William Byron made some early moves in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that made him a contender, including passing seven cars in a lap and a half on a restart to take the lead early in the race.
That all changed rather dramatically for the defending winner of the race and newly crowned Daytona 500 champion.
Byron's win-contending car had a run-in with the biggest piece of debris seen in some time. The front of Byron's car was covered by what appeared to be a large black garbage bag.
It got stuck on the front of his car while he was fighting for the lead, and he started to fall through the field like a rock.
Racing America's Toby Christie tweeted out a photo showing the bag in question blowing out from the safer barrier in turn four.
Alright, I think I found the first appearance of the massive black trash bag that derailed @WilliamByron?s potential race-winning day. Looks like it flew out from the SAFER barrier in Turn 4 on Lap 20. pic.twitter.com/dkqaghs1eq
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 4, 2024
As for how it affected Byron's No. 24 Chevrolet, the impact was felt quickly as he started to overheat, and he had to hit pit road to have it removed. In doing so he lost a lap, but thankfully it didn't kill the engine of his car when it easily could of.
Las Vegas certainly could have been better for Byron and his team, but they overcame the odds just enough to finish 10th at the end of the race.
Byron and his crew chief Rudy Fugle were both flabbergasted when asked about the bag.
"It was huge," Byron told Bob Pockrass from FOX Sports. "It seemed to get stuck somewhere underneath, I don't know. I don't know, I just know my temps went from 250 or whatever to 350 in like ten seconds, so I've never had that happen."
Though he was able to get a top-10 Byron admitted the bag was just an unfortunate piece of luck.
I had not seen a bag that big fly on a car before today when a huge bag covered the William Byron grille. Byron speaks about his luck. pic.twitter.com/zZxqX70t1w
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 4, 2024
As for Fugle, he admitted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that there was more to the bag than meets the eye, according to NBC Sports' Dustin Long.
The bag had a little passenger that ended up stuck in the air filter of Byron's race car. A beer can was found stuck in the air filter by the Hendrick Motorsports team.
"The thing was like was a 55-gallon trash bag, you know for those big trash cans you see at the infield of the racetracks," Fugle said. "It got loose. Even worse than that, or even funnier than that, I'm pretty positive it had a beer can in it because that beer can got stuck in our air filter. So, after the race, there was a Silver Bullet in our air filter somehow. Never seen anything like that before... so quite the day."
The bag must have had a grudge against Byron. Luckily for HMS, teammate Kyle Larson still dominated and won the race.
