William Byron entered the 2023 NASCAR season with four victories in 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 shouldn’t be too shocking overall.
The driver of the No. 24 entered the Cup Series at age 20, at a time when young drivers generally didn’t succeed right away. Sure, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon found success almost instantly, but that was over two decades ago. It’s very, very difficult to be so strong when the level of competition continues to increase every year.
This is why Byron needed time to prove that he is a championship level driver. Hendrick Motorsports threw it into the fire at 20 and let it grow. In the end, it turns out to be the right decision.
Byron ran 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. This is why Byron is poised to be the championship favorite this season and many more to come.
REPOST to congratulate @WilliamByron to WIN at @WGI!
He plunged into his burnout! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/FgccvQWPpa
– NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 20, 2023
At 25 years old, Byron was just starting out in NASCAR. The North Carolina native currently has the most wins and laps led of any driver during the 2023 season. That’s no mistake as his talent has been evident since day one. In fact, it’s more shocking that people wrote him off when he had Chad Knaus and Darian Grubb at the top of the booth.
Some might say Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman missing the 2023 playoffs are the focus right now. It’s reasonable to say with Daytona next; however, it is obvious that both drivers must win to make the show. As for Byron, it is obvious that any driver wishing to win the 2023 Cup Series championship must go through him at Phoenix Raceway.
Byron currently represents two main ideas. One reason a young driver can be thrown into a premium Cup Series race, even though he may not yet be ready for the big step. The other is why no one should give up early on drivers who demonstrate great talent as they rise through the ranks of NASCAR.
Now it 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 ended. It may 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 continue from this point.
