William Byron won the Dixie Vodka 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday to pick up his first victory of the season.
Byron led over 100 laps on Sunday, and he was able to pull away from Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. over the final run to claim his second-career victory.
Byron said his team worked hard in the offseason to make their cars faster at Homestead.
“We worked hard in the winter on this track,” Byron said. “This car was just awesome. I think we went to the sim four or five times this offseason, and it just pays off.”
Byron picked up the victory in just his third start with new crew chief Rudy Fugle. Fugle had been a crew chief for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series, and led Byron to seven victories in 2016.
“That guy has been huge for my career,” Byron said. “He’s the reason I’m here and I’m glad I could get him. He’s just awesome and this whole team did a phenomenal job.”
Tyler Reddick finished second after charging through the field on the high side over the final run. Reddick had the fastest car in the closing laps, but didn’t have enough time to chase down Byron to fight for the win.
Reddick said he was disappointed to finish second with such a fast car.
“Second place is a good night considering how the first few weekends have went,” Reddick said. “Once I really saw how fast we were in clean air at the end there and I saw how fast we were catching everybody, it’s beyond frustrating.”
“Just two or three decisions on a restart would have put me miles ahead, and I would have been within reach.”
Unofficial results:
- William Byron
- Tyler Reddick
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Larson
- Kevin Harvick
- Michael McDowell
- Ryan Newman
- Kurt Busch
- Alex Bowman
- Kyle Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chase Elliott
- Daniel Suarez
- Brad Keselowski
- Ross Chastain
- Chase Briscoe
- Chris Buescher
- Christopher Bell
- Ryan Preece
- Bubba Wallace
- Cole Custer
- Anthony Alfredo
- Joey Logano
- Justin Haley
- Erik Jones
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Ryan Blaney
- Aric Almirola
- Garrett Smithley
- Cody Ware
- Josh Bilicki
- BJ McLeod
- Quin Houff
- Corey LaJoie
- James Davison
- Timmy Hill
