Dominant day at Darlington leads to heartbreaking runner-up finish for William Byron

For a majority of Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, it looked like William Byron and the No. 24 team were taking NASCAR's throwback weekend to the extreme. 

Byron led the first 243 laps of Sunday's race, harkening back to a time when Jeff Gordon, Ray Evernham and the infamous 'Rainbow Warrior' No. 24 team dominated NASCAR in the 1990s. 

Unfortunately for Byron, one of the best drives of his career only culminated in a runner-up finish. During the final green-flag pit cycle of the day, Byron came out behind Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell, putting him in a position he literally hadn't been in all day — chasing the leader. 

As the laps ticked away, Byron got no closer to the race leader in Reddick. As Ryan Blaney mounted a furious charge to the front, Byron stayed stagnant. 

A late yellow flag on Lap 290 opened the door for Byron to potentially get the lead back. With the field coming to pit road for fresh tires, Byron's No. 1 pit stall could be the winning advantage. 

That wasn't the case, however, as Denny Hamlin's crew ripped off an incredible stop that gave Hamlin the lead. Hamlin drove away in NASCAR Overtime, and while Byron got back to second, he didn't have time to attempt to chase Hamlin down. 

"First off, just really proud of my team," Byron told Fox Sports. "To bring that level of effort and preparation and execute like that, it was looking like it was going to be a perfect race. Those guys (Reddick and Bell) could be aggressive on the other side of the green-flag (pit) cycle and we lost control (of the race). Once we lost control, it was too late to get back up there."