“It’ll take a high-commitment level to win the race and win the championship,” William Byron told FTW about his NASCAR title run.
William Byron’s relatively short but impressive career in the NASCAR Cup Series has been leading up to this moment. The 25-year-old driver is about to close his sixth — and, by far, most successful — season racing at the sport’s highest level Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, where he’ll be one of four drivers racing for the Cup championship.
Byron’s career-high six wins on the season so far and largely consistent speed throughout the first 35 races of the season helped propel him to his first Championship 4 round. For NASCAR’s crown, the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver compete against Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell.
Of those six wins in 2023, one was at Phoenix in March, which could help give him a slight edge this weekend on the one-mile desert track.
“It helps just with confidence and knowing what the car needs to feel like and having to have a good memory of all those things in the spring,” Byron told For The Win. “So the track temperature and everything is different this time around. So I think it’ll be a little bit different, but I feel like we can adapt.”
For The Win spoke with Byron on Wednesday after he arrived in Phoenix about qualifying for his first championship race, his competitors and embracing an underdog mentality.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
The NASCAR driver described his in-car conditions as “hell in a bottle.”
NASCAR is an endurance sport, and racing on Martinsville Speedway’s 0.526-mile short track is never easy. But NASCAR’s Xfinity 500 last Sunday was extra grueling for William Byron, who afterward described the inside of his car feeling like “hell in a bottle.”
Physically drained after the 500-lap, 263-mile race, Byron has the biometric stats to prove it, too. He told For The Win his heart rate spiked to 189 beats per minute at the end of the race, during which he burned through a whopping 3,100 calories.
“It was just a really tough situation being in the back of the pack and not having a lot of fresh air,” Byron told For The Win on Wednesday, noting it was brutal but not all bad.
We absolutely grinded today. It wasn’t pretty, but that’s what this team’s made of. Let’s go chase a Championship in PHX!! pic.twitter.com/jWlAjOsqOp
“And then combine that with some helmet issues that we had going on with the fan — it was tough, for sure,” he continued. “But I enjoyed it. You know, I enjoyed the challenge of it, looking back on it. I definitely will kind of cherish that race and all that we went through. And I feel like some of that might help us this weekend, just being just being tougher and having gone through a lot.”
Many NASCAR drivers track their biometrics during races to track their health and endurance, along with their cross-training. A few years ago, one driver lost almost 10 pounds during a race.
Byron said he previously used the WHOOP app but switched to his Apple Watch because he likes to cross-train with swimming and the watch tracks his laps.
The No. 24 driver — who enters Sunday’s title race with six wins on the season, including the Phoenix checkered flag in March — knew the Martinsville race was a rough outing. But even he was stunned to see his heart rate higher than he said it’s ever been.
“It was it was pretty high. I mean, definitely uncomfortable high for me, I’m usually around 175 is kind of my [in-race] max. So it was about 14 beats higher, so pretty intense. …
“In race, I’m usually like 175 [beats per minute], maybe 180 on certain tracks. But I’ve never seen it as high as I was on Sunday. So crazy.”
After about nine months and 35 races since the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season began back in February, it all comes down to Sunday’s championship event at Phoenix Raceway.
Surviving the first nine races of the playoffs and edging out the other 12 title contenders, four drivers — Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Christopher Bell — will compete on the one-mile Arizona track for the 2023 championship.
The final four drivers represent three different teams and manufacturers with Larson and Byron competing in Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets, while Blaney is in a Team Penske Ford and Bell a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
So ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series championship race Sunday at Phoenix (3 p.m. ET, NBC), here are five things to know about the Championship 4 drivers.
Gotta love a Star Wars-themed NASCAR paint scheme.
Bubba Wallace’s paint scheme for the last race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season is straight out of a galaxy far, far away.
With the help of Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, Wallace unveiled the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota’s final paint scheme of the season for Sunday’s championship event at Phoenix Raceway — though Wallace and the No. 23 team were previously eliminated from contention. And it’s an awesome silver and black Star Wars-themed ride with strong Millennium Falcon vibes.
Highlighting sponsor Columbia’s new Star Wars collection, Wallace shows up to Hamill’s door in the reveal video, dressed in a fire suit resembling the design of X-wing pilot suits from the franchise, including a look Hamill wore as Luke Skywalker. Hamill compliments Wallace’s outfit before tossing him the “keys” to the No. 23 Toyota.
“Remember, Bubba, the force will be with you — always,” Hamill says at the end.
