AVONDALE, Ariz. – Branden Lines isn’t nervous, unless he really thinks about it.
Thankfully, he won't have much time to think at all this weekend.
As has been the case since the beginning of 2022, Lines will be atop the spotter’s stand for William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team as the squad pursues a NASCAR Cup Series Championship on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Green flag is set for just after 3 p.m. ET and the race will air on NBC.
Lines will pull triple duty over the weekend and he's already a champion, having spotted for Ty Majeski in Friday night’s CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race as Majeski clinched a title with a race win. Lines will also spot for Stefan Parsons in Saturday’s Xfinity Series event.
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Certainly, the stakes for Lines were sure to be high on Friday night. But on Sunday, he’ll have the opportunity to help deliver Byron, Rudy Fugle, himself and the majority of the 24 team members their first Cup Series championship, not to mention giving Rick Hendrick his 15th title in the last 30 years and all to cap off Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary season.
“OK, now there’s pressure,” Lines laughed when being read those possibilities.
A few other times over the course of a 15-minute conversation, Lines hints that he’s fully aware of the burden that he carries this weekend. But who could forgive him for convincing himself it’s business as usual?
And in a lot of ways, especially when it comes down to the weekend’s races, it will be. That’s where Lines is choosing to keep his thoughts centered.
“All I can do is do the same thing I do every single week, which is try to keep Rudy and William as calm as we can be, just by tone. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen,” Lines explained. “I feel like there is no pressure. Maybe there is. But we just go race. It’s 312 laps and we’re perfectly capable of doing it.”
It’s a fact Byron and the team proved just last spring when they went to victory lane at Phoenix. It marked one of a series-leading six wins for the No. 24 a year ago.
But winning at the 1-mile tri-oval is never easy, especially when it comes to surviving restarts. That’s where Lines will have to be at his best as cars fan out four-, five-, even six-wide or more cutting across the dogleg before trying to find real estate while diving into turn one. And as much as success on Sunday will hinge on surviving those fights for position, Lines said they are situations that are impossible to prepare for or anticipate.
“I don’t know that you can because you already know if the car and team are up to our potential, we’re going to have to make those decisions,” Lines said. “We’re going to be in the first few rows on restarts and it’s going to be hectic, and you just try to assist as best you can. At the end of the day, (Byron) turns the wheel and pushes the gas and brake. He does it all.”
Lines is hardly alone in his quest for a first Cup championship this weekend but he's as overdue as nearly anyone, having started his spotting career in the late 1990s.
By profession, Lines is supposed to be a man of many words and usually, he is. But when asked the meaning of a potential Cup Series title, he deflected and instead continued to harp on the staying-in-the-moment approach that now has the 24 team standing on the doorstep of history.
“I probably couldn’t express into words what it would mean,” Lines said. “But I just want to make sure we get through 50 minutes of practice today, then qualify and have great pit selection tomorrow and then attack Sunday when Sunday gets here. It’s easy to get too far out there and makes it more difficult to manage. That would be something you’d have to ask me Sunday.”