William Byron absolutely dominated at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading 175 of the 271 laps run and far and away had the fastest machine in the field. This is part of a trend with Byron of a hot and cold pendulum in the NASCAR Cup Series where Byron is either one of the most elite drivers in NASCAR or is a mid pack guy at nest. Today we look at this and how this race at Las Vegas may just be his breakthrough. So today I want to ask, Is William Byron a contender or just inconsistent?
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William Byron
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31 comments
Do you think William Byron is a true 2023 contender?
Gru Does not Like William Byron. Gru Loves Brad K
@Gru it’s Gruin’ time
As a diehard Byron fan (since 2015), the one thing he and his team need to figure out is how to finish. I was keeping tabs last year on every race he had top-10 speed; when the regular season ended, he was fast enough in 22 of 26 races to get top-tens (even had winning speed). However, he only managed 5 top-tens in that span. Why? Poor strategy, car/parts failures, driver error, wrecks/bad luck, pit mistakes, you name it! Fontana last week was a great example; fast car on short runs and early in the race, but poor adjustments, a smack on the wall, and a penalty ruined it. In conclusion, he has the speed to be a contender, but he and his team need to learn to keep it all race long, and all season long. If he can, he could be the best HMS driver out there.
Is consistency even truly needed anymore? So long as you can win a race early (check), it literally doesn’t matter what you do until race 27. At this point, I think only a few old-school drivers like Harvick, Hamlin, Truex and to a lesser extent Logano and Chase, really care about getting good finishes if they don’t win. For everyone else, if you have a fast car you try for a win, and if you don’t, what’s it matter?
What does matter more than consistent results is consistent speed, and that’s something Byron’s shown in spades. That’s far more indicative of his long-term success potential than his top ten total. So long as he’s got a car capable of winning at least twice a year, he has as good a shot at the title as anybody.
YES
As a Byron fan
He’s like a Greg Biffle
Not as good as his Roush teammates
But can be consistent and have as much pace as his teammates
Still only 25 too which is kind of insane
The potential for Byron to make a championship run is there it just depends on if they can clutch up when it matters
Exactly when Jimmy Johnson won all the time nascar got boring real fast.
I hope he does well this year. From his year at KBM, he’s shown that he can dominate and with Elliott down and out, the #24 team might get the resources needed to contend.
i’m big on the byron bandwagon. he can easily replicate that 2021 form and become one of the threats to win every weeknd(remember, he’s only 25). he’s one of my picks for the championship 4, i know he’ll come good on it.
It seems like a lot of people forget just how young William is. He’s younger than Bell, Reddick, Briscoe, Blaney. He’s pretty much the youngest of the drivers who actually have a shot to win every week.
2021 he was consistent and didn’t lead or win much, 2022 he won multiple times and led as much as anyone in the series but wasn’t consistent, 2023 if he combines those together that’s a title contender
They should definitely be a contender. All 4 Hendrick cars (assuming they all win and there’s no injury in the playoffs) should make the Round of 8. Byron and Bowman will both have great years in 2023.
I hope he does good this season
Byrons car at the end of last year were horrible, I think they were testing packages for this year at different tracks. Right when playoff started again the cars he was given we’re actually good again and he started competing. He also did get a bit unlucky with some races where he did have a good car at, such as Darlington where Joey put him in the wall and instead of finishing 2nd he finished 15th
True. He picked up in the playoffs. I expect him to run well.
I think he’s a contender he’s gotten better every year and this is the second season with Rudy in a cup car
3rd year
I’m not sold on Byron just yet. Sure he looked good yesterday but I’m not prisoner of the moment like a lot are. I need to see more
I think this is going to be Byron’s year. I think he’s going to win 5 or 6 races this year. That being said, I think there are a lot of drivers that made a very good career of running inconsistent and winning a handful of races every year.
Bold prediction but I think he can do it
There’s nothing confusing about it, and nothing “inconsistent” about the 24 team/Byron himself. The pit crew is just ungodly awful. In probably 10-14 of the races in that 18 race stretch before the playoffs last year, he had solid top 5/10 speed and should have won at least one race (Darlington for one…), but seemingly every race his pit crew would lose 10-15 total spots on pit road forcing him to constantly get knocked around and fight through the mid field. And if his pit crew wasn’t losing him spots, he was just getting wrecked when running well. Wrecked in one of the many big ones at the 600 after running top 10, had one of the best cars at Atlanta 2 when he got caught up in a large crash after I believe leading the most laps up to that point, and at the Indy GP he was running 4th with one of the faster cars but got nailed in the left rear by Elliott after he spun and broke the toe link.
Byron is the driver I follow the closest in Cup. There were so many races last year where he had bad luck, and was not good enough to dig out of the hole. That’s probably his biggest weakness, but also one that can be learned away. The peak for a cup series driver tends to be in their mid thirties, and I think Byron will be a champion before he’s done, but he’s still got some maturing to do. He’s one of the most purely talented drivers in the garage, though.
Byron and Bowman look like they’re gonna have some amazing runs this year. I see both of them making the Round of 8.
Bowman keeps on the pace he’s going currently he could make the Final 4
Byron is probably the most fascinating driver to speculate on in the entire cup series garage. Even for how weird, inconsistent, but yet strong, dominating some of his performances has been he can range from mid-pack to a championship contender. I do believe some of this is related to being apart of the team of 2 young superstar drivers for teammates, so the pressure will be on.
I do believe there is another question to be asked. Will we see Byron step up with Elliott’s injury? Not even a full week in he certainly has but will he cement himself as a star of the sport with the weeks and months to come?
The results haven’t shown it but he was at the front of the pack at Daytona until the end and got involved in a crash. And he was battling for a win at Fontana while pit road mistakes completely costed him. He very well could have started this year with a win and 2 top 5’s/10’s
I am a Byron fan and remember saying last year that he’d be hard to handle if they could put a whole race together. Sunday proved he had a bad fast car, good strategy, and was able to make those calls to adjustments to help fix the car. I really hope that isn’t just a flash in the pan performance because I think he really can be a contender.
Byron definitely has potential, he just needs to step up in the clutch, when it really comes down to it…. I would say, given the fact that Chase is, very unfortunately going to be out for a little while, and if he really wants to show what he’s made of, NOW, is the time to step up and perform
1:45 this was the first race i attended after becoming a new nascar fan and ever since i’ve been a fan of william byron, glad to see he’s shaping up to do great things this season cause i know he can