CUP: William Byron’s special paint scheme caught up in grinding Charlotte accident
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
William Byron picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Bank of America 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #24 Valvoline Blood Cancer United Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 76 of 267 laps.
The finish, which came in Byron’s 320th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since July 6, 2025 at the Chicago Street Course, 49 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last place rankings, it was the 25th for the #24, the 715th from a crash, and the 896th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 45th for the #24, the 1,475th from a crash, and the 2,065th for Chevrolet.
After making the Championship Four last year, only to suffer a flat tire with just two laps to go, causing the championship to change hands from Denny Hamlin to Kyle Larson, Byron made the Chase field despite a winless regular season. His postseason push faced another setback, where after a decent start at Darlington suffered a blown engine in the closing stages, saddling him with a 37th-place finish. In each of the four races since, he finished no worse than 9th, but remained a distant 12th in the Chase standings, 160 points out of the lead, with just five races to go.
For a second-straight year, Byron’s paint scheme would be dedicated to the treatment of blood cancer through team sponsor Valvoline’s involvement with Blood Cancer United. This year, the scheme was designed by 12-year-old blood cancer survivor Palmer Goforth in collaboration with Emily Butler Lue of popular design firm Lue Creative. The result was a beach scene with black palm trees against a blue-and-pink background. Goforth, whose signature was placed on the TV panel, added phrases like “Not for nothing” and “Joy” along with multiple soccer balls on the beach. Even the Valvoline logo itself was given a watercolor-inspired design. Goforth joined Byron for the scheme’s reveal at a ceremony earlier this week.
Byron’s ride was one of 39 entered or 40 available starting spots. The full field remained in the garage area through a rainy Saturday after the collapsing Hurricane Isaias traveled north from the gulf coast. The rain washed out both practice and qualifying, which again set the field by the qualifying metric. Byron, who was to be the 34th car on track for time trials, was awarded 6th on the starting grid.
The 39th and final starting spot went to B.J. McLeod, who was making his first Cup start in three months. In place of his familiar #78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports, McLeod was making a rare start for another team, this time driving the #44 PCNY Chevrolet for the NY Racing Team. Up to this point, the car had been shared by J.J. Yeley and Joey Gase in 2026. With no on-track activities, there were also no pre-race penalties for technical infractions, so McLeod remained the last car on the inside line as the green flag dropped.
As the field approached the starting line, McLeod was already advancing to the inside of Gray Gaulding, who was driving the #66 Flywheel Ford for Garage 66 in his first Cup start in three years. At the line, McLeod narrowly remained in the 39th spot, 3.092 seconds back of the lead to Gaulding’s 3.072. By the apex of Turns 1 and 2, McLeod had already slipped past Gaulding, who came around four-tenths back of McLeod and 4.362 seconds behind the leader. Almost immediately, Gaulding reported issues with his car bottoming out hard on the track, especially in Turn 3. McLeod, too, was struggling, having lost touch with the cars ahead of him by Lap 6. Still, Gaulding’s crew encouraged him to roll the bottom lane through the turns, but acknowledged the car looked “a little bit shaky” coming off Turn 4.
Trying to hang on until the competition caution set for Lap 35, Gaulding radioed on Lap 14 that “I think the motor is laying down,” adding that there was a terrible smell I the cockpit. Still, he gained back a tenth of a second on his deficit to McLeod, holding at just under one full second on Lap 17. On Lap 19, Gaulding reported his “motor feels weak,” and coming off Turn 4 on Lap 20, the rear end started to come around. Gaulding managed to fight back for control, saying, “About crashed.” By Lap 21, he was now 2.6 seconds behind McLeod and thought he had a tire going down, but decided to hang on until the caution. On Lap 25, Gaulding continued to struggle over the bumps in Turn 3 as the left-front wheel appeared to bounce from the on-board camera, causing the car to bottom out harder. Soon after on Lap 27, race leader Kyle Larson passed him on the outside just short of the stripe, putting him the first car one lap down.
Further ahead on Lap 32, John Hunter Nemechek dropped to the 37th spot in his #42 Dollar Tree Toyota, having just been passed by Austin Hill, who had done the same a few laps earlier in his #33 Lucas Oil Chevrolet. With Nemechek now ahead of him, McLeod closed the gap to a few tenths, but couldn’t pass him by Lap 33, when Larson put McLeod a lap down. Two laps later, Larson lapped Nemechek off Turn 2, then set his sights on 36th-place Hill. By then, Larson had been caught by 2nd-place Austin Cindric, who were racing door-to-door right behind Hill when the competition caution fell on Lap 36, giving Nemechek his lap back.
