What Happened?
DARLINGTON, S.C. – William Byron survived a series of late-race yellow flags and a late restart on Sunday, May 14 to win his first NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway and seventh of his career. Finishing a close second was Kevin Harvick, with Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace rounding out the top five.
This is Byron’s seventh career win at a seventh different track and third of the season. It’s also Hendrick Motorsports’ first win at the South Carolina circuit since 2012.
But What Really Happened?
Four consecutive weeks.
This is the fourth week in a row we’re talking about Ross Chastain, and it hasn’t been just because of the top-five finishes.
On this week’s edition of Melon Man Melancholy, it’s Kyle Larson becoming the latest receiving end of Chastain racing hard for position – it’s not the first time for him, either. In this skirmish, they were both going for the win at the 1.366-mile track with only six laps to go.
It was another optimistic and aggressive move by the Floridian, and one that ended with the collective groan of everyone in the Darlington media center.
Larson isn’t upset with Chastain for the first time ever, but it’s the latest chapter in the book, and although he said he doesn’t want to get involved in a fight during Saturday’s media scrum bullpen, it sure would have been nice to hear what he wanted to do after he finished 20th and climbed out of his car on Sunday.
It would have been nice, but we don’t know since the driver of the No. 5 declined comment and beelined for his hauler before leaving without a trace.
It’s like what your mom always told you – if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Unfortunately, we still have to talk about it for the fourth week in a row.
If you don’t believe that Chastain was the cause of that last Big One at Talladega Superspeedway, that’s fair, but the fact that he was involved in anything is cause enough for mention nowadays. That said, even if the Melon Man wasn’t part of an incident on Sunday, it would still be a story on its own.
Think about it. Chastain having a quiet race with no incident? When’s the last time that happened? It feels like a while ago, doesn’t it?
But that’s where we are. Week after week, the Melon Man has been involved with some hard…
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