Byron Scores First K&N East Win At Greenville Pickens

Try as they might, nobody had anything for William Byron Saturday night at Greenville Pickens Speedway.

The 17-year-old from Charlotte, NC led every lap in the Kevin Whitaker 150 for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East at the historic Easley, SC speedplant, and survived a last gasp attempt on a green-white-checkered finish from Gray Gaulding to record his first victory in just his second series start.

Despite the dominance, Byron said he was conserving his tires throughout the entire race.

“I didn’t want anybody to get within three car lengths or two car lengths because I felt like then they could taste it and they would go after it harder,” said Byron. “I felt like we brought a great racecar to the track, and it helped me a lot last year racing at Hickory Motor Speedway last year.”

Daniel Hemric, making his first career series start, took the pole earlier in the day, and led the field to green. Hemric would hold the top spot for the first two turns, but watched as Byron charged to the outside in the third turn, making the pass for the top spot.

From there, Byron pulled away while the field scrambled and clawed for position behind him. J.J. Haley, Ronnie Bassett, Jr. and Scott Heckert would soon bypass Hemric, while Dalton Sargeant soon followed.

The first caution of the night flew on lap 21, when Mike Senica spun in turn two. On the restart, Byron held off Haley to retake the lead, while Heckert settled into third.

Meanwhile, Hemric was working to regain ground he had lost in the opening laps, and by lap 30, he had moved back into the top five.

Up front, the fight for the runner up spot was heating up. Dalton Sargeant, fresh off a NASCAR K&N Series West victory at Kern County Raceway Park in Bakersfield, CA, drove his Chevrolet deep into turn three, allowing him to move past Heckert for third. Two laps later, Gaulding would use the same maneuver to move to fourth.

Heckert saw his night go south on lap 46, when slight contact from another car sent Heckert’s car hard into the turn one wall. Heckert was uninjured, but his night was over.

Caution would fly again a couple of laps later when Senica went around again, this time between turns three and four.

Back under green, Byron would continue to lead, with Sargeant and Gaulding giving chase, while Sargeant and Kaz Grala followed close behind.

The third caution of the night came out on lap 64, when Travis Miller spun in turn two. With the track obscured by smoke, J.P. Morgan piled into Miller’s car, leaving both cars damaged.

Byron would continue to hold the lead up until the halfway break for a competition caution on lap 75.

Back under green, Byron would again lead the field, with Grala, Sargeant, Gaulding and Hemric in pursuit. While Byron continued to move away, Grala began looking for a way to chase down the leader. Behind the front duo, Gaulding and Sargeant put on a spirited battle for third, while Winston, GA’s Austin Hill looked for a chance to break into the top five.

The caution flew again on lap 115 when Kenzie Ruston spun in turn three, gathering up Devon Amos and Miller in the process.

While Byron again checked out on the restart, Hill broke into the top four, and was pressuring Sargeant for the third position. A spin by David Garbo, Jr. in turn three broke up that fight by bringing out another caution

As the race reached the final ten laps, Byron looked to be en route to the victory. But a spin by Haley with five laps to go set up a green-white-checkered finish.

But Byron was not going to be denied. Despite a valiant effort by Gaulding on the final restart, Byron remained in control of the race, and went on to score the win.

“I just kind of gassed it up in the center of the corner to try to give a gap to myself, but I kind of overshot it a little bit then had to use more brake,” said Byron. “Just whatever I could to do keep on the bottom, that was the key to winning the race.”

Gaulding finished in second, his best result in K&N East action at Greenville Pickens, where he had previously finished third two times.

“I knew I was going to have a chance,” Gaulding said. “I peeked the nose in on him going into turn one. I got through the gears really good. I think the biggest thing, (Byron) could get off the corner. I got in there, gave him a little tap and moved him up the track, but when he got back to the gas, that thing was gone.”

Sargeant, who came into the night having won both the K&N East and West season openers, finished third.

“Kind of burned up our stuff a little bit too much coming up through the field,” said Sargeant, who started tenth. “Got up pretty far to the front, I think we were running second there for quite a while a little while there towards the end of the race and just kind of got hung out there on that final restart at the end, just lost one position. All together, everything went pretty well and definitely happy with the night.”

