William Byron seeks to make the championship race for a third consecutive season.
William Byron’s regular season title could provide the momentum in his bid to reach the championship race for a third consecutive season and claim his first Cup crown.
Byron clinched the regular season crown with a 12th-place finish at Richmond last weekend. He’ll enter the postseason with at least 32 playoff points. Byron could make be the No. 1 seed depending on the results of Saturday night’s race at Daytona on NBC.
“This team has worked extremely hard,” he said after last weekend’s race at Richmond. “All the guys have worked hard through the summer months. Feel like this has been the best summer we've ever had speed-wise.”
Byron’s first regular season title comes in his fifth season with Rudy Fugle as his Cup crew chief.
They were together in 2016 when an 18-year-old Byron won seven races in his only full-time season in the Truck Series. They were reunited in 2021 in Cup when Byron was 23 years old.
As Byron has grown and matured, their relationship has changed.
“I feel like our relationship has really evolved this year,” Byron said in response to a question from NBC Sports. “I feel like we communicate to each other like we're more on the same age. I feel like that has helped us just push each other.
“I think there's a lot of accountability between the two of us. He holds me to a high standard of my prep during the week, what is expected of me, how I execute. He can see the small details that maybe a lot of people can't.
“I appreciate that. I appreciate that he can tell if I had a good qualifying lap or if I did little things with changes in my driving style. I think accountability is probably the world. That's the evolution of the relationship this year. I even do that sort of back to him on strategy decisions or whatever it is. I kind of want that clarity and that picture.
“We've evolved. We've worked together since I was 18. He was teaching me everything. I was just driving and executing. He was giving me that balance I needed. Now it's like more of an equal footing.”
That has helped shape a season where Byron has led the points after 20 of 25 races.
A 24th-place finish at Kansas dropped him out of the lead and put him 35 points behind Kyle Larson for second in the points in May. Byron retook the points lead in the next race with a runner-up finish in the Coca-Cola 600.
Byron held that lead until finishing 31st at Dover in July. He dropped to 16 points behind Chase Elliott.
Byron remained second in the points for two races before taking the lead back with his victory at Iowa earlier this month.
Fugle said Byron and the team have learned to handle the swings of a season.
“It’s really an experienced, mature team,” Fugle told NBC Sports after last weekend’s race at Richmond. “William is growing. … He’s able to handle those things. His ups and downs drive the team. The team brings him up and me up and whoever else. Just maturity and experience throughout the team.”
Category: General Sports
