24 WILLIAM BYRON
Age: 24 (Nov. 29, 1997)
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Resides: Charlotte, North Carolina
Crew Chief: Rudy Fugle
Standings: 10th
No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series, will be available in the Atlanta Motor Speedway media center at 10:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, July 9.
2022 SEASON STATS: So far in the 2022 season, William Byron has scored two wins, four top-five finishes, five top-10s, with 570 laps led – the most by a NASCAR Cup Series driver this season – across 11 of the 18 races. He also has three stage wins and 13 playoff points accumulated – tied for the most by any driver so far this season. Byron is currently tenth in the driver point standings, locked into the Cup Series playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.
1.5-MILE MOMENTUM: Byron is no stranger to success on mile-and-a-half tracks during his Cup Series career. Since the start of 2021 through the 2022 season so far, Byron has two wins, one runner-up finish, five top-fives, and nine top-10s in 13 races on 1.5-mile tracks. He also has three stage wins with 411 laps led on tracks of that length.
TRIPLE DIGITS: In Byron’s Cup Series career, he has led more than 100 laps in four events, with three of those instances happening this season. In the four races where the 24-year-old driver has triple digits in laps led, he has three wins (Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2021, Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2022, and Martinsville Speedway in 2022) and an average finish of 1.5.
DOUBLING DOWN: Earlier this year when the Cup Series competed at Atlanta, Byron raced his way to victory lane – his first win of the 2022 season and he became the fourth-youngest winner at that venue. He led 111 laps en route to the win at the newly-configured venue. Just the night before, Byron had traveled to Hickory, North Carolina to compete in the Easter Bunny 150 – capturing the win in the No. 24 Super Late Model for Wilson Motorsports. His Cup win on Sunday completed the weekend sweep. For this Sunday’s race at the Georgia-based venue, Byron will look to go back-to-back and remain the defending winner at Atlanta. The last driver to sweep the season at this venue was Jimmie Johnson in 2007.
THE ATL ARCHIVE: Including his win in March of this season, Byron has six Cup Series starts at Atlanta. However, this will be only his second start at this track since the reprofiling was completed this offseason. Other than his six Cup Series starts, Byron has two other NASCAR starts at the Georgia track, one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he finished seventh, the third-highest of the Xfinity Series regulars. He also has one start at Atlanta in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he was running second before losing an engine, leaving him with a 32nd-place finish.
RUDY RUNS THE ATL: Sunday’s race marks crew chief Rudy Fugle’s fourth race in the Cup Series at Atlanta and his second after the repave. The last time the Livonia, New York, native was here, it ended with a trip to victory lane with the No. 24 team. Fugle also has six Truck Series starts at the 1.5-mile track as well which include two wins and three front row starting spots. His drivers have collected four top-three finishes in those six events, along with five top-10s. Fugle only has one finish worse than seventh coming with Byron in 2016 when the duo was running second before suffering an engine failure, resulting in a 32nd-place finish. Fugle also has one Xfinity Series start at the track.
BACK TO THE ROOTS: Byron will head north to once again climb back behind the wheel of the No. 24 Super Late Model for Wilson Motorsports, this time at Slinger Speedway on Tuesday, July 12. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native has raced the No. 24 Super Late Model six times this year collecting five straight wins. He’s now collected two wins at New Smyrna Speedway, one at Hickory Motor Speedway, one at the Nashville Fairgrounds and most recently at Berlin Raceway. The Slinger Nationals will be available for PPV on Racing America, here.
AT IT AGAIN WITH AXALTA: Heading to Atlanta for the second time in the 2022 season, Axalta will be on board Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Sunday’s race. Now in its 30th year of partnership with Hendrick Motorsports, this is Axalta’s fifth season as a primary partner on Byron’s No. 24.
RUNNING AT THE FRONT: Hendrick Motorsports has led the most laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway of any NASCAR Cup Series team with 3,482 circuits at the point position. The organization moved into the top spot following the March race after leading 141 of 325 laps run, including 111 laps led by race winner William Byron.
SEVEN UP: The Rick Hendrick-owned team has seen seven drivers win at Atlanta – the most among all teams. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each won five times at the Georgia oval. Darrell Waltrip, Ken Schrader, Jerry Nadeau, Kasey Kahne and Byron have one victory apiece.
TAKING STOCK: Hendrick Motorsports has been to victory lane 15 times at the Georgia venue. That total is the most among all Cup teams and is the fifth-most victories for the organization at any one particular track. Martinsville Speedway (27), Dover Motor Speedway (22), Charlotte Motor Speedway (21) and Pocono Raceway (18) stand as the only tracks where the team has compiled more wins. Of note, Hendrick Motorsports has already won at Martinsville, Dover and Atlanta this year.
PACING THE FIELD: The reprofiled Atlanta track, which features an increase in banking from 24 degrees to 28 degrees, raced more like a superspeedway in March, but it does classify as a 1.5-mile track statistically. Hendrick Motorsports paces the field across both track types when it comes to wins. The organization’s 67 victories on 1.5-mile tracks and 28 superspeedway wins are the most on those track types all-time at the Cup Series level.
MAIN SQUEEZE: Hendrick Motorsports’ six wins in 2022 are the most among all Cup Series teams. It is the only four-car team to see each of its drivers win a race this season, and all four drivers currently rank in the top 10 in points. The organization’s 1,410 laps out front represents 30 percent of the laps run this season and lead all teams in the series by 311 circuits.
STUDYING THE TRENDS: In the last six 1.5-mile races, the Concord, North Carolina, based team has won four times. That stretch includes victories this season at Atlanta as well as Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In 2022, Hendrick Motorsports has series-best marks in wins (two) and laps led (394) on 1.5-mile layouts and is tied for the most top-10 finishes (11) at this track type.
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on his thoughts for Sunday’s race at Atlanta: “I’m excited to go back to Atlanta (Motor Speedway). I think the track is going to be slicker than the last race there in March. It’s still going to race like a superspeedway race but I think we’re going to be working on the handling of our cars more than we did last time with the heat. I’m honestly interested to see how that plays out and what the conditions end up being like. We’ll have to really adapt throughout the race since we have no practice this time. Just like a lot of these weekends this season, we’ll just have to see how it goes once we get there and get on track.”
Rudy Fugle, crew chief of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on how track conditions will differ from the March race at Atlanta: “Obviously, we had a good showing at Atlanta (Motor Speedway) in March and some of those notes will definitely transfer over for this weekend. However, the track has been sitting in the sun and baking since we were there last. It’s almost a similar situation as when we run the DAYTONA 500 to then racing 400 miles in August in that it’s much cooler the first time we race at Daytona (International Speedway) and then handling becomes a bigger factor in the summer race. We’ll still be drafting this weekend, but track grip will be down and handling will play a bigger role. Since we don’t have practice this time around, I think more guys will show up guessing a little bit on their handling to start the race. I think there will be more ebbs and flows of who is good at the start and then who is good at the end once they have some time to work on their cars. It’s going to be more about who can keep up with track conditions while being around at the end of the race to give yourself a shot.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
