Whereas Byron has been a favourite to win the title many of the season and he and his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports group have led the sequence with six wins.
Byron’s playoff level benefit collected all year long helped him survive a subpar race final weekend at Martinsville that put him again on equal footing along with his three fellow championship contenders this weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
Whereas there’s definitely strain to win his first sequence title, the 25-year-old approaches Sunday’s race believing the toughest half could also be over.
Photograph by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Photographs
William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, PODS Chevrolet Camaro
“We had been (nervous), little doubt. We put collectively such a very good yr. To make all of it the best way to Martinsville and really feel like your chances are high slipping away was positively sort of demoralizing, miserable,” Byron stated Thursday at Championship 4 Media Day.
“If we hadn’t made it, I feel it might have been a variety of disappointment. I feel that’s the place the strain got here from. For us to win a championship could be simply icing on the cake. You bought a 1 in 4 likelihood.
“Now, we’ve got a brand new life for our group. That is what our objective was, to make the Championship 4. I feel any group would say that. Now, we really feel like, I imply, we’ve got nothing to lose.”
For Byron and Ryan Blaney, Sunday’s race is their first likelihood at a Cup championship. Christopher Bell made the Championship 4 final season whereas Larson gained in 2021 in his solely earlier look.
At 25, Byron could be the fourth-youngest Cup Collection champion in historical past and would cap off a breakout season for the native of Charlotte, N.C. Along with his six wins, he leads the sequence in top-10 finishes and was the No. 1 seed when the playoffs kicked off in September.
With Larson the oldest of the Championship 4 drivers at 31, it’s fairly potential their collective NASCAR journey may see them face off for the sequence title a number of occasions within the years forward.
“It’s sort of humorous as a result of after I got here into the Cup Collection it was the previous versus new, and the previous guys dominated with (Kevin) Harvick and Jimmie (Johnson). These guys had been dominating races, and Truex,” stated Byron.”
“It was sort of a joke that NASCAR promoted us a lot. Individuals had been laughing at it. We’re right here now. It’s cool. It’s all the blokes I grew up racing towards. I feel all these guys are going to win a number of races a yr for the following few years.”
Proper now, Byron doesn’t intend to waste his first alternative so as to add himself to the checklist of drivers who’ve bested the remainder in NASCAR’s elite stage.
“I feel these are alternatives you get that you just stay up for. Man, I wish to get a primary championship. That will be superior. I wish to try this,” he stated.
“I’m what I did in Xfinity after I raced within the closing 4, sort of dug deep and located one thing to win that one. I’ll be excited.”
