Every year, NASCAR releases the Hall of Fame nominees for the coming year, and every year, out of all those nominees, some are preferred for induction over others based on their contribution, achievements, and overall impact on the sport. This week, when the names of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were announced in the Modern Era nominees for the Class of 2024, nobody had a single doubt about them. Their achievements speak for themselves, something pretty evident in the words of William Byron.
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The #24 driver for Hendrick Motorsports recently opened up on his thoughts about Johnson and Knaus’ impact not just on NASCAR, but also on him as a racecar driver. Byron also went on to make a big claim about the 7x Cup champion and drew some parallels between him and his crew chief to Johnson and Knaus’ relationship.
William Byron on the impact of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus
In a recent interview ahead of the Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Byron opened up on Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus’ names, being part of the Modern Era nominees for NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024. “Those guys are champions and they’re, in my eyes, the greatest duo of all time,” Byron said as per NASCAR.
“I think Jimmie is the greatest driver. So I think that’s just my perspective, I grew up watching those guys and no one’s ever won five in a row like that and they changed the point system. I was reading something on Instagram that they changed the point system like four-five times. So it’s pretty amazing.”
He continued, “Hopefully, those guys can get what they deserve. But sports are really odd in the fact that you can have people that you work with that you probably say Hey to when you’re walking down the street. And then when you’re in a competitive environment, you guys just thrive off each other.”
“I feel like that’s evident with Rudy (Fugle) and I as well, I mean, we don’t go get beers together but we’re certainly good friends off the track. But in a competitive environment, we just get the most out of one another.”
“So I feel like that was always the case with Jimmie and Chad. They’re obviously good friends, but they would just push each other like nobody else.”
Byron is glad to be racing freely without the worries of making the playoffs
Having won 4 races already this year, William Byron is relieved to be heading into the playoffs without having to worry about making it in. Byron recently touched upon the stress of worrying about qualifying for the playoffs, and how this year, it’s not the case for him.
“I’ve lived it where you’re on the bubble of the playoffs and you don’t sleep very well. It’s very tough. You are always thinking about race tracks and weaknesses or what’s gonna happen next week,” he said in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Is everything gonna go smooth?”
While Byron admitted it’s a tough situation to be in, luckily for them, they booked their playoff spot quite early this season and now they can just “kinda race freely.”
