{"id":7982,"date":"2017-04-01T11:56:08","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T16:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=7982"},"modified":"2017-04-01T11:56:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-01T16:56:08","slug":"rookie-nascar-xfinity-driver-william-byron-ready-to-strike-gold-at-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/01\/rookie-nascar-xfinity-driver-william-byron-ready-to-strike-gold-at-texas-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookie NASCAR XFINITY driver William Byron ready to strike gold at Texas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 JR Motorsports and rookie driver William Byron<\/strong> returns to Texas Motor Speedway<\/a> for the My Bariatric Solutions 300 on Saturday, April 8, as driver of the No. 9 Axalta\/Liberty University Chevrolet SS and the 20-year old driver has one thing on his mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"

NASCAR XFINITY Series driver William Byron speaks to the media during the Texas Motor Speedway ‘No Limits’ Luncheon & Media Day at Gilley’s Dallas on Thursday, March 30, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. (Brandon Wade\/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)<\/p><\/div>\n

He wants to win again at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

Byron, who notched seven NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wins while racing a Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports last year, hopes to use his win at the Rattlesnake 400 last year to help parlay it into his first XFINITY Series victory.  Byron and other XFINITY Series drivers will hit the track for the first time in practice on TMS\u2019 newly repaved and re-profiled 1.5-mile oval on Friday, April 7 at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really looking forward to seeing what the new racetrack looks like and start the new chapter of the racetrack with the repave and seeing what it produces,\u201d Byron said at TMS\u2019 annual No Limits Media Day and Luncheon held Thursday at Gilley\u2019s in Dallas.  \u201cWe had a good race here last year with the win in June and hopefully we can carry some of that confidence into this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron enters the race at TMS ranked second in the XFINITY Series point standings and trails teammate and points leader Elliott Sadler by 17 points.  Byron\u2019s other teammate Justin Allgaier is ranked third, giving Junior Motorsports a 1-2-3 occupation of the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

\"\"

(L to R) Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Verizon IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal and NASCAR XFINITY driver William Byron on stage during the Texas Motor Speedway ‘No Limits’ Luncheon & Media Day at Gilley’s Dallas on Thursday, March 30, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. (Brandon Wade\/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe have had some good runs lately and a couple of top fives to build on so we are looking forward to racing here in a couple of weeks,\u201d said Byron, who has already recorded four top-10 finishes and one pole this season.  \u201cElliott Sadler has been helping me so much like when we fly to the races.  We are able to sit next to each other and talk about restarts or what happened at the last week\u2019s race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron added, \u201cLittle things that make a big difference.  Just knowing what to do inside the race car with switches and knowing how to get the best restarts and how to communicate with your team.  All of those things are really helping me and Justin Allgaier has been a great resource.  Michael Annett too.  Those guys have been on their game too and it\u2019s good to have a 1-2-3 lead in points as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron said that an added bonus this season is having Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a team owner on board so he can turn to him for advice.<\/p>\n

\"\"

William Byron, driver of the #9 Liberty University Chevrolet, practices for the NASCAR XFINITY Series PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 24, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe (Dale Jr.) is really involved in our team,\u201d Byron said.  \u201cHis personality is really cool to be around.  It\u2019s neat because I grew up watching him and now to be able to get to know him and talk with him in person.  We talk about racing and other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron, who is competing for the XFINITY Sunoco Rookie of the Year title, current leads the standings with 72 points, 17 ahead of Daniel Hemric.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a rookie you shouldn\u2019t get the breaks that some of the other guys do so you have to really earn that and that is what I have noticed so far,\u201d Byron said.  \u201cTrying to train and allow other guys to trust me and know that they can race around me without having an issue.  Earning their respect is an important thing and once you do then you and your team will run and have better results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron added, \u201cEvery week is such a new challenge to every racetrack that we go to.  It\u2019s hard to remember what you did last week so you hope to write a few notes down and be able to absorb some of the stuff that we have done so far and that is helping me each week.  Once you feel comfortable in the car you start having more success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Xfinity Series driver William Byron poses for a photo during the 2017 Media Tour at the Charlotte Convention Center on January 24, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Byron said he believes the new surface at Texas Motor Speedway, which now features the reduction of the banking in Turns 1 and 2 from 24 to 20 degrees, which is similar to Kentucky Speedway, a Speedway Motorsports Inc. sister track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the new surface is going to be more like Kentucky was last year,\u201d Byron said.  \u201cI had success in the truck at Kentucky and I won that race.  Hopefully it is kind of like that repave.  I think judging off how the track looks, it looks like it doesn\u2019t have a ton of grip like a normal repave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to produce some good racing.  Hopefully the groove is two wide or something like that and you are able to race side-by-side.  Hopefully it is a good race.  Repaves are always pretty good races and everyone is on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron also said that he believes he has the talent, team and the car to get the victory at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend.  When he won the Rattlesnake 400 last year he was the youngest driver to win a race at TMS, so he knows how special it is to win at the 1.5-mile speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get the win at Texas is really cool,\u201d Byron said.  \u201cIt\u2019s neat to win here and get the cowboy hat.  Hopefully we can do that this year.  I feel like we will have a good shot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2013 JR Motorsports and rookie driver William Byron returns to Texas Motor Speedway for the My Bariatric Solutions 300 on Saturday, April 8, as driver of the No. 9 Axalta\/Liberty University Chevrolet SS and the 20-year old driver has one thing on his mind. He wants to win again at Texas Motor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[16,181,21,212],"class_list":["post-7982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhra","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series","tag-texas-motor-speedway","tag-william-byron"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BW017Texas_Motor_Speedway_No_Limits_Luncheon__Media_Day-e1490923621790.jpg?fit=625%2C424","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-24K","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7988,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7982\/revisions\/7988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}