[autotag]William Byron[/autotag] entered the 2023 NASCAR season with four victories through 180 Cup Series races at Hendrick Motorsports. Fast forward to the week of the NASCAR regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway and Byron has a surprising five wins in those 25 races. Well, surprising is one way to put it because it should not be too shocking overall.
The driver of the No. 24 entered the Cup Series at 20 years old in an era where young drivers don’t typically succeed right away. Sure, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon saw success almost instantly but that was over two decades ago. It is very, very hard to be that strong when the competition level continues to rise every year.
This is why Byron needed time to prove that he is a championship-level driver. Hendrick Motorsports threw him into the fire at 20 years old and let him grow into his own. In the end, it is proving to be the right decision.
Byron cruised through the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series with great success and everyone knew he was going to be a future Cup Series champion. The Hendrick Motorsports driver didn’t let the first five years of his Cup Series career define who he would be as a competitor. That’s why Byron is poised to be the championship favorite this season and for many more to come.
REPOST to congratulate @WilliamByron for WINNING at @WGI!
He jumped right into his burnouts! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/FgccvQWPpa
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 20, 2023
At 25 years old, Byron is just getting started in NASCAR. The North Carolina native currently has the most wins and laps led of any driver during the 2023 season. It’s not a mistake because his talent has been obvious since Day 1. In fact, it’s more shocking that people wrote him off when he had Chad Knaus and Darian Grubb on top of the pit box.
Some might say that Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman missing the 2023 playoffs is the focus right now. That is reasonable to say with Daytona up next; however, it is obvious that both drivers need to win to make the show. As for Byron, it is obvious that any driver who wants to win the 2023 Cup Series championship must go through him at Phoenix Raceway.
Byron represents two main ideas right now. One is why a young driver can be thrown into a premium Cup Series ride, even if they may not be ready for the big stage yet. The other is why no one should give up early on drivers that display great talent when rising through the ranks of NASCAR.
Now, it all comes full circle when Byron enters Daytona this weekend. The Hendrick Motorsports driver’s first Cup Series victory came on the same night that Johnson’s final run at an eighth title came to an end. It might not have been seen at the time but it represented a changing of the guard. Instead of being the new driver on the block, Byron is now the championship favorite and will only keep going from this point.
[lawrence-related id=651]