AVONDALE, Ariz. – Though William Byron will try to win his first NASCAR Cup Series title at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, his championship mettle has long been proven.
And so too has Brandon McSwain’s.
Now the lead engineer for Byron’s No. 24 team, McSwain helped push Byron to a NASCAR Xfinity Series as a team member at JR Motorsports in 2017. He was put on the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 squad in 2019 and he’s continued to work with Byron ever since.
McSwain also served as crew chief in Byron's Xfinity Series starts this season at Phoenix, Pocono Raceway, Darlington Raceway and Watkins Glen International. He is one of several 24 team members that has not won a Cup Series title yet but he draws confidence and perspective from that Xfinity title run.
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They'll all get their shot just after 3 p.m. ET when the green flag falls at Phoenix on Sunday. The race will air on NBC.
“To think back on those Xfinity days and winning that championship and how young we both were,” McSwain, now 36, recalled. “I was new to the sport just as he was, so, I feel like since then our confidence and skillset has grown but I think our relationship is just as strong as it was then. We have a lot of confidence in each other. We communicate very well. So, I think it’s fun to watch the journey and obviously, to win a championship back then on the Xfinity side and now you come to the Cup side and to have the potential to do that is pretty awesome.”
Despite that prior success, the added weight of this moment isn’t lost on McSwain any more than it’s lost on Byron. And perhaps for nobody did Friday’s practice session, one in which Byron recorded the fourth-best lap, mean more than McSwain.
“I didn’t sleep very good (Thursday) night, kind of tossed and turned a lot just trying to rethink through everything you may need (on Friday),” he said. “Obviously, (Friday) is really where our bread is buttered, so, trying to make sure we have everything planned out; what we really want to execute.
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“I think I personally feel the pressure if the car isn’t performing well. I take pride in the setup and that stuff, so, when you unload and those things aren’t exactly how you want it to be, there’s a little pressure of getting all that right.
“But there’s a lot riding on one race and you’ve really got to make sure all the details are met and everything is what you expect.”
McSwain is right about one thing: There is a lot riding on Sunday’s race.
Aside for a first championship for most of the 24 team, there’s the possibility of bringing home a 15th Cup Series crown for Rick Hendrick to cap off a season's worth of celebration in recognition of the 40th year of Hendrick Motorsports. Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle have both been asked about the additional importance all week.
As for McSwain, his response very much falls in line with those of Byron and Fugle with nobody on the 24 team seemingly willing to get out over their skis. There’s a unified approach of staying in the moment and trying not to let the mind wander too far beyond the next task at hand.
But hey, they’re all human. And McSwain couldn’t help but grin when thinking of a championship on Sunday.
“It would be a pretty awesome experience,” he sheepishly conceded. “At the end of all of our careers, to be able to hang your hat on that, winning a Cup Championship … because they’re not easy. I think this year has been pretty awesome. We have a lot of marquee wins and deep down you want to win it on the 40th anniversary and I think we’re going to give it our all. I just want to be realistic of expectations, right? I think we’ve prepared very well and I feel super confident about it, I just don’t want the emotions to get ahead of themselves.”