The Hendrick Motorsports star William Byron showcased a spectacular 2023 season, finishing in third place behind champion Ryan Blaney and runner-up Kyle Larson. Meanwhile looking back a couple of years, Byron spoke in an interview where he revealed who he credited most for his career growth to the top flight of American stock car racing.
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Byron mentioned, “The name that comes to mind the most is probably Dennis Lambert. He was my Legends car crew chief and really took me under his wings… He took care of my cars and took me to every race.”
When asked what was it like to have someone like Lambert as his mentor, the HMS driver responded, “The confidence as a driver is key so you gotta have the confidence to go out there and do what you need to do. He was always there kind of coaching me.”
“It was tough at the beginning because he didn’t really want to work with me because I was so fresh and so clean I had no races under my belt. It took a little bit of time but he kinda developed me as a driver.”
William Byron’s foray into racing began in the virtual world
Unlike most of the NASCAR drivers on the current grid, who had their first taste of racing in their local dirt tracks, things were a bit different for Byron. The Hendrick Motorsports driver started watching races on television and even visited a race at Martinsville Speedway back in 2006.
Thereafter, he got himself into iRacing and general sim racing. Throughout all of the iRacing online competitions he was a part of, Byron ended up securing more than 100 wins and 298 top-fives. A few years later, he went racing in the real world in Legends cars at the age of 15.
Although he arrived at the series a bit late considering the general age of the competition, he managed to win 33 races just in his first year as well as winning the championship for the Legend Car Young Lions Division. After finding success in the lower divisions and showcasing an impressive skillset, JR Motorsports got him under their wings and the rest is history.
