CONCORD, N.C. – William Byron enters the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with big momentum on his side. Byron followed up his win at Texas Motor Speedway in the Round of 12 opener with back-to-back runner-up finishes at Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. He posted a 1.67 average finish in those three races.
"It’s definitely us against ourselves," Byron said regarding his path to reach the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway. "I feel like it’s us executing races. It’s us putting together good performances and top-five performances that we know we’re capable of. With that being said, the points are really close."
The 25-year-old driver is atop the standings at 4,041 points and he enters 20 points above the elimination line. In the six playoff races, Byron has scored the most points (234), posted the best average finish (5.50) and is tied for the most top-five finishes (four) and top-10s (five).
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"To see them sitting on six race wins and leading the points going into the Round of 8 is pretty phenomenal," vice president of competition Chad Knaus told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Really, really proud of what those guys have been able to do. Rudy (Fugle) has done a great job of growing and maturing that team. It’s been really fun to watch."
Now all the attention turns to Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a spot in the Championship 4 on the line. Byron won in the spring at Nevada track for his first win of the season. He led a race-high 176 laps and got the better of teammate Kyle Larson in an overtime finish. Crew chief Rudy Fugle’s call for two right-side tires set his driver up to restart on the front row for the closing two-lap sprint.
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"It’s the pivotal race because as we’ve seen – if you can win that race and advance, you give yourself a good chance to prepare for Phoenix (Raceway)," Byron said. "With winning Texas (Motor Speedway), we’ve given ourselves a couple of weeks to prepare for Las Vegas (Motor Speedway). I feel like all of that stuff has checked out pretty good. I think our setup is strong there. We’ve made some good decisions and we’ve had time to really decide; go to the simulator and figure out what we want to race there.
"We’ll get a chance to make sure we’re on the right track when we run this week and kind of run through our teammates’ setups, but so far so good there. The history there has been good for us with winning the race there earlier this year. It would be great to win there just because you won’t have to stress near as much."
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In the history of the elimination-style format (since 2014), four drivers have won the opening race in the Round of 8 and went on to win the championship (Jimmie Johnson in 2016, Joey Logano in 2018 and 2022 and Larson in 2021). This is the second year that Las Vegas has hosted the Round of 8 opener.
The Round of 8 sets up really well for the Charlotte, North Carolina, native. He and Fugle have won at all three tracks in this part of the playoffs – Las Vegas (2023), Homestead-Miami Speedway (2021) and Martinsville Speedway (2022). With two of the three races in the round at 1.5-mile tracks, that plays into one of Byron’s strengths this year. Over five races on that track length this year, he has two wins, a series-leading average finish of 4.40, the most points (218) and 283 laps led.
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"We obviously had a dominant race there (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) – scored max points in the spring and we were a top-two car … us and the No. 5 (Kyle Larson)," Byron said when looking ahead to the next round.
"As the round trickles down, I think the end of the round, I’m a little more apprehensive about because of how we ran in the spring at Martinsville (Speedway). We had an issue there with the clutch, but we were not super competitive there. We were great in practice, but not in the race. Hopefully, over the course of the next two or three weeks, I can kind of gain some confidence and gain some certainty in what we have there. I would say Vegas and Homestead are definitely really good tracks for us."
Tune in to watch Byron and the No. 24 vie for a spot in the Championship 4 on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.