Kyle Petty claims HMS is ‘bacK’ in form and explains why he’s not counting out William Byron’s championship hopes

Kyle Petty shared an optimistic view of William Byron's title hopes. The veteran driver went over Byron's Las Vegas race and explained how his stage points keep him in contention.

Byron had quite a dominant sprint in the first stage. He took the lead from JGR driver and polesitter, Denny Hamlin, while the No.11 driver was caught in between Byron and his teammate in third, Chase Elliott. Kyle Larson was just behind in fourth at the time.

Byron ended up winning the stage and came in third in the following one. He was once again in the lead during the final stage, and had just conceded to Larson when he crashed into Ty Dillon. The wreck placed him outside the running order at 36th.

Despite the drawback, Kyle Petty believes Byron still has a shot in the remaining races.

"In the first segment, we saw William Byron drive away from the field. We haven't seen that in the Hendrick cars since early early in the season, so they were back. And then late in the race, we see William Byron get in an accident with the ten car of Ty Dillon comes to pit road. What does that do to his championship hopes? Does it kill him? I don't believe so, because we're going to Talladega, and Talladega is up in the air," he said via NASCAR's official website. "We saw William score major points up in the stages, but we also saw him lose in that final stage, doesn't make any difference, he's only down 15," he added.

Kyle Petty noted that winning at Talladega goes 'hand in hand' with grabbing the Cup title. In line with his comments, Kevin Harvick chose Byron as his favorite for the Talladega race.

The HMS driver rounded out the podium places in his last outing at the superspeedway. Ever since 2023, Byron has largely finished among the top-10 at Talladega, but hasn't won in his 15 starts at the track. His best result is a runner-up placing back in October 2023.

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Kyle Petty calls the 'bs flag' on Ty Dillon's excuse

Midway through the final stage, Ty Dillon dropped off his pace and dove to pit, but the move caught William Byron off guard. As a result, the No.24 driver crashed into the No.10 Chevy's rear.

Dillon called it a matter of miscommunication, but Kyle Petty had other thoughts.

"Ty says his spotter told him all about it. I'm going to have to throw the bs flag on that. Becase we have one of the best spotter in the business spotting William Byron. He didn't see anything....It was a mistake by Ty Dillon," he said via aforementioned source.

William Byron is currently fifth in the playoff standings, while Chase Elliott trails him by eight points. Kyle Larson had a 129-lap lead, but succumbed to second after Denny Hamlin passed him late in the race. The result marks the second consecutive runner-up placing for Larson.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna