William Byron pounced on the Joe Gibbs Racing parade with a pole position run at Pocono. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
LONG POND, Penn. – While William Byron has yet to win at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway, he has taken a liking to this unique speed palace.
Mainly, the 25-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native has a solid average finish of 9.4 in his past nine starts. Mainly, Byron has two top fives and five top 10 results with a podium in 2021 Pocono 325.
As Byron pursues his fifth win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, he realizes how the competition has picked up the pace. Although his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, has been cleaning up his performances, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. has been on a tear.
Ahead of Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Byron has observed how his crew chief, Rudy Fugle, has taken more chances to win races given their comfortable Playoffs position.
“I’ve seen I’ve noticed a change in how Rudy calls races,” Byron said. “I think that he’s just aggressive in general. So I think that really it doesn’t change anything. We were aggressive at Atlanta (and) aggressive at Chicago. It didn’t work out because I hit the wall.”
Byron and Fugle are in the midst of a career year in stock car’s premier division. Leading the series with four wins, the driver of the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sits 17 points away from Martin Truex Jr., the regular season points leader.
It seems like driver and crew chief are on the same page with their approach in these final six regular season races. Unlike the bubble racers, Byron intends to stay the course if it means tallying more wins starting this Sunday at Pocono.
“I think overall, I think he is pushing and I don’t think he would do any different,” he said. “I think that’s just his learning curve in the Cup Series. He’s not been at it for very long. And I think he’s starting to kind of adapt to the strategy side. For me, I drive the same. I don’t really change anything.”
Things have seemingly clicked for Byron at Pocono. (Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
Like a fastball hurler who feels confident atop the mound despite throwing over 100 pitches, Byron will keep up his consistent frontrunner ways. For starters, of the full-time Cup drivers who have started all 20 prior races, the sixth-year Cup racer has the series’ best average finish (12.1).
Nominally, those consistent efforts carry over with Pocono Raceway. In nine prior starts, Byron has two top fives and five top 10 results, good enough for an average finish of 9.4.
Naturally, the young racer has taken a liking to “The Tricky Triangle” like another driver of the No. 24 car – Jeff Gordon.
“For some reason, I like it,” he said. “I don’t know. My dad sent me a stat that was pretty good this week, just about this being one of my best tracks. And I don’t know why.
“I think when I came here, I came here in the ARCA car when I was like 18 years old. I don’t know if that helped or just the experience in the truck (in 2016). Winning that race I think helped.”
Besides the victory with the No. 9 Kyle Busch Motorsports team, Byron points out to his first two races at Pocono in 2018. Although he finished 18th in the spring race weekend, he drove to a solid sixth place effort in the summer.
Starting from the pole at Pocono for a second time, Byron hopes his rookie enthusiasm from 2018 translates to a veteran’s triumph after 400 miles at the Long Pond, Pennsylvania venue.
“When we got here in the Cup car, when I worked with Darian Grubb in my first year, this was a bright spot to our year,” Byron said. “We had a really strong performance here. So I think just it’s just kind of clicked ever since that first time in the Cup car.”
Editor’s Note
Nathan Solomon contributed to this article on site from Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
