Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon is one of William Byron’s biggest supporters today. Piloting the #24 Chevrolet Camaro that Gordon drove to 93 career victories, Byron entered the Championship 4 last season and has kicked off 2024 by winning the Daytona 500. While Gordon was extensively proud of his successor now, it wasn’t always that he had faith in him.
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Following Gordon’s retirement as a driver, Chase Elliott had taken over the #24 Camaro in 2016. A season later, in 2017, it was announced that Elliott would move over to the #9 car for the 2018 season and that Byron would take his seat in the #24. At the time, Byron was still a largely unknown name, and this was something that worried Gordon.
Talking about the same to former racer Kenny Wallace, Byron noted that Gordon had initially been intimidating to him. He said, “He was one of the most skeptical, I feel like,” and continued, “He was very intimidating but I feel like over the years – especially as soon as I got through the Xfinity series – we kind of made a connection there.”
The reason behind Gordon’s skepticism at the time was that he hadn’t seen Byron race a lot. But once he saw the youngster’s skill on display during his Xfinity championship-winning year (2017), Gordon had no option but to grow an affinity for him. Byron posted 4 wins, and 12 top-fives that year en route to his title that year.
The close relationship that Jeff Gordon and William Byron share in 2024
Talking further to Wallace, William Byron said that Jeff Gordon comes by his home often during the offseason to talk about racing and have coffee. The duo are plenty close today and share a mentor-mentee relationship at Hendrick Motorsports. Quite notably, Gordon went as far as saying that Byron was making it hard to not be biased towards him, after the latter’s Daytona 500 win.
He said last month, as reported by Speedway Digest, “It is 2024, and the #24 is always going to be very, very special to me. But what I loved the most is seeing him make it his number and building that fanbase – not only the #24 fans who have been around for a long time but his own fans.”
Gordon and Byron have combined to account for 104 of Hendrick Motorsports’ 303 wins in the Cup Series thus far. Having been a key challenger for the title last year, Byron will aim to bring the iconic ride to its 5th championship in 2024. Considering that this is the team’s 40th year in NASCAR, glory will only be sweeter.
