RICHMOND, Va: With the checkered flag on the horizon for the conclusion of the regular NASCAR Cup Series season, Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron isn’t thinking about being crowned the regular season champion.
Sitting a season low 29th in the championship standings following the Daytona 500 in February, Bryon’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team suffered another early season setback in April when they were hammered with a 60-point penalty and the loss of five Playoff points following the Cup race at Richmond Raceway in April when their car had illegal modifications to the area where the windows and windshield are located.
Methodically throughout the regular season, Byron and Hendrick Motorsports overall have been able to emerge from the technical woes headaches and let their stretch of solid performances and four wins overall propel themselves back into contention for the regular season championship fight – but with five races remaining before the Playoffs begin at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in September, Byron said Saturday morning at Richmond Raceway – his No. 24 team is focused on what’s in front of them instead of worrying about the future.
“Yeah, it’s (regular season championship) really important but we can’t get too focused on the result of the regular season points,” said Byron. “We obviously want those points, but our process has been like it is to this point, and if we start focusing on that carrot out in front of us too much, it’s going to get us off-track. Yeah, we’re 30 points behind – all that is up for play and up for grabs.
“But for us, it’s just trying to do the same things every week that got us to this point. We had a 60 point penalty this time in the spring and we’ve crawled all the way back and took the point lead. We’ve just got to focus on trying to knock off results that are going to get us 40- to 50-point days. Those would be really good.”
And while Bryon may not be thinking about the regular season championship during Sunday’s Cook Out 400, Byron is keeping an eye on the cars who have speed for a much bigger reason.
The eight-time Cup Series winner noted that the teams that have carried speed at Richmond in the past – often find themselves competitive in the Championship 4 season-finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway where points don’t matter.
“I expect there to be kind of a clear idea of who’s got the speed at the short-tracks. When I look at last year’s race here, (Joey) Logano led 200-plus laps and went onto Phoenix (Raceway) and dominated,” explained Byron.
“So, I do think there’s some correlation to being good here on Sunday to being good at Phoenix. Yeah, it is kind of our last true test of what we’ve got for – I would say the three-quarter to one-mile race tracks. We’ve hopefully got speed here on Sunday to show that we’re good on the short-tracks and give ourselves confidence that we can go to Phoenix and have a good car.”
Byron qualified his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet sixth for Sunday’s 400-lap race.
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