Hill finished in fourth, while Hemric, in his inaugural K&N East race, finished a strong fifth.

“I tried saving as much as I could there that first run” said Hemric. “Fell back, made a charge to (Byron). I thought maybe with the pace he ran, that I’d have a little better run at him at the end of the first half. When I got to within ten car lengths of him, he was still straight up off the corner.”

Open wheel Sprint Car star Rico Abreu, in just his second start, finished ninth, showing improvement over a 17th place result in the season opener at New Smyrna Speedway in February. Abreu said the run was a big confidence booster.

“I know we’re better than ninth,” said Abreu. “It’s just trying to figure out how to pass guys and how to be aggressive on restarts. That’s where you gain all your spots in these races and I just have to figure it out.
“The Sprint Car (races have) single file restarts and that’s something I do every weekend. And now I’m racing against guys where this is what they do every weekend. It’s a big step. We’re getting it”

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East returns to action on April 18 on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
Greenville Pickens Speedway – Easley, SC
Kevin Whitaker 150 – April 4, 2015

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Points	B/Points	Status
1	2	9	William Byron *	Liberty University Chevrolet	152	48	5	Running
2	11	12	Gray Gaulding	Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Toyota	152	42		Running
3	10	51	Dalton Sargeant *	GALT Chevrolet	152	41		Running
4	6	22	Austin Hill	A&D Welding Ford	152	40		Running
5	1	20	Daniel Hemric	California Clean Power Chevrolet	152	39		Running
6	4	3	Kaz Grala	Kiklos Toyota	152	38		Running
7	16	15	Nick Drake	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	152	37		Running
8	5	04	Ronnie Bassett, Jr.	Bassett Gutters Ford	152	36		Running
9	7	98	Rico Abreu *	GoPro Motorplex/AccuDoc Solutions/Curb Records	152	35		Running
10	19	18	Peyton Sellers	DRIVE Technology Toyota	152	34		Running
11	13	81	Jeremy Burns	Nutrilite Chevrolet	152	33		Running
12	12	27	Kyle Benjamin *	Benjamin Motorsports/Eibach Springs Ford	152	32		Running
13	22	31	David Garbo, Jr. *	Whelen Engineering Chevrolet	152	31		Running
14	14	4	Kenzie Ruston	Rev Racing Toyota	152	30		Running
15	17	2	Collin Cabre *	UTI/NTI Toyota	152	29		Running
16	9	44	Dillon Bassett *	Citrus Pest Management Ford	152	28		Running
17	21	49	John Holleman, IV *	Midway Mobile Storage Chevrolet	152	27		Running
18	3	5	J.J. Haley *	Braun Auto Chevrolet	151	26		Running
19	18	6	Devon Amos *	Max Siegel, Inc. Toyota	151	25		Running
20	15	42	Jay Beasley	Special Smiles Pediatric Dentistry Toyota	149	24		Running
21	24	45	Christian Celaya *	Farbe Technik Chevrolet	147	23		Running
22	23	40	Travis Miller	CRC Brakleen Chevrolet	115	22		Accident
23	20	23	J.P. Morgan *	www.soldbyjackiemorgan.com Chevrolet	64	21		Accident
24	25	47	Mike Senica *	Bell Plantation Chevrolet	48	20		Handling
25	8	34	Scott Heckert	Project Lifesaver Chevrolet	46	19		Accident

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RACE STATISTICS
Fastest Qualifier: Daniel Hemric, Time: 20.796 Seconds, Speed: 86.555 mph
Time of Race: 1 hr., 24 mins, 0 secs Average Speed: 59.050 mph Margin of Victory: 1.026
Caution Flags: Laps 21-26 (#45 & #47 – Turn 1 & 2 – No FP); 47-53 (#34 – Turn 1 – FP #47); 57-60 (#47 – Turn 3 & 4 – No FP); 65-68 (#23 & #40 – Turn 1 & 2 – No FP); 76-78 (Halfway Break – No FP); 116-122 (#4, #6, #40 -Turn 3 & 4 – No FP); 129-132 (#31 – Turn 2 – FP #45); 146-149 (#42 & #5 – Turn 2 – FP #45). 8 for 39 laps.
Lap Leaders: William Byron * 1-152.
Total Laps Led: William Byron * 152. 0 changes involving 1 drivers.