NASCAR CUP SERIES
COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PLAYOFFS MEDIA DAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THROWBACK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – ROTATION TRANSCRIPT:
OTHER THAN YOURSELF, WHO DO YOU THINK IS A DARK HORSE TEAM OR A SUPRRISE TO MAKE A RUN THAT PEOPLE SHOULD WATCH IN THE PLAYOFFS?
“That’s a good question. I think honestly, I’d say Aric Almirola. I just think they’re consistent, they’ve been consistently fast at a lot of these tracks. The only thing with that is I feel like a lot of the tracks are going to be much different in the Playoffs than the ones we ran in the summertime. Typically, summertime is a lot of 2-mile tracks and big, fast, open racetracks, and that’s not really the case in the playoffs. But I’d say they perform pretty well throughout.”
CONGRATS ON LAST WEEKEND – I KNOW THAT WAS BIG FOR YOU. YOU JUST DEALT WITH A STRESSFUL, PRESSURE-PACKED SITUATION IN TRYING TO ADVANCE INTO THE PLAYOFFS. TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE MINDSET NOW FOR YOUR TEAM GOING FORWARD. YOU’VE GOT THESE NEXT THREE WEEKS. OBVIOUSLY, YOU’D LOVE TO GET ANOTHER CHECKERED FLAG, BUT TAKE ME THROUGH THE MINDSET RIGHT NOW THAT YOU GUYS ARE GOING THROUGH.
“Honestly, for us, I think that now having that first win of the season and first win for me and this team, I feel like we’re more focused on just executing the details of each race. Obviously, our goal going into this year was to make it further than we did last year in the playoffs, which was the Round of 12 last year. So, if we can make it to the Round of 8 this year, it would be a success, for sure. We just have to take it one race at a time. A lot of these tracks are good for us. I think the first round is probably the weakest of the tracks for us, so we just have to try to focus on that, try to just compete in every race and hopefully get out of this first round with a great race at Darlington. Richmond is definitely our toughest of the three, so we’re going to have to really work hard at that race to have a good run.”
CONGRATS ON THE WIN AND THE NEW CONTRACT. HOW DID ALL OF THAT COME INTO PLAY AND WERE YOU ALREADY NEGOTIATING PRIOR TO THE WIN?
“Honestly for us, we were already kind of negotiating that. I had one year left after this one, so it wasn’t super urgent to get it done or anything. But when Hendrick came to me and wanted to sign for a couple more years, I was thrilled and I think it’s worked out well for both of us. The fact that they have confidence in me is a great thing and I can just go out there and race as hard as I can and try to do the best that I can for them. They’ve made that known that they just want to focus on the race track and I’m going to try to do that throughout the playoffs, for sure.”
AS YOU LOOK AHEAD AT THIS FIRST ROUND, BRISTOL BEING THE CUTOFF RACE – DAYTONA WAS AN UNPREDICTABLE RACE, IT’S A SUPERSPEEDWAY. IS BRISTOL GOING TO BE THE SAME TYPE OF WILD CARD, WHERE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND A SURPRISE COULD POP UP OUT OF NOWHERE AS WELL?
“I think the surprise will just be some of the guys that maybe have issues with their cars or get caught up in a wreck. But I think you’re going to have to run well and perform well to win that race. There’s really not a fluke, per say. For us, we’re just going to focus on running well at Bristol. It’s a track where things happen really fast. You can’t have mistakes on pit road and you can’t have mistakes on the track. So, that’s our focus – to just have a mistake-free race there. We had a fast car there in the first race of the year back in June. The All-Star race was OK for us – I think we finished somewhere in the top-10. We just have to try to improve and see what we can do.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS HAVING THAT STABILITY THROUGH 2022, ESPECIALLY WHENEVER A COMPANY CHANGES LEADERSHIP, THERE’S ALWAYS QUESTIONS ABOUT STABILITY OF THE SPONSORSHIPS. TO KNOW THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE THERE FOR A COUPLE MORE YEARS, HOW MUCH DOES THAT IMPACT YOU?
“Well, it’s huge. I think for me, the confidence comes from knowing that Mr. Hendrick and Jeff (Gordon) have confidence in me no matter what sponsor or whoever is on my car. They’ve made that known since I’ve been there, is that my deal is separate from anything like that and I can go out there and compete hard, drive their car and they’re going to make sure that I can be on the race track each and every week. So, I think that’s where my confidence comes from – just knowing that I’m going to be in that car. Definitely with this deal, I can focus on the playoffs and focus on trying to win more races.”
YOU’RE IN A GREAT STARTING SPOT FOR THE UPCOMING RACE AT DARLINGTON. YOU’RE LINED UP RIGHT NEXT TO ALEX (BOWMAN). IS THERE ANY TALK ABOUT YOU GUYS MAYBE KIND OF GETTING A STRATEGY TOGETHER TO RACE TO THE FRONT OF THE PACK OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
“I mean not really, just because Darlington is not like a speedway race or somewhere where you can really work together. But I think that for us all starting up towards the front, the three of us, I think that’s going to be great. It’s going to be an advantage to have three cars up there competing for stage wins and things of that nature. I think it’s all going to elevate our game and just gives us that advantage. Starting up front is just huge at any race track. Darlington is luckily a long race, so even if you start towards the back, you’ve got plenty of time to get towards the front. It’s going to help having a great pit stall selection – that’s what really comes to mind for me is having that great pit stall.”
YOU’RE ONLY THE SECOND DRIVER TO WIN BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THE NO. 24 CAR – THE OTHER OF COURSE BEING JEFF GORDON. YOUR WIN LAST SATURDAY, YOU ACCOMPLISHED YOUR FIRST VICTORY AT A YOUNGER AGE THAN JEFF GORDON. I JUST WONDERED, WHAT WERE YOUR EMOTIONS FOLLOWING THE RACE TAKING THAT CHECKERED FLAG AND DID JEFF GORDON REACH OUT TO YOU AFTERWARDS?
