William Byron’s No. 24 Chevy failed to make it through inspection Friday ahead of Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, per Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports.
As a result, Byron won’t be able to take part in qualifying Saturday and will have to do a pass-through at the start of the race Sunday. Byron’s car failed the body scan three times at the right front fender before finally passing on the fourth attempt. He is, however, permitted to practice.
“All other cars except Byron appeared to pass on first or second time,” Pockrass added on Twitter. “Byron car failed three times and passed on fourth so that is why he doesn’t get to post a qualifying lap and has a pass-through after completing his opening lap Sunday.”
It’s the latest setback for Byron, who paces the NASCAR Cup Series with four wins this season. Byron has finished 24th, 14th, 21st and 35th since his last victory at Atlanta on July 9. With three races remaining until the playoffs begin in September, Byron sits behind only Martin Truex Jr. in the projected playoff standings.
Byron’s run in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway this past weekend ended early after scraping the outside wall at the exit of Turn 4 on the final lap of Stage 1.
“I just got loose trying to get stage points there,” Byron said after the race. “We were dicing it up. We didn’t have the best restart, so we were gaining spots back, but just tried too hard. We’ll just regroup and try to get a good couple of weeks before the playoffs. Just made a mistake – was just trying hard and got loose.”
William Byron suffers another setback ahead of Verizon 200 at the Brickyard
Crew chief Rudy Fugle was hoping this Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course would turn their fortunes around.
“We’ve had a trying couple of races these last few weeks but there’s no quit in this team,” Fugle said. “We keep bringing fast race cars and doing what we can to get good results, some things just happen though.
“Indy [Road Course] is another track where we’ve ran well and circumstances at the end have taken us out of contention.”