CONCORD, N.C. – From the Daytona 500 in February to the 21st race of the season this weekend at Pocono Raceway, No. 24 crew chief Darian continues to see rookie driver William Byron learn, mature and progress week to week.
Heading to the “Tricky Triangle,” Byron is coming off a 14th-place finish at New Hampshire as all four Hendrick Motorsports teammates picked up top-15 results.
Though hoping for a higher finish, Grubb saw Byron make steps in the right direction.
“The last five or six laps, he was running top-five lap times,” Grubb said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Wish we could have got a little track position to show that.”
The performance was also a sign of continued progress for all four Hendrick Motorsports teams, the crew chief said.
“It just shows that we’re not going to stop working on everything, trying to make things better,” Grubb said. “Some of that’s starting to show up.”
With only six races before the playoffs begin, Byron sits at 21st in the points standings. He’s 95 points below the playoff cutline, but Grubb isn’t counting his driver out just yet.
“Ninety-five points is not that far out with the way some of these thing have happened if you have a good stage day and rack up all the points you can,” Grubb said. “We’re keeping an eye on that but also a win would get us into the playoffs, too. It’s a fun challenge.”
Byron’s developing confidence and ability to drive more aggressively has stood out to Grubb.
He put that confidence and aggressive driving on display in July’s race at Daytona, when he worked his way into the lead and paced the field for 12 laps before an incident cut his day short.
“You could see the confidence level in his eyes when he showed up to Daytona the second time,” Grubb said. “You could tell he knew what he needed to have in the race car.”
“Being able to actually drive to the front, it wasn’t any kind of trickery or anything else to get there and he just got up there himself. It was just a great day all around.”
Heading to the “Tricky Triangle” for the second time this season, Byron and Grubb are hoping to build on a strong showing at the track in June.
Though he finished the event in 18th after being shuffled down several positions after two restarts toward the end of the event, Byron was running inside the top 10 for a majority of the final segment.
Grubb is hopeful the No. 24 team will take a lot from that experience as the group returns to the track again this weekend.
“It gives you a lot more confidence – it gives you big boost,” the crew chief said. “The thought process that you know you can be better, you know what you’re going to fight when you get there and try to attack those things that you know you were deficient at last time.
“We’re really looking forward to getting up there.”