CONCORD, N.C. – Last weekend, William Byron capped his 100th career NASCAR national series start by tying his career-best Cup Series finish.
The sixth-place result at Texas Motor Speedway was an enjoyable one for the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, who led 15 laps in the race.
“It was just a lot of fun to have more speed at the track, and that’s a credit to what the guys have been doing at the shop,” Byron told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I feel like that was a really good showing for us at Texas to see where we were and hopefully we can continue that momentum into Bristol and Richmond, which I think are two critical races for this spring stretch to kind of get going before the Easter break and get ourselves into a good position.”
This weekend, Byron will take on Bristol, a track where he qualified well – 11th in the spring and fifth in the fall – in 2018, but didn’t earn the finishes he would’ve wanted.
His crew chief, Chad Knaus, has earned two wins at the notoriously tough track.
“I think it’s going to be a tough, physical race,” Byron said. “It’s going to be a test of car and driver. I’m looking forward to it. You always know coming here it’s going to be a challenge. There’s really nowhere to hide at the racetrack, so you just try to be prepared for that and be on the right side of it.”
Until last weekend, the No. 24 team’s best finish in 2019 was 15th. But the early challenges only strengthened the group’s resolve, and Byron wasn’t surprised by the strong effort last weekend at Texas.
“We just continue to work hard and I can’t say enough about what the guys are doing at the shop and our team in general working late, late hours to get the cars prepared,” he said. “I know that’s hard, and they want to see the results, and we’re starting to show that.”
Now, the driver and his team want to build on the momentum and begin to stack strong finishes.
That begins at Bristol this Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
“Our goal is to have a solid race, obviously, but we wouldn’t show up if we didn’t feel like we could have a shot to win,” he said. “You’ve just got to be on your toes and hopefully after 500 laps we can have a really good day.”