NASCAR CUP SERIES
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MARCH 29, 2025
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ practice and qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
Hendrick Motorsports has won three straight races here. The fall race has been a different story for the organization. Is there a difference between spring and fall races here that is the difference between you guys winning and losing?
“Yeah, I think typically there’s been a new tire going into the fall, so I don’t feel like we’ve had a repeat tire here at Martinsville in the Next Gen era. That’s really allowed us to hone in on our setup. So, yeah, that’s been, I feel like, part of the equation. And then, honestly, just the speed equation. I feel like we’ve been a step off in the fall. It seems like in the spring, everyone’s fairly even in the top five. The Gibbs cars can be pretty strong, and Penske is kind of not as strong in the spring, it seems like. And then they obviously get a lot better in the fall.
So I don’t know. Based on how things are going lately, I feel like Penske’s going to be really good this weekend, and it’ll probably be a battle between all the top organizations. No tire change, so I think you’ll probably see the normal players that you saw in the fall.”
Looking ahead to Darlington, how do you get yourself in the middle space to race that track, not be too aggressive and make sure you get to the end when it really counts?
“Yeah, I think that over-aggression’s kind of overblown at Darlington. Especially with this car, you can be pretty aggressive. It’s just — I don’t know, I think you’ve got to be aggressive at Darlington now to get clean air and to stay up towards the front.
So yeah, you’ve got to be good on the long run. So however you manage that, whether that’s setup or driver inputs, you just have to be good on the long run. But yeah, you can’t really afford to just kind of ride around in this car at Darlington anymore. It’s going to be a lot like Homestead, where you’ve got to run the fence and be good at all the different lanes.”
At what point of the season do you start assessing who’s a legitimate contender in the regular season championship? Is it too early or are we still kind of waiting for the stretch?
“Yeah, I’d say get to July probably and kind of figure out who’s close in points. I think the last few years, we’ve kind of seen that guys within 40 points can kind of make a charge and win the regular season. So honestly, for us, it’s just you’ve got to put a lot of stage wins together. You’ve got to put a lot of race wins together. So yeah, it’s whoever’s going to break out and win multiple races. Obviously Bell’s already done that, but they’ve been kind of up and down, inconsistent. So yeah, I think it’s whoever gets a lot of stage points, stage wins, and then race wins.. whoever kind of starts racking them up.”
How hard is it for you to find patience here in Martinsville to put your car in victory lane?
“Yeah, I mean it’s kind of the same answer I gave about Darlington. You’ve got to be patient mentally, but physically on the track, I think it’s a little bit different. So yeah, I think just taking care of the components of the car.. making sure that you don’t get any major damage. These cars are really tough though, so you’ve just got to watch for stack-ups and things like that. But when it comes to passing, you’ve got to really kind of wear the guy in front of you down. So there’s no other way to do that than just be aggressive.”
Narrow pit road last week, narrow pit road this week, tight pit road at Darlington. It seems like there have been some more incidences on pit road. Maybe you see it differently, but I’m just curious what you’re seeing on pit road and the challenges, especially at these places where it’s a narrow pit road and trying to avoid contact and just trying to keep your car clean?
“Well, so I think a couple things are happening. I think pit road is more competitive than it’s ever been. So I feel like the rolling time is more of the equation than the pit stop by percentage amount of time. So everyone’s getting super aggressive with rolling time.. clearing out to a lane. If you can get to the outside lane, that’s a huge key because you’ve got guys merging coming off. But, yeah, we’ve just been to some tight pit roads, I would say, recently, and the pit stops are all super close in timing. Like an 8.5 is top of the board, best pit stop you can have, and then a 9.5 is like a middle of the road to a slow stop. So I think you’re just seeing a lot of aggression because the pit stops are so fast and everyone is getting kind of cleared into — like you can have a decent or a slow stop and you might lose three or four spots because everyone’s in a really close pile. So, yeah, I think that’s part of it.”