Picking the best Forza Motorsport cars makes the difference between leading the pack in the racing game and getting left in the dust. Finding which car is right for you – or for a specific situation – isn’t so easy, though. Forza Motorsport throws dozens of cars at you from the start – top-class cars, cars with smooth handling, super fast rides, and numerous other combinations of adjectives and synonyms for “car.” There’s a lot to consider in the Xbox game, including how many credits you feel like throwing out for a new set of wheels.
We’ve put together this list of the best cars in Forza Motorsport to help give you an idea of how to pick what’s right for you, with a few recommendations in every class.
NASCAR released its 2024 schedule for the Cup Series on Wednesday, and while there aren’t an abundance of changes like we’ve seen in recent years, the new adjustments are big ones.
All you need to know to watch INDYCAR’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES season comes to a close on Sunday in sunny Monterey, as champion Alex Palou will take a victory lap at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey after clinching the series title last weekend.
Palou, now a two-time INDYCAR champ, won at Portland International Raceway in a brilliant performance, and now returns to the track where he ended the season with a victory last year.
This will be the final season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the INDYCAR SERIES before a schedule revamp. While Laguna Seca will be on the schedule in 2024, the season finale will shift to Nashville next year.
Here’s all you need to know about Sunday’s race.
Sunday, September 10th: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey
The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
The NASCAR Playoffs begin at Darlington, but which drivers have the best shot at the 2023 Cup Series championship? See our full rankings.
The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are here, and after an unpredictable regular season, we’re just 10 races away from crowning a champion at the finale in Phoenix.
With the playoffs beginning with the Southern 500 at Darlington, FTW NASCAR analysts Nick Schwartz and Michelle Martinelli, along with Motorsports Wire’s Austin Konenski, ranked every title contender, from the longshots to the favorites.
Each writer ranked drivers from 1 to 16, and we took the average placement of every driver to determine our final power ranking.
For daily coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series, check out Motorsports Wire.
Which NASCAR drivers are in, who could be out and who needs to win one of the next two races to make the playoffs.
After trips to Watkins Glen International this weekend and Daytona International Speedway the following one, the NASCAR Cup Series regular season will come to an end and the 2023 playoff field will be set.
So far, the only drivers who have qualified for one of the 16 playoff spots are those who have won at least one regular-season race so far. The 13 already in the postseason are:
For everyone else, there are two options to making the postseason: Win one of the next two races and automatically be locked in or sneak in based on points in the standings. With 13 different race winners already, that leaves three vacant playoff spots. So if there are two different first-time winners this season at Watkins Glen and Daytona, only one driver will make the playoffs based on points.
Previous NASCAR Cup Series champs who currently are not locked into the playoffs include Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski.
Martin Truex Jr. currently leads the regular-season standings, and that’s important because the regular-season champ earns an extra 15 playoff points. The rest of the top-10 regular-season finishers also receive playoff points on a sliding scale, giving them a little playoff advantage from the start.
NASCAR just uploaded more than 1,000 classic races online, and fans can relive history for free.
Christmas has come early for NASCAR fans, as NASCAR just launched a new site containing more than a thousand full, commercial free races available to watch for free.
NASCAR Classics is a trove of iconic moments from across the sport’s history, with footage dating back to the early 1950s. Whether you want to watch the classic era of NASCAR starring “The King” Richard Petty, or relive Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s greatest moments, it’s all there.
The full library of races can be viewed at the NASCAR classics website, but there are also dozens of full races now on YouTube.
Here are five legendary races to check out from the library:
1998 Daytona 500
After “20 years of frustration,” Dale Earnhardt Sr. finally wins the sport’s biggest race at Daytona. Every crew lining up along pit road to high five Earnhardt as he passed by remains one of the coolest NASCAR moments in history.
2000 Winston 500 at Talladega
Another legendary Dale Sr. race, the Intimidator drives from 17th to 1st over the final laps to steal a victory.
2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington
Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch deliver the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history in an epic duel.
2001 Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta
Just weeks after the passing of Dale Earnhardt Sr., Kevin Harvick scored his first career victory, edging Jeff Gordon at the line in an incredible finish.
1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta
In what was Richard Petty’s final Cup Series race (and Jeff Gordon’s debut), the dramatic season-finale at Atlanta began with six drivers vying for the 1992 title. Driving a car he owned himself, Alan Kulwicki emerged as one of the most unlikely Cup Series champions.
