The driver of the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro suffered a puncture with just four laps to go in the championship race at Phoenix.

Bryon was second at the time and more than two seconds in arrears of race leader Hamlin, who had dominated the race to that point.

Byron hit the wall, which brought out the caution and set up an overtime finish.

Hamlin’s decision to pit and change four tyres ultimately cost him the race, as eventual champion Kyle Larson took two tyres and gained track position for the green-white-chequered.

Larson finished third while Hamlin was sixth, clinching the title for the #5 Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Speaking post-race, Byron said he felt he needed to apologise to Hamlin – even if the tyre trouble was largely out of his control.

“It just doesn’t seem right,” said Byron.

“He had beat us, and we’re running second, four laps to go, you go into the wall and cause a caution. It sucks, right? I don’t want to be that guy, even if I’m in the Championship 4.

“Doesn’t really matter. Don’t want to change the outcome. So it sucks.”

Flat tires for ALL four of the Championship 4 today 🫣

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Byron’s puncture was the last in a race ruled by tyre attrition. All four championship contenders were hit at some point during the race by a puncture.

Even though it was his teammate Larson who was crowned champion, Byron said he wished he had known he had a puncture sooner to save himself from crashing and bringing out the yellow.

“Denny was on his way to it,” he said on the broadcast, post-race.

“I hate that. There’s a lot of respect there. I obviously do not want to cause a caution.

“If I had known what tyre it was, known that a tyre was going down before I got to the corner, I would have done something different. Yeah, you just feel like a passenger. It sucks.”

Asked in the press conference if he could feel something was amiss, Byron said he couldn’t tell which tyre was going down.

“I felt something a little funny on that lap. I was trying to figure out if it was a tyre,” he said.

“I guess we were coming to three laps to go. I was trying to figure out left rear, right rear.

“About the time I hit the brakes into three, it laid down on the right side of the car and went straight.

“I was hoping it would be a left rear so I could kind of get back.”

Byron was classified 33rd and two laps down at the end of 319 laps.

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