NASCAR CUP SERIES: GEICO 500

April 25, 2021

William Byron

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our second-place finisher, William Byron.

We are going to get right into questions for you.

Q. At one point in this race, your car was pointed in the wrong direction and backed into the outside wall. If I told you then you would finish second, what would your reaction have been?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, probably not. I feel like first when those things happen, you're obviously trying to avoid the wreck, then that's over. From me trying to avoid the wreck, I got hit from the inside, spun through the grass. Luckily the splitter stayed on the car. That's pretty critical. Obviously that would ruin your day pretty quick.

We were able to slide up the racetrack. Luckily nobody hit us. Good job to those guys. Put left side tires on, put right side tires on, get some of the damage fixed, get it reasonable to go out there.

Yeah, our guys did an awesome job. It's really just a product of being a good race team, heads-up stuff about tire changes and where the pace car is, all those little details that kept us on the lead lap and in the game. I never really count us out if we have a manageable race car.

That was shown today. Just unfortunately at the end nobody would really help us. We just had to be the pusher and try to push our way towards the front.

Q. How much credit do you give the new organization of that team?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, no, I mean it's two things. It's a great team, great foundation that Chad built with the guys on the race team. Nobody's really changed. We've had a couple minor tweaks. Nobody's really changed from the last couple years, so that's been good. Same engineers, same guys setting up the car, car chief Tyler, most of the pit crew is the same. I feel like that has been good.

Rudy and I's communication is the kryptonite in the whole thing. I feel like we're able to work really well together. That shows with how consistently we run every week, just ability to improve the car over the race.

Even today, Talladega is not necessarily a handling place, but we did have some handling issues at the beginning of the race. Quickly fixed those, resolved that, had a race car to drive towards the front with. Credit to him, giving me what I need. I think it's really good what we're doing right now.

Q. Did you have any fear at all once you got into that skirmish with Hamlin? Was there a point where that was a close call?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I got to look back at it, if I did the right thing or whatnot. Honestly, once I saw him getting turned into the fence, I saw it developing. As soon as you start to see somebody kind of lose momentum, you see some contact, even the slightest contact, I usually try to either, A, check up at these places or turn and go around it.

I don't know if that was the right thing to do or not. Obviously I got spun out, was able to keep it out of the outside wall. Our guys were able to execute good, fix the car up, get it reasonable to where we could be a good pusher.

Obviously we couldn't be the lead car anymore, but we could still be a really good pusher.

Q. McDowell said he was trying to back up a little bit to get a push from you. Could you tell that? Was there a point where you thought you were going to end up pushing McDowell to this win?

WILLIAM BYRON: I think he's a really good plate racer obviously. The top three or four guys there on the last lap were all good plate racers.

Honestly, for me, I mean, I didn't know if he was backing up or what he was doing. As soon as somebody got to my outside, I was nervous I was going to get pulled off of him and not have a chance to push him. If he did drag back in that moment, good job to him because we stayed linked up, gave us a chance at winning.

Then as soon as he tried to go outside of the 2, I just didn't have enough momentum to kind of get to the 2 and do something. I was kind of a sitting duck. Like I said, we had damage. Obviously once the car would see clean air, it wasn't that fast. But, yeah, in the draft we were pretty good still.

Q. Logano was obviously frustrated having gotten airborne and everything. Feels like the spoiler is a little bit big for this type of racing.

WILLIAM BYRON: Did he flip?

Q. Yes.

WILLIAM BYRON: I didn't know that.

Q. Do you feel any difference with this package compared to before last year's Daytona 500?

WILLIAM BYRON: I still think the teams are getting the cars too fast a little bit. I think we could go slower and still put on a good race. Maybe three, four miles an hour. I don't know how they would go about that.

No, I feel like this package is really good. I feel like it's one of the best speedway packages we've had in a while. I wasn't a huge fan when I came into Cup, we had the huge bubble effect, guys could just control the lanes, basically could control the race for the whole time. I feel like that was boring.

I feel like now we have the ability to push through that bubble obviously. It's all about your push, having a car that can manage the push. There's still a lot of work and effort in making sure your car can take pushes, be the pusher, all those things. There's still a lot of technical stuff.

I feel like they could slow the cars down two or three miles an hour and still be fine. They made that increment step to slow them down. All the teams quickly got that back. I feel like it's no big deal if we were running 195 around here instead of 199.

Q. Do you feel like anything needs to change fundamentally with superspeedway racing? You hit on it there that you feel like speeds could be a little bit lower. Seems like there's one more two moves away from another Ryan Newman situation, God forbid, but do you feel like anything needs to change with the superspeedway fundamentals as we near the NextGen?

WILLIAM BYRON: I mean, I don't know. I think that's for the fans and people to decide. It's entertaining I think. If I'm a fan, I think it's really entertaining, so you've got to balance that. Obviously as a driver, every time I show up to these races, first and foremost I don't want to crash because I feel like, yeah, there is that possibility of hitting something really hard.

The cars are safe. You strap in, try to just pull your stuff tight. It is what it is. I don't think it's going to change any time soon. It's entertaining. It's dangerous. It's all those things. It's just a product of it.

I'm glad we don't do it more than four times a year.

Q. Your 24 team has silently been one of the most dominant teams all season. What do you have to do to take it to the next level and keep this pace through the summer?

WILLIAM BYRON: I mean, I think we're already taking it to the next level, the way we're running. Even today with the way we fixed the car, finished second. I feel like next week is just hopefully a continuation of what we're doing.

I think Richmond was the weakest track for us in this kind of three or four race stretch that we kind of look at. We actually ran pretty well there. Bristol was one of those that we had circled that we didn't expect to run well. We kind of were hoping to stay on lead lap.

Yeah, there's been a few obstacles that we've already cleared. Now we're going into the racetracks that are kind of the bread and butter of our team. Kansas has been really good for me in the past. Obviously I'm very biased towards running well at Charlotte. I feel like that's one that is really important for me. Even Dover is important. We got some family up there, too.

All these coming up are really good opportunities for us to try to win another race.

THE MODERATOR: William, that's all the time we have with you. Thank you for taking time with us.

WILLIAM BYRON: Thanks, guys.