CONCORD, N.C. — Entering the unpredictable Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, William Byron doesn’t have anything to worry about.
With a pair of top-three finishes at Kansas Speedway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Byron already punched his ticket into the NASCAR Cup Series round of 8. The Hendrick Motorsports driver certainly did his part, but also got some luck along the way. Two non-playoff drivers — Ross Chastain (Kansas) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Talladega) — won races, opening up an avenue for Byron to point his way in early.
For a driver who has battled inconsistencies since winning three of the first eight races this season, it’s a relief.
“It changes the whole mood and vibe for the weekend,” Byron told the media Saturday. “There aren’t consequences for us, so that’s a great feeling and I feel like it’s one that we can take advantage of.
“This is the time of year that matters. I’m proud of our team for showing up. I knew we would. I’m confident in our group. I know that for us, winning races early in the season is great. We want to have success throughout the summer, but we were just a little bit up and down. But yeah, now is when it counts, and our team showed up.
“It’s been two years in a row that we’ve been able to kind of cruise through this round of 12, and that’s been really nice for our team to think ahead a little bit.”
All three of Byron’s victories on the season came in the first eight weeks. He won the season-opening Daytona 500 before a win at Circuit of the Americas (Texas) in March and again two weeks later at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The rest of the way, Byron never dropped below seventh in points, but the No. 24 team had its share of unfavorable results. He’s finished outside the top 30 five times since April, including a stretch of three DNFs in the final five regular-season races.
But outside of a wreck at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l, it’s been pretty smooth sailing in the playoffs. A ninth-place finish kicked off the round of 16 followed by 17th at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway – enough to solidify a spot in the quarterfinal round by 20 markers.
And now Byron’s the only playoff driver with nothing to lose on Sunday.
“It just allows us to get started on Las Vegas,” Byron said, speaking on the opening race of the next round. “We’ve already looked at tape; reviewed our setup and started to get an idea of what we need for Vegas. We were good there in the spring until we had the trash bag on the grill. Honestly, if we can just go there with similar speed, and similar speed to what we had at Kansas, I think we’ll be right there in the mix.
“You want to be good out of the gate. You want to try and win in the round of 8, for sure, but try to create a good points buffer and see how it goes. It just only gets more and more difficult as you go into the Round of Eight, like we saw last year. We were in a great spot starting the round of 8 on bonus points.”
But while nothing to lose, there’s plenty to gain.
Seven playoff points are still up for grabs, which could ultimately make or break Byron’s season. Last year, Byron advanced to the Championship 4 by just eight markers, relying on playoff points accumulated through six victories after struggling in the Martinsville cut-off race.
That said, whether it’s a stage win or the race win, playoff points will be the priority for Byron and company Sunday in Charlotte.
“If we’re not very good tomorrow, then we might try and go for the stage win,” Byron explained. “It’s a big advantage to short pit here because you can still come out and get stage points. I think the No. 20 did that last year. When he came out, he lost like three positions. I think the lap times being slower this year, it might be more that way.
“We still want to win this weekend. We still put effort into the ROVAL setup and try to go out here and be good tomorrow.”