Birth Date: November 29, 1997 Hometown:
Team:
With ve career poles, it’s only a matter of time until the young
Byron gets into Victory Lane. At the age of 22, Byron already has 17
top-10 nishes.
The Charlotte, North Carolina native started off 2019 on the pole as his
Hendrick team got every spot in the rst two rows. While he never won in
2019, his consistency got him a spot in the Playoffs where he advanced
to Charlotte Roval but no further, eliminated in the round of 12.
His best stretch came in the middle of the season as he mustered
three top-10s in four weeks from Dover to Pocono. He had two
second place nishes at Martinsville and Daytona. In the process, he
dropped his average nish from 22.1 to 14.89. With crew chief Chad
Knauss in his corner, Byron could be in for even more success. After
all, Knauss has won a Championship or two seven of them to be
exact, all with Jimmie Johnson.
William Byron’s sensational 2017 NASCAR xnity Series (NXS)
season had onlookers wondering what the then-20-year-old would
do for an encore. He was capped by becoming NASCAR’s secondyoungest
national touring Series Champion when he closed the
season with a veteran-level performance at Homestead-Miami
Speedway in the Ford EcoBoost 300 to rip the NXS title away from JR
Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler.
Byron graduated to the NASCAR Cup Series with Hendrick
Motorsports (HMS) in 2018. He left behind a stellar “one and done”
campaign as a points-eligible NXS competitor, which followed a
similarly-impressive one-year try at the now NASCAR GANDER RV &
OUTDOORS Truck Series (NGOTS), which followed a NASCAR K&N
Pro Series East Championship in his rst-and-only year, 2015, as a
spry 17-year-old.
Racing in xnity against Cup-heavy elds in 2017, the Liberty
University student, Byron, won four times among 12 top-ve and
22 top-10 nishes in 33 starts plus two Coors Light Pole Awards.
Driving JR Motorsports’ No. 9 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro
SS, Byron led 262 laps and had an average strart of 8.5 and an
average nish of 10.4.
Though he won his rst pole in only his fourth race, at Phoenix,
Byron needed 14 starts to win his rst xnity race, at Iowa Speedway
in June. He scored his next two wins at racing’s most iconic tracks
Daytona International Speedway and the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway. At Phoenix’s Phoenix Raceway, Byron won the season’s
penultimate race, guaranteeing a spot in the Championship 4 at
Homestead-Miami.
86 THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2020 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE
There, Byron battled veteran and JRM teammate Sadler to nish
third, tops among the four title contenders. Byron also claimed
Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in xnity, an honor he’d won
the previous season in the NCWTS, giving him the shot to equal
the NASCAR history just set by Erik Jones of winning NASCAR’s
three national Series’ rookie awards in consecutive seasons.
Byron began racing at the relatively elderly age of 14. He has won
two NASCAR titles and rookie Championships in three Series.
Driving a Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM),
Byron won a rookie record seven Truck Series races in 2016.
Engine failure at Phoenix eliminated the 18-year-old from the
Championship 4 but Byron, fth in nal points, won the seasonending
Homestead event to give KBM the NCWTS owner title,
which it has won for the past ve seasons.
A member of the 2015-16 “NASCAR Next” class for
acknowledged up-and-coming talents, Byron won the 2015 K&N
East Championship and rookie of the year with four victories, ve
top-ves and 11 top-10s along with a trio of poles in 14 races.
Byron also had top-ve nishes in two K&N West races he ran
that season.
Byron secured his rst Legends Car in 2012, began racing
the following year and turned professional in 2014, winning
Charlotte Motor Speedway’s “Winter Heat” U.S. Pro Legends
Championship.
2019 FEATURED DRIVERS
WILLIAM BYRON
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