Larson and Byron left as mere pushers to the Talladega line

Today at 08:19 PM

Kyle Larson and William Byron played the role of best supporting actors in the finish of Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The two made up the second row behind Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece. Larson was the pusher for Cindric as Byron was the pusher for Preece. All they could do was push and hope for the best because both understood there was nowhere for them to go because of the package underneath them.

"There wasn't really much I could do in the final five laps," Larson said after finishing third. "I wanted to go to the outside lane when we got clear of William, but I felt like the gap was too big to move up and was able to fill it. I was still happy to be second row on the inside lane, obviously to be front row, but I just didn't know how it was going to play out from there.

"At the end, you're just trying to give the right pushes to get clear, and then maybe he starts blocking lanes, and something would open up for me. I was just kind of jammed up there."

Cindric and Preece crossed the finish line side-by-side, and Cindric prevailed by 0.022s. Larson, Byron and the pack were close behind.

Byron was credited with fourth.

"We had behind us, and he was doing a good job pushing," Byron said. "It just seemed like we couldn't get enough help from the third guy in line, and that's what it takes. For whatever reason, the top lane just couldn't get the runs off the corner at the right time to get connected. We'd get connected too late and then get a little bit squirrely and lose our momentum.

"I wish just that one time we could have connected a little better to stay even with the bottom lane, but we were working really hard to do that with . It just seemed like it took a lot of effort for us to maintain the track position on the front row. Live and learn."

Sunday was a career-best finish for Larson at Talladega Superspeedway and his second consecutive top-five finish at the facility. He also won the first stage.

"I will take a third-place finish," Larson said. "We had a great day, points-wise, for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. Winning the first stage was a bit unexpected, and then finishing third in the second stage, from where we were on the final restart, was also unexpected. Just a really good day, overall, for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy."

Byron rebounded from a steering issue with his Chevrolet, with the team under the hood after the second stage working on it. Byron remains the Cup Series point leader.

"The No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a good job today," he said. "We had some issues and had to work on it. We got it better and then we were able to race there in the final stage, so really happy with that. We always want a little bit more. I feel like we were in the perfect position there with 10 laps to go."