William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports, not only scored his fifth win of the 2023 season this past Sunday at Watkins Glen, but also showed that he will be a serious threat for the championship when the Playoffs begin at Darlington Raceway come Labor Day weekend.
“I think we knew that we could do that,” stated Byron to the Media Center. “We knew we were capable. It’s just last year was tough with the new car.
“We hit the ground running, and we had some good results early. Even back to testing, we were really fast in testing.
Then it seemed like the car evolved, and we struggled to kind of adapt and evolve with it a little bit through the summer and in the fall we showed up with a lot of speed again.
“I think in the fall last year saw a lot of potential. It was really us and the 11 throughout the Playoffs in terms of average finish and running position. I think the start of this year, started to roll really smooth, and then we just kind of got into a rhythm.”
Byron lead a race high of 66 of 90 laps, with a record race time of 1:58:45 from green flag to checkered flag, after only one caution for four laps flew during Sunday’s race.
Saturday night, the NASCAR Cup Series will head back to Daytona for the second time this year, to race the regular season finale and will see who will make the final spot in the NASCAR Playoffs. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 will run at 7 p.m. Eastern Saturday night, and will air live on NBC, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.