William Byron won the 2016 Rattlesnake 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, leading the final six laps on his way to victory over a very dominant Matt Crafton. Byron, a Kyle Busch Motorsports rookie, claimed his second win of 2016 following a surprise win in Kansas last month.
Crafton, who rebounded from bringing out the first caution of the race, led 133 of 167 laps before taking the runner-up finish. Polesitter Johnny Sauter took home third, while Ben Kennedy and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top-five. The win moved Byron to third in the points, 23 behind points leader Crafton.
Said Byron of his late-race pass, “I found the top earlier in the race and it didn’t work very well lap 15 to lap 20 in the run. Once I could get laps on the tires – it’s all about heart and you have to want it and my team wants it and I see that every day.”
Rounding out the top-10 was Timothy Peters, John Hunter Nemechek, German Quiroga (who was making his first start since 2014), Rico Abreu, and Daniel Hemric.
Following his eighth-place finish, Quiroga was pleased.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I gotta thank everybody at Red Horse Racing (and) my crew chief Scott Zippadelli. I think we really have a lot of chemistry together. Coming back home to the truck series and bringing the truck back with a top-10 and in one piece, I’m very happy, very proud. Thanks to Toyota, TRD, and all the fans that follow me.”
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will take to the track again on June 18, at Iowa Speedway.
