“He Races the Way We Should” – William Byron on Competing With Martin Truex Jr. and Their Similarities

The Hendrick Motorsports team has been having a rather mixed season this year. Half of their drivers haven’t even made the playoff cutoff yet, while the other half is locked in. Out of the two drivers locked in, one of them is seated second in the championship, William Byron, who is fighting for the regular season championship with Martin Truex Jr.

The 25-year-old Charlotte native has been on a roll this season with 4 wins under his belt. Although, after Truex Jr. won the last race, he fell down to 2nd in the championship. Meanwhile, talking to the press at Pocono, Byron mentioned how there’s a similarity between his and Truex Jr’s driving style.

William Byron believes there’s a similarity between his and Truex Jr’s racing style

Speaking at the press conference, following his winning the pole at Pocono, Byron stated, “I do. I think Martin (Truex Jr.) and I have somewhat similar styles. At least in the old car, when we would look at data, we had similar brake pressure and similar inputs. I mean we’re totally different backgrounds and totally different ages.”

Further adding, “But yeah, I enjoy racing him. I think he races the way people should. I don’t think he does anything super malicious, but he’s aggressive. He’s good to race against. I think there’s five or six guys out there that I really like racing with.”

Byron talks about the importance of qualifying ahead in this race

Further into the press conference, Byron was asked what it meant to start the long race at the pole on Sunday, and would be the biggest benefit for him to start at the front of the pack at Pocono. Byron then mentioned how he had the choice for pit stall selection and getting that correct would eventually make or break the race.

He said, “Yeah, it’s really important to have pit stall selection. I feel like I reiterate that a lot with my team – qualifying position is important, but pit stall selection is really critical. Just happy to get that number one pit stall. For us, I felt like we had a really smooth day. We had some tough conversations after Loudon. We just had a tough weekend.”

Going into the Pocono 400 one spot behind Martin Truex Jr. in the regular season championship, Byron would really be looking forward to winning his 5th race this season.

After all, despite the margin between him and the JGR driver being thin, who would not want to enter the postseason with a playoff point advantage?