William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of running double duty in the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Pocono Raceway.

Media Availability Quotes:

The Chevy body seems like it’s been a work in progress for you guys to kind of get a handle on. Is it a balance thing? Is it a feel that you would say you’re fighting the most or what’s been the characteristic that you have felt behind the wheel from last year to this year?

“Yeah, I felt like when we started the year with just the tracks we went to and sort of the track temperature, I didn’t notice a huge difference, but there were a few differences on corner entry. And yeah, it’s just really a balance. It’s an aero balance, basically, and a big change there. It’s really no secret. I think, yeah, you’re just trying to solve for that. And, you know, the faster places you go and the different rules packages make different downforce and just creates a lot of different things.

I think the biggest thing is it’s not that the car is deficient or anything like that. It’s just the fact that you had a notebook for four years, I guess, of the Next Gen car. And now, you’re trying to basically relearn some of the sensitivities with the car, so it just makes it tough. You just have to go to every type of track and just start to trust your tools during the week a little bit more so that you can just kind of build that.”

As we look at the regular season winding down, being 12th in points at this juncture, I’m sure is a little surprising and not where you all expected to be. Can you just kind of assess maybe the strengths and weaknesses right now of kind of where you guys stack up?

“Yeah, it’s been a tough go. I mean, I think kind of along the lines of the body stuff — like we were first in points last year at this time. We just had it figured out, but we’ve had to relearn it. We’ve had some really bad luck, as well. We’ve gotten in three crashes. Talladega, we got taken out in the first stage. Watkins Glen, we got taken out through the bus stop. And then at Nashville, we got in a crash that I didn’t feel like was our doing. So, yeah, those three DNFs or close to it are just very tough to overcome with this point system. And honestly, the other weeks, we don’t really start close enough in the first stage to get points.

We’ve been really unfortunate, too, with the fact that qualifying has been rained out when we’ve had a bad metric. We crashed in a couple of those races and then Charlotte got rained out for qualifying. So, yeah, there’s a lot of excuses you can make, but I think the biggest thing is we’re just trying to learn things. I feel like we’re on the cusp of some really good things that could come this weekend. I feel like Michigan showed some really good promise and I feel like it’s right there. And honestly, I feel like from about sixth to where we are in points is really achievable. So, yeah, you just go on a run and start scoring points, you never know what can happen. Last year, we were averaging, I think, 36-38 points a race. Our bad weeks were better than even last week, so I think we just got to get back to that.”

Do you go and ask about Christopher Bell’s car and how it reacted in that wreck (at Michigan), or do you wait for NASCAR to come to you and give you the information?

“Yeah, I don’t really get too involved in that. I feel like everyone on social media was very surprised that the frame cracked, but the front clip broke for us at Talladega, just with a right-front impact, so they’re meant to do that. It was obviously a huge impact. I think I was just concerned in the moment that Christopher was okay. It was great to see him get out. Obviously, his wrist injury is unfortunate. You just want to be able to race against someone like Bell. I feel like a lot of people have a lot of respect for him, and I think that’s where the outreach came from. Anyone that would get in a crash like that, people would be concerned for them.

But, yeah, I’ll just kind of watch it from afar. I wouldn’t say I’m not concerned, but it’s not anything that is going to change the way that I approach the weekend.”

Do you look at it as like you don’t want anybody to be injured, but considering how hard a crash and coming out with a broken wrist as the only real main injury – I don’t want to say acceptable, but is that like, okay that’s understandable?

“I don’t know how to answer that. I feel like I had this conversation before — like you wouldn’t see a guy in the Gen 6 car over-correct it. You wouldn’t see that kind of a crash, as violent as that was, with the Gen 6 car. You’re seeing that crash because of the nature of the tire, the aero and everything with these cars.

It was a violent impact. Fortunately, the car is capable of taking that and Christopher was able to get out, so that’s a good thing. But that impact to me is way, way larger than what we would have had in the past with a bigger sidewall and a different tire. You’ve got to think about it on both sides of the coin because, yeah, the car took it, but I think that wreck was caused because of the nature of this car.”

You have practice and qualifying coming up. How do you, through simulation, project what the track might be? The bumps in the tunnel turn and the bumps off Turn One, how do you guys assess for that and kind of prepare for that to try to get your best starting spot off the hauler?

“Yeah, you just kind of take what you had last year. When we get here, there’s no way to predict whether the resin has started to wash off the track, which it looks like it has, or the seams in the asphalt are starting to grow, which it looks like all those things have. I watched the ARCA race last night and was like, okay, the track looks a little bit rougher than it did last year and it aged a bit more.

But outside of that, there’s nothing we can do. On the sim side, we just take what we had last year and we try to run that. We try to get that balance to what it was last year, what the notes said, and then you try to build on that for this year’s car. So far, so good in simulation. But yeah, it does look like the track is a little bit older than it was last year.”

