For the third straight year, William Byron has managed to enter the Championship 4 and once again, his eyes are set on Phoenix. In his last two title bids, he finished third in the standings, wrapping up the season finale race with P4 and P3 results at the desert oval. But this time, the odds tilt in his favor.
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The momentum from his XFinity 500 win Martinsville win gives him every reason to feel at ease heading into the finale. But that doesn’t mean he’s putting himself under pressure.
Speaking with Shannon Spake on NASCAR: The Day After, Byron shared his calm, calculated mindset. “Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m best when I’m pretty analytical. So I don’t know if I will dream necessarily about Sunday.”
“But I will definitely think about all the factors, and I will think about all the things that I can do better at, and I’ll just dive into it and just do my homework, do my research, and hopefully, hopefully by Sunday, I feel confident in my prep, and I feel comfortable in all those things.”
“And then you let the circumstances play out, and you just let kind of nature do its thing. So, yeah, I think it’s just kind of that’s my mindset,” Byron added.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has twice started from the pole in Phoenix and has one win there. Interestingly, both times when he began from P1, he had to settle for top-five and top-10 finishes. Still, his recent form speaks volumes. Five top-10s and three top-fives in his last six outings show a driver peaking when it counts most.
Crew chief Rudy Fugle, however, isn’t taking the challenge lightly. “It’s a tough track just because of the high speeds and the really flat corners, especially turns one and two, and then three and four is a very unique corner. So, you struggle to get your car to do everything you need it to do,” Fugle explained.
Fugle noted that Phoenix demands the perfect mix of short-track bite, mechanical grip, and aerodynamic balance. According to him, the car has to be super balanced through the corner. It’s easy to be loose, trying to turn the center good enough.
The driver is going to be on the edge of losing it, so the crew chief and driver have got to get that dialed in. And then, the exit is easy to disconnect as well — tight in the middle generally means loose off. That’s why he asserted,“It’s one of the more difficult tracks, especially as the track ages, to get a hold of.”
At Phoenix, the #24 HMS driver will compete against teammate Kyle Larson and Joe Gibbs Racing duo Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Statistically, Byron’s right in the hunt.
Larson ranks second among active drivers at the track with a 10.7 average finish, while Byron sits just behind at 10.8. Larson’s 10 top-five finishes in 22 starts are the most of any driver with fewer than 36 races there, and Byron’s nine top-10s tie his career-best mark at any venue.
If history is any indication, Byron’s methodical mindset and recent form could make this third trip to the Championship 4 the charm.
