FORT WORTH, Texas: When William Byron first met Rick Hendrick a decade in the past, {the teenager} who had discovered racing on a pc wasn’t all that assured how issues would work out as he revealed his objective to drive at some point for the NASCAR group proprietor.
There is definitely no insecurity now for Byron, who at 26 is getting race wins for NASCAR’s winningest group, and a few important ones at that. Per week after Byron’s thirteenth profession win in a 1-2-3 end for Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville because the group marked the fortieth anniversary of its first victory, the sequence is again at Texas, the place he led solely the ultimate six laps final September to get Hendrick’s 300th victory.
“For me, just felt like a full-circle moment. Just with all the history of Martinsville, with being in the 24 (car) …. talking to Rick on the phone and then going to celebrate with him,” Byron mentioned Saturday.
Byron, who certified sixth at Texas, opened this season by successful the Daytona 500, the record-matching ninth for Hendrick however first since 2014. He additionally gained three weeks in the past within the different Texas race in Austin.
Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson is the factors chief and earned the pole for Sunday’s race at Texas, a 1 1/2-mile observe like Las Vegas, the place he bought his victory this season. He led 99 laps at Texas final fall however bought free and spun into the wall with 85 laps to go. Larson gained from the pole within the 2021 fall race there, the place he additionally gained NASCAR’s All-Star race there earlier that 12 months.
“It’s always been a really good racetrack for me,” Larson mentioned. “Last year, I just screwed up on one of the late restarts and spun and crashed, but we had a dominant race car that day. Hopefully we’ll have another race car just like it.”
Larson’s 18 wins since becoming a member of Hendrick in 2021 embrace the group’s record-setting 269th victory that 12 months at Charlotte Motor Speedway to go Petty Enterprises for essentially the most.
Byron grew up in NASCAR’s hotbed of Charlotte, North Carolina, and idolized seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson within the No. 48 automotive for Hendrick. Now Byron is in his seventh season within the famed No. 24 that Jeff Gordon drove to win 4 Cup titles and 93 races.
“I was put into Jeff’s car and that was a lot of pressure. And I had to just, we had to, kind of make it our own,” Byron mentioned. “Jeff is a great mentor and a great asset for our team. … He’s made it known when I got in the car that it’s my own.”
After attending to victory lane for the primary time in his 98th begin, in 2020, Byron bought one other win in 2021 and two extra in 2022 earlier than a Cup-high six wins final 12 months. His three victories this season are on drastically completely different tracks — the two 1/2-mile tri-oval at Daytona, the street course in Austin and that half-mile paperclip at Martinsville.
“I think I started a little bit slower than I wanted to start. I feel like some of that was just chemistry and just learning the Cup Series as a whole, and I probably just didn’t get the most out of those first couple of years that I would like to,” Byron mentioned. “Once we started winning races in the third year, won a race, and then the next year we won another one and really started to win races at places that are difficult to win, I just felt like we started to click.”
The 48-year-old Johnson will race at Texas for the primary time since 2020, as a driver-owner within the No. 84 Chevrolet for Legacy Motor Club. Johnson completed twenty eighth at Daytona in his solely begin to date this season. He has raced 35 instances at Texas, the place he’s the all-time chief with seven wins and 1,152 laps led.
“It’s funny now the way the place drives. Just have a lot of anxiety about Turns 1 and 2,” mentioned Johnson, whose final win right here was in 2017, the primary 12 months after the observe was repaved and reconfigured in these turns. “The previous configuration, that was really the most fun that you can have on a mile-and-a-half, was Turns 1 and 2. So bummed that it’s still not there.”
That was earlier than observe, when Johnson bought free in these turns and the No. 84 went into the skin wall. The group was working to restore that main automotive for Sunday’s race.
For the primary time in 20 years, the one Cup race at Texas might be within the spring. The observe hosted two Cup races every season from 2005-20, however the final three years the lone cease annually was a playoff race within the fall. The observe was a spring-only cease from its opening in 1997 by means of 2004.
Texas was diminished from 334 laps to 267 final September, the primary time it wasn’t scheduled for 501 miles. It is ready for 400.5 miles once more this 12 months, the forty fourth race at Texas. … Larson, like he was final fall, is listed as the favourite to win Sunday, in line with FanDuel Sportsbook.
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AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