I don’t know if you’ve had any more time to do San Diego prep this week at all on the Sim. But just between this week and last week, we got our first look at what it looks like on iRacing, and man, it’s looks like quite a tricky course. How do you think that that race is going to play out with as narrow it is at some points, with as many turns as it has, with all the unknowns, and the bumpiness and the roughness? Do you have any sense of what that could look like for the field?

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t have a sense of how it’s going to race. But I did do Sim on Tuesday and it took me a good 45 minutes to an hour to learn the track and figure out which turn was coming up next. I think there’s still some room to go. The middle of the course is very difficult, like there’s a lot of open sections. There’s just a lot of open space that is really not used, so I think you’re going to see a lot of passing opportunities through there. You’re going to see dive bombs because you can give up an exit just to get position on someone, but they might be able to kind of make a run back at you.

It’s tough. It’s visually difficult because you’re just trying to figure out what corner is coming up next. It is way more complicated, I feel like, than Chicago was the first time. Chicago was a lot of 90 degree turns, you know, kind of pretty simple, in terms of layout, just tight. San Diego is tight, but also very technical. My goal when I go next weekend is just to make laps I really just want to make all the laps throughout the weekend. I want to build my pace as I go and build my confidence. But I feel like it’s going to be really detrimental if you push too hard in certain sections.”

In two weeks, the in-season challenge will start. After this race, though, is when the points will set the bracket. I’m curious of your thoughts going into that the second year? Is there as much excitement as there was last year for it?

“Well, yeah, it’s a one-million-dollars. All of us drivers want the money (laughs). But yeah, I think it’ll be great. I’m glad it’s coming back another year. There’s a lot of things outside of what we do that it impacts, like people just watching and all that.

I’m excited for it. I think it starts a different track this year. At Atlanta, we got eliminated in the first stage, so it wasn’t really that exciting for me. I was kind of thumbs down on the whole thing. But yeah, I think now that it’s starting at a different place, I think it will give us an opportunity to control some of that performance and hopefully we get to the end.”

You’re running both the O’Reilly and Cup Series races this weekend. How much of what you learn on Saturday can transfer to Sunday, given the differences between the two cars?

“Just some small stuff about the track. The tire and the car are so different now. The pace here is a couple seconds different between the cars, so here’s not much I can learn other than confidence and excitement if you win. And if you don’t win, you try to turn the page pretty quick. Just thankful for the opportunity, though, because I feel like staying busy and staying racing is what is best for us drivers. So, yeah, I just feel like it’s a great opportunity to go out there and race. You’re always going to learn racing, but the cars are so different, so you have to turn the page.”

Thinking back to Charlotte, we hear how bumpy (turns) three and four were and how much that rattled you guys inside the car. We hear about the bumps here. We see the video from San Diego on iRacing and we can see bumpy it is going to be. I don’t think any of us can have a true appreciation what it’s like to be in the car. How much of your eyeballs rattling? How much are you guys going through? And does there get to be a point where enough is enough, in terms of how rough these cars are, how bumpy these tracks are and what you guys go through?

“San Diego, I don’t think we’ll be against that threshold, in terms of like what we feel as drivers because of the speed. It’ll be bumpy, for sure, but it’ll feel more like you’re going off-roading. You know, Charlotte has gotten pretty violent. I think there’s been talks about maybe paving a section of the track that is the roughest. But yeah, Charlotte is borderline, like I think it’s getting too much. I love that place, but it’s getting to the point where, yeah, it rattles your head pretty good and just having conversations with people the next couple of days are rough after that. I don’t think that’s good, especially for the length of that race. So, yeah, it’s possible that we could do some stuff there to help that. The way you have to run the cars now for performance, lower is better, so it’s not going to get any better.”

I know that you’re still looking for your first win here in the Cup Series, but statistically, this has been one of your best tracks. What is it that you feel like perhaps you’ve been missing from being in the mix in the wind? And what is it that you like about Pocono? “Yeah, we’ve just been on the wrong side of some strategy at times. I feel like we’ve had the speed to win here. The one time, we ran out of fuel, we just were a lap short. But yeah, I don’t know. I just feel like it’s a couple of things here and there. But speed-wise, it seems like we always show up here with pretty good speed. I think it fits my background. I think this place fits my kind of late model background and the flat tracks I grew up racing in legend cars and all that. Also, through the summer months, I would always be on iRacing and racing here in the fixed series that they have every week. I feel like that was when I had the most time, so I feel like this place is kind of ingrained somewhere back there in the memory bank of what makes speed. So, yeah, always good vibes coming here. Every time I pull in here, I feel just excited to get here.”

Yesterday in the ARCA race, because you mentioned watching it, the common consensus I got from a lot of the guys was it was bumpier than anticipated. We’ve seen the last couple of weeks, especially with the issues with the left-side tire. Do you have any maybe concerns on how the rear tires will handle if it ends up being bumpier than what you anticipated?

“Oh, yeah. I mean, whoever has the most rear tires is probably going to win (laughs). It’s not a secret. So, yeah, I hope I have more than everybody else.”

GM PR