“Definitely. It was cool to talk to Jeff (Gordon) on Sunday, just get his thoughts on it and just the excitement there between the two of us. We’ve really worked well together in the past of just trying to understand how to get better and improve. He’s given me some nuggets and some things that I can improve on. It’s been great to talk to him about the team aspect and things that we can do to just continue to elevate our performance. It’s just been a great couple of days. I was super excited when we finished that race like we did – it was really fun.”
YOU AND YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHAD KNAUS A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO WAS BROADCASTED OVER THE AIR WAVES – YOU KIND OF HAD A STRUGGLE THERE. BUT SINCE THEN, YOU GUYS HAVE REBOUNDED. HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT GOING TO BE GOING INTO THE FIRST ROUND, WHERE YOU SAY YOU’VE STRUGGLED AT THE THREE RACE TRACKS COMING UP? HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND WINNING THE SEVEN CHAMPIONSHIPS, HOW DOES THAT HELP YOU GOING INTO THIS FIRST ROUND?
“I think it helps a lot. I mean obviously, a couple weeks ago, we were struggling there at Dover. But we really turned it around. Since that second race, we’ve really been on it. I think honestly for us, we’ve gotten past those hurdles and we’ve been able to handle the pressure really well. So, just knowing that the two of us together can handle the pressure, go out there and do what we need to do – I have confidence in him and we know that we have the same goals. We both want to win and we’ll do whatever it takes to do that.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT DARLINGTON THAT MAKES IT A CHALLENGING TRACK?
“Gosh, everything. I think just the fact that it’s two lanes wide. The fact that you have to run against the wall to make speed. These cars are super sensitive to hitting the wall to begin with – you can’t even really touch the wall nowadays and get away with it. So, you have to factor all that stuff in when you go to race at Darlington. It’s a tough track. Restarts are tough there because there’s definitely a dominant lane on the outside. Having the choose cone in effect is going to make that a challenge, as well. You can kind of name everything – the playoffs, it’s not going to be easy.”
THIS IS YOUR SECOND-CONSECUTIVE YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS. YOU’RE A YEAR OLDER, YOU’VE GOT A WIN UNDER YOUR BELT. HOW DOES YOUR APPROACH TO THE 2020 PLAYOFFS DIFFER FROM YEARS PAST?
“I think honestly for me, just having that comfort in knowing what the playoffs are like. The first race last year in the playoffs was kind of action-packed and intense for me. I learned a lot through that and you have to handle adversity well. I feel like we’ve been through a lot of adversity this year. We’ve had a lot of tire issues, we’ve had some issues with just random things that have happened. So, now we’ve been through that stuff so we can go into the playoffs and know that we are able to handle that adversity well.”
YOU MENTIONED RICHMOND AS BEING A CHALLENGING TRACK. ONE THING THAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT THIS YEAR IS THAT THE SPRING RICHMOND RACE WASN’T HELD, SO THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME AT RICHMOND THIS YEAR. OBVIOUSLY, THERE ARE SOME OTHER TRACKS THAT CAN MAYBE CORRELATE. WHAT WILL THE CHALLENGE BE, ESPECIALLY WITH IT BEING A PLAYOFF RACE, FIRST TIME THIS SEASON FOR YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE?
“That’s a good point – we haven’t raced there this year. It’s not one of my favorite tracks, but I think that for us, we’ll lean on our notes and information from New Hampshire. I think we had a good run there. We also finished OK at Phoenix, as well. I think we finished 11th at New Hampshire and 10th at Phoenix. So, right around the top-10, which is kind of our goal going into Richmond. I think if we can finish in the top-10, it’ll give us an opportunity to try and win at a couple other tracks. I think it’s one of those tracks where you kind of lower your expectations a little bit for us and try to just get out of there with a solid finish. One that we can kind of gather the points we need to going into the next couple.”
WE TALKED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT CHAD KNAUS – WE SAW THE TURNAROUND AT DOVER AND WHAT LED TO AT DAYTONA. CHAD’S BEEN VERY VOCAL IN SAYING THAT HE WANTED TO WIN WITH THE NO. 24 CAR. HAVE YOU GUYS TALKED AT ALL OR CAN YOU GIVE US ANY INSIGHT ON WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS, IF YOU AND CHAD HAVE TALKED ABOUT NEXT YEAR OR WHAT HE’S DOING?
“I don’t really handle all those talks and stuff with what’s going on there. But I love working with Chad (Knaus, crew chief). I think he’s been great for my career. He’s elevated me from where I was in my rookie year – where this team was in my rookie year, which was not something we were proud of – and elevated us into a playoff-contending team. A lot of that is thanks to him. It’s not just be as a driver – it’s our engineers, it’s our team, pit crew, mechanics, it’s everybody that he’s elevated their game for us to get into the playoffs two years in a row. I think it’s been a great thing for me and I look forward to what’s ahead in these next ten races with him.”
I KNOW JIMMIE JOHNSON HAS MEANT A LOT TO YOU EVER SINCE YOU JOINED THE HENDRICK SQUAD BACK IN 2017 I THINK IT WAS. THIS WEEKEND, WHAT’S IT GOING TO MEAN TO HONOR HIM THROWBACK STYLE IN HIS 2013 ALL-STAR SCHEME FOR THE 24?
“It’s going to be really cool. Honestly for me, I’m excited about running that scheme and I feel like looking at his car on the race track, as well, is going to be really cool. I’m excited to see all those throwback schemes, particularly Jimmie’s and just look forward to seeing what that’s like. I think Darlington has a great tradition going there.”
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