Byron dominates, wins Truck Chase opener

Byron, who entered the inaugural Chase in the Truck series as the No. 1 seed, dominated Saturday’s UNOH 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as he collected his sixth win of the season and automatically advanced to the second round.

Christopher Bell, Byron’s teammate at Kyle Busch Motorsports, closed the gap immensely as Byron navigated lapped traffic in the final laps but could never get in position to make a pass.

Byron is the fifth consecutive driver to win the Truck series race at New Hampshire from the pole.

Matt Crafton finished third, Tyler Reddick was fourth and Timothy Peters ended up fifth. Crafton, Bell and Peters are all in the Chase.

“I was afraid (Bell) might catch us there at the end,” said Byron, who led 61 of 175 laps. “We started to get tight but that’s what happens sometimes when you get out front. It was just a great race for us. It’s really cool to get a win here to open the Chase.

“With these races there are usually cautions at the end and to not get a caution there, I was surprised. I was kind of expecting to get a caution and was hopefully saving something but we have it all we had the whole race.”

Byron, a student at Liberty University, signed a deal in August to join Hendrick Motorsports next season and compete in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports.

“Overall I had a great truck and great team and we’re going to try to keep this going all the way to Homestead,” Byron said.

Bell misses out on the win, but comes out of NHMS in a strong position

Bell was disappointed with the finish but said until the end, he had little chance to even keep up with Byron on the track.

“Everyone at KBM did an awesome job this weekend. We tested here and I think we’ve tested three times this season and we’ve run really well at every track that we’ve tested at,” Bell said. “We were the second best truck here.

“It is the Chase, but even if we were out at a local go-kart track, we’re racing to win. Nobody likes finishing second. I’m concentrating on not making mistakes and maximizing the opportunities that we have.”

Trouble for Hemric

On Lap 26, the first of the Truck series Chase contenders ran into a problem as Daniel Hemric cut a left-rear tire and slammed the wall. As Hemric headed to his pit stall after the incident, his brakes erupted into a brief fire.

After eight laps of work on pit road, Hemric’s Brad Keselowski Racing team sent him to the garage for more extensive repairs. He eventually made his way back to the track but returned to the garage before the end of the race and was credited with a 28th-place finish – last among the right drivers in the Chase.

Other Chase drivers’ finishes included John Hunter Nemechek (ninth), Johnny Sauter (10th) and Ben Kennedy (11th).

After three races, the two drivers lowest in the point standings without a victory will be eliminated from championship contention.

The series’ next race is next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	9	William Byron	Toyota	175		161
2	4	Christopher Bell	Toyota	175	0.446	11
3	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	175	4.513
4	29	Tyler Reddick	Ford	175	17.068
5	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	175	17.304
6	00	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	175	18.335
7	24	Kaz Grala	Chevrolet	175	18.923
8	8	John Hunter Nemechek	Chevrolet	175	21.646
9	11	Brett Moffitt	Toyota	175	22.632
10	21	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	175	22.930