CONCORD, N.C. -- William Byron still is relishing in his first win in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.
The 22-year-old driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE appeared on SportsCenter Sunday night to discuss the importance of iRacing while sports are shut down.
"We’re fortunate during this time," Byron said. "We’ve missed a lot of races. We’ve been through four races so far this year, but we race 38 times a year and we’ve missed so far, I think, seven or eight races, so we have to use this ultimately as the only thing that we have. I’m lucky I can do it right now and I’m just excited to get back on the racetrack sometime soon, but I know right now this is kind of what we have. It’s our chance to show the world what racing is really like."
On Monday morning, Byron said on NASCAR's Instagram Live that appearing on SportsCenter to celebrate his win was a dream come true.
"I don’t know if people know how avid of a sports fan I am," he said. "I watch it every morning, so that was really cool. I texted all my friends right away from high school. I’m like, 'Guys, this is my moment. I’m on Sports Center.'"
Byron added he was ecstatic to finally get his first iRacing win after he led the most laps in the first two races. However, an accident at virtual Homestead knocked him out of the race and a bumper tap from competitor Timmy Hill at Texas Motor Speedway pushed him back to seventh.
"I was pissed off after the race," Byron said last week. "I was so mad. Everyone’s like, 'You’re taking it too serious!' And I’m like, 'Everyone’s taking it serious!' You’re racing! After about three hours of sitting on the couch I was like, 'Ok, alright, I’m fine now.'"
According to Byron, the upside of losing in iRacing versus at a live track is the threshold of getting over a loss is smaller. It also gives him an opportunity to get better, despite being an iRacing pro.
"On the Cup circuit, I try to learn from iRacing," he said. "(I) try to take little tidbits of advice and use it toward my real racing career that I have on Sundays, so I feel like it’s kind of an edge I can have. Luckily we have a sport like ours with NASCAR that the cars are very similar on that platform, … I feel like I still use it to try and learn.”