FORT WORTH, Texas – After the last race in March, William Byron said he planned to take full advantage of a weekend away from the track.
“There’s so much information that I’ve learned in the last five or six weeks that I really haven’t had a chance to process completely,” he wrote on HendrickMotorsports.com. “I try to do the best job I can of just getting rest and just trying to make sure that I’m mentally ready. So, when I get a chance to get away from it for a week and then come back, hopefully we’re even better than before.”
Byron and the No. 24 team certainly took a step in that direction in the first race in April, taking home a 10th-place result Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
It marked his first career top-10 in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“It feels awesome,” he said. “It feels great to get a top 10.”
And he earned it after starting at the rear of the field.
Byron made progress in the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 all afternoon, finishing Stage 1 in 16th, Stage 2 in 13th and ultimately taking the checkered flag 10th.
“Starting in the back, this was definitely a good day for us,” he said. “We had a lot of adversity and kept having to go to the back. So, it’s good to come back from that and get a top-10.”
Now, he’ll look for even more as the Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend.
“Overall, it was a pretty good day,” Byron said, “and we can definitely build on this.”