski’s team didn’t abide by. McCall, meanwhile, called out Byron for coming through their pit stall twice and said it was against the rules. McCall urged NASCAR to get involved to prevent it from happening again.
NASCAR took control of the situation, as Fugle told Byron he must avoid Keselowski’s pit stall going forward.
“We can’t run through his stall all the way,” Fugle said, per Davey Segal of SiriusXM Nascar.
Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports provided additional context to the situation, saying NASCAR should have penalized Byron for vehicle interference.
“It appears Byron should have been called for vehicle interference unless NASCAR felt that Keselowski crew did something they could have avoided,” Pockrass tweeted.
William Byron enjoying quality run in Coca-Cola 600
Byron took the Stage 1 victory after starting the race on the pole. The starting lineup was automatically set as a result of the cancellation of qualifying, leading to Byron getting the nod.
“Byron won the Cup Series’ most recent points race at Darlington Raceway and leads the series with three victories in 2023,” NASCAR said in a press release. “The performance metric based on Darlington sets the starting lineup for the longest race of the schedule, factoring 15% of fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race finish position and 35% of the owner points position.”
Byron is the only three-time winner in the Cup Series this season and sits fifth in the points standings.
He is currently running in the seventh position as rain has brought out the red flag in the Coca-Cola 600 during Lap 156 in Stage 2.