Under the caution, Gaulding reported he needed more grip when he turned off the wall, and needed more stability going over the bumps in Turn 3. Carl Long called for a half-round down in the left-rear, plus a pound of air. When Gaulding made his stop with the lapped McLeod, Long noticed a lot of the right-rear corner of his diffuser had been worn away, and believed along with the adjustments the car should handle better. Gaulding stalled his engine, then re-fired a couple stalls away and rejoined the field. By the time he and McLeod joined the tail end of the field, they were now trailing Chase contenders Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney, who incurred pit road penalties, plus Chase Elliott, who needed to make a second stop for a loose wheel.
On the Lap 41 restart, a stack-up among the leaders caused Tyler Reddick’s #45 Jordan Brand Toyota to slow up in front of Ty Gibbs’ #54 Monster Energy Toyota, which was rear-ended by a closing Joey Logano in the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford. Gibbs’ car suffered a busted right-rear toe link in the incident, causing him to slow in front of Logano down the backstretch. By Turn 3, Gibbs was out of control, and he collected Brad Keselowski’s #6 Trimble Ford in a two-car spin off the turn, drawing the caution once more. As McLeod got his lap back in the 38th spot, leaving Gaulding the only lapped driver, Gibbs limped back to pit road behind Austin Hill, telling his crew, “It’s the toe link, just letting you know.” The crew attempted a quick repair, sending him out on Lap 46, but Gibbs immediately knew something was wrong as he left pit road. “This is not it,” he said. “ I’m really broke now.”
Gibbs returned to pit road for a second stop, his right-rear wheel visibly wobbling from side to side. As the crew set to work on a full toe link replacement, he missed the Lap 47 restart, when he lost a lap and took last from Gaulding. Gibbs kept his engine running until Lap 52, the re-fired on Lap 54 and rejoined the race, seven laps down. His first completed lap after the repair was 245.557 seconds, or just over four minutes. On Lap 56, Gibbs cleared minimum speed, so all 39 starters were running once more. Gibbs’ car still had speed as on Lap 62, he caught and passed McLeod’s 37th-place car coming off Turn 4, making it by in the high lane. At the time, McLeod was the last car on the lead lap, but four seconds behind 36th-place Hill.
Meanwhile, Byron was running in 7th, catching an intensifying battle for 5th between Bubba Wallace in the #23 Hardee’s Toyota and Alex Bowman in the #48 Ally Chevrolet. On Lap 77, as the three headed into Turn 1, Bowman pulled to Wallace’s inside as both headed to the inside. Wallace then gave Bowman room, moving to the high lane through the corner, and Bowman began to make his way by. Then, just past corner exit, Bowman’s car snapped loose, hooked to the right, and smashed into Wallace, sending Wallace backing hard into the inside wall. Byron had nowhere to go, and struck the rear of Bowman’s slowing car with the right-front corner of his machine. While Bowman and Wallace stopped on the track, Byron made it to his stall – Stall No. 22, which was directly behind both Bowman and Wallace’s stalls just short of the finish line. The crew looked over the damage, then directed Byron behind the wall through the opening between his stall and Bowman’s. Byron pulled into Garage Stall No. 45, but the crew reported “We’re done” as the field completed the final lap of Stage 1 on Lap 80.
By Lap 85, the three drivers involved had fallen to the last three spots, lifting Gibbs to 36th. USA’s broadcast showed Bowman in last place behind Wallace in 38th and Byron in 37th. NASCAR.com’s leaderboard showed Byron in last behind Bowman in 38th and Wallace in 37th, but credited Bowman and Wallace with each lost lap a moment before Byron. Byron never crossed the finish line after he pitted, and was running behind Bowman and Wallace at the time of the wreck, so Byron was properly classified in in last with Bowman 38th and Wallace in 37th. Byron and Wallace were declared out by NASCAR on Lap 88, followed by Bowman on Lap 100. Gaulding took the 36th spot after he too damaged a right-rear toe link after contact from Tyler Reddick in the closing stages stuffed him into the wall coming off Turn 2. Rounding out the Bottom Five was John Hunter Nemechek, who cut down a right-front tire after an early spin, leading to a shredded right-front fender.
With four races to go, Byron now ranks 13th in the standings, 208 points out of the lead.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #24 in a Cup Series race at Charlotte.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
39) #24-William Byron / 76 laps / crash
38) #48-Alex Bowman / 76 laps / crash
37) #23-Bubba Wallace / 76 laps / crash / led 11 laps
36) #66-Gray Gaulding / 201 laps / crash
35) #42-John Hunter Nemechek / 259 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Trackhouse Racing (6)
2nd) Front Row Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing (4)
3rd) 23XI Racing, Garage 66, Kaulig Racing, Live Fast Motorsports, RFK Racing (2)
4th) Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (16)
2nd) Ford (9)
3rd) Toyota (5)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
