Byron looking to continue spectacular rookie season at Bristol

But at age 18, the college freshman already has become a true student of the NASCAR racing. Over the last few seasons, Byron has absorbed all the knowledge at his disposal through a variety of tools to expedite his learning curve.  

And while most parents would discourage their children from spending an inordinate amount of time on video games, racing simulators have provided the the Charlottean with a head start. The addition of on-track experience, combined with race footage and on-board cameras, has helped Byron hone his skills. 

Using iRacing to get ready

“iRacing for me was a way to get closer to the sport,” Byron said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, referencing online competition on lifelike recreations of NASCAR tracks. “I was so into the sport as a kid…iRacing was a way for me to connect. I was able to go in there and race guys like Landon Cassill, who was on there. Travis Pastrana was getting used to NASCAR, and he had a couple of races.

“I think it’s really neat because you can start to understand why guys are racing the way (they are) and why they do the things they do on the race track.”

Byron’s five wins in his first truck season tops the previous rookie record set by Kurt Busch in 2000. Ironically, he’s leaned on his team owner — and Busch’s younger brother Kyle — to mentor him through his freshman year. Byron believes having Busch compete against him part-time in the truck series has been invaluable.

“I think I saw how important that was at Kentucky,” Byron said. “We had a really fast truck in practice and Kyle was just a little bit faster. His attention to detail — and everything about how to make the truck go faster even for a track that we had never seen, that was repaved, it was insane to me, that really helped my progression over the last couple of weeks. It just helps me to get that much better.”

Byron earned the K&N Pro Series East tour championship last year — his first full-time season in NASCAR racing. He won four of 14 races, three poles and posted 11 top 10s en route to his first series title.

Leadership atop the pit box

Under the tutelage of crew chief Ryan “Rudy” Fugle, who led Erik Jones to the truck title last season, Byron has two poles, six top fives and seven top 10s in 12 starts. His first victory came in his fourth career truck start. Byron has led 413 laps this season, with his only DNF stemming from an engine failure at Atlanta. 

“We put the driver into a really good team,” Fugle said. “He’s awesome, and we all jell, and we have just a great team effort. 

“I mean, he’s got it. Just put a challenge ahead of him and he figures it out.”

Overall, Byron is thrilled by his team’s progress in such a short time frame. 

“Things have gone the way that we’ve wanted them to in aspects of team work and getting the trucks the way that we've needed them for the right time in the season,” Byron said. “I think it’s really cool to have success in the summer months, here, because I think that’s where some of the unique race tracks are. Pocono is unlike any race track that we go to. So we handle those totally different. And even Bristol is totally different.

“It’s a good thing to be able show that we can compete on the tracks that aren’t necessarily our style. That’s really neat. We’ve had the right trucks at the right race tracks to use. We’ve kept our equipment together and that’s been a big thing.” 

Bristol a different kind of challenge

But Bristol presents a new set of challenges for the driver. Fortunately, the team tested at the track in April. They returned to Thunder Valley with the same truck Byron drove to victory at Iowa Speedway. 

Last year in the NKNPS, Byron led 44 laps at Bristol before finishing second at the half-mile track. On Wednesday, Byron was 14th in first practice with a fast lap of 121.144 mph (15.839 seconds). His teammate, Christopher Bell, led the first session with a lap of 123.515 mph. 

Once the track began to take rubber, the speeds escalated considerably — and Byron moved up to third on the speed chart with a single lap speed of 129.116 mph (14.861 seconds) and third in Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average —123.030 mph in Happy Hour. Tyler Reddick was tops in that category (124.571 mph). Byron’s KBM teammate Daniel Suarez posted the fastest single-lap run in final practice at 129.474 mph.

“You kind of forget which end of the race track you’re on sometimes,” Byron said. “Each end has subtle differences but nothing like a mile-and-a-half that has totally different ends. It’s difficult to make passes also. What’s hard is when you make a pass —especially on the bottom— you’ve got to retrain your brain to slow down and run the bottom because when you run the top you can run harder. There are challenges every lap — and also lapped cars. Things can happen fast, someone can spin out in front of you. It’s important to figure those things out.

“But it’s going to be a really great race for us. I think Bristol is one of those really unique race tracks, for sure. It’s so cool to race around there and make laps around there. I can’t wait.”