William Byron Takes Responsibility For Teammate’s Kansas Rollover

He was quick to take responsibility for the error, noting that he never intended to cause such an accident.

“I hate that for the (No.) 1 guys and everyone at Junior Motorsports; I didn’t want to do that, obviously, that early. So, yeah, it was just trying to feel it out and kind of get an understanding of what my balance was, and yeah, I just didn’t leave enough room. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know like what it looked like, but yeah, that’s what it felt like,” Byron concluded.

The incident took place on lap 2, when Kvapil was three-wide with Justin Allgaier and William Byron. Exiting Turn 2, Byron’s car tapped the left rear of Kvapil’s No. 1 Chevy. The contact sent Kvapil into a spin, and collected Parker Retzlaff, who slammed into him with nowhere to go.

The force lifted Kvapil’s car into the air, causing it to roll over and rest upside down. The race was red-flagged for just over 12 minutes for cleanup. Fortunately, Kvapil was uninjured.

Drivers Reflect On Unavoidable Lap 2 Crash At Kansas

Despite the severity of the crash, the involved O’Reilly drivers did not blame each other. Carson Kvapil, the worst-affected in the incident, admitted that the sensation of flipping caught him off guard, but his main concern was that the effort his team put into the car ended up without a good result.

“I actually didn’t think it was going to flip over like that, but once it started doing that, really didn’t seem too bad,” he said via Autoweek. “My biggest thing is that I just hate it for this whole Bass Pro Shop team. Rodney and these guys brought a really fast race car, and I was just hoping to get through the first couple of laps and kind of sort it out. We didn’t really get to that point.”

Parker Retzlaff, who was collected in the crash, explained how he was simply caught off guard.

“I didn’t have any time to react. Very aggressive start that really caused a wreck that wasn’t necessary. I’m glad Carson is okay. That’s a wild ride down the backstretch.”

Taylor Gray won the race for Joe Gibbs Racing after starting 10th, with Sheldon Creed and Justin Allgaier joining him on the podium.