Virtually every young driver in the NASCAR Cup has theories or suggestions on how NASCAR can improve its engagement with younger fans. But few have the actual experience of going from a fan to an e-sports racer (such as iRacing) and then on to an actual full-fledged NASCAR Cup driver, as William Byron.
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The two-time back-to-back Daytona 500 winner (2024 and 2025) is a walking, talking example of a fan who ultimately went from racing on a computer screen to racing against the best of the best for one of the top teams in the sport, namely, Hendrick Motorsports.
The Athletic spoke to Byron recently and asked him what NASCAR must do to attract younger fans and take the sport to the next level of popularity.
“We need to become way more current in the landscape of social media and exposure,” Byron said. “Looking at my generation and being around my friends, they would love to be able to follow the race more easily for their favorite drivers.”
Byron cited the way Formula One’s interface within its various apps allows fans to become more engaged and involved.
“Formula One has a really good interface for their apps, like how you follow Lewis Hamilton or how you follow Charles (Leclerc),” he mentioned. “We need to have a way to easily get to that, like the in-car cameras.”
Byron: Driving a NASCAR Isn’t An Easy Thing to Do
Byron noted that younger race fans may take for granted how difficult racing a stock car can be.
“People don’t understand how difficult it is to drive these cars,” The HMS driver stated. “They think, ‘Oh, you’re just turning left at 80 percent of the tracks,’ and it’s like, ‘No, you’re on the edge. You’re literally fighting the car on the edge, like if you were driving on ice.’
“So we just have to educate people and do that in a current way. There’s plenty of personalities in this garage, it’s just trying to show it and we’ve got to do it in more current ways.”