William, you’re in the points lead. You’ve been fast in every race. How difficult is it to keep that hot hand going, especially in this Next Gen car? And also considering that nearly two-thirds of your wins have come with the first eight races?
“Yeah, I mean, I think we’ve been traditionally strong at the beginning and the end of the season. It seems like we kind of have a lull in the middle. Obviously we’re trying not to do that this year, so I feel like this is a good start. We’ve been really consistent.
Even if you looked at the years that we’ve won races traditionally in the spring, we’ve been very consistent. This year we’ve been super consistent, just looking for a little bit more pace in the end of the race. So I think for us, we just have to continue to focus on our notebook throughout the weekend; what we can do to perfect the end of the race. We’ve had three weeks in a row that we haven’t restarted at the front. At the beginning of stage three, we’ve had some sort of issue, whether it’s speeding, cautions or a strategy thing didn’t work out. We have not had smooth races, but we’ve been able to overcome, and I think that’s where I see our team — our maturity is being able to overcome setbacks.
So if we can do that all year, we’re going to probably be up there in the points the entire time and not have sort of those down stretches that we’ve had in the past. Like I said, hopefully this weekend we can just perfect start to finish this weekend. Typically our guys do a really good job starting the weekend with a close balance, and we just got to keep that going throughout the weekend.”
In the last 13 races, Hendrick Motorsports has won five, leading all the other major teams with victories, but historically Hendrick as an organization just seems to do well here. What do you attribute that to?
“Yeah, it’s kind of the age-old question. I think for us, it’s just good preparation, good engines, good brakes, good teamwork. I think all those thing — you can’t win here if you don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle, and that’s why this place is so tough. You have to have good pit stops, good car, good execution. So it just takes everything. I think Hendrick Motorsports has, I feel like, the best teams out there to do that. I think we unload with good cars that are in the ballpark, and we’re just able to work from there to have a really successful weekend. So even the years we’ve been off, we’ve been able to execute our way to wins. I think Kyle (Larson) won here with a two-tire call, and a couple other times we’ve been able to kind of track position our way forward. So, yeah, I think it just takes the whole team.”
William. I’ve got to ask you sort of a two-part question. Number one, you know, you’ve had success here with the wins. Is there one win that you like stronger than any other? And also, where do you have your grandfather clocks?
“Yeah, all the wins here are really special. I’ve been fortunate enough to win three clocks, and I feel like the biggest thing is every one is special for different reasons. The one in 2022 is special for my family, and then the one last year was special for the Hendrick family. So I just feel like every time you win here, it’s just a really big deal. You know, the fans are right there in front of you. It’s really up close, and I feel like there’s just a lot of energy and excitement around the wins here. My clocks are in my house, and, yeah, it’s cool to look at those every now and then and kind of remember what those moments were like. But hopefully we win some more.”
Do you come in here at all remembering the longest 28 minutes of your life, if they were the longest 28 minutes of your life?
“Yeah, yeah ,they were. You know, it’s funny you say that because I hadn’t thought about it much at all, and then I went out for the truck race, and my pit stall was right around pit stall six, and it triggered a memory.. a scar tissue. So, yeah, last fall was wild, for sure. Yeah, I feel like there’s parts of that race you just block out and just, I don’t know, it’s just hopefully we can make better memories here this year, for sure.”
So you mentioned the change in tires over the years. This will be the third race counting Bowman Gray that you’ve run on a specific tire setup. I was curious, with the different temperature changes, do you kind of have a handle on what to expect tomorrow?
“I hope so. I mean, I think we ran this tire at Bowman Gray. We had some issues there, but, yeah, I hope so. We can hopefully dial in some of the things that we need to have with this tire, but last fall was good on this tire. A lot of wear, and obviously like the clumping and the marbling of the tire, so just interested to see how that changes the groove, and the track’s been laying a lot of rubber this weekend. I think the kind of core temperature of the concrete is pretty warm this weekend. It’s not getting super cold overnight, so I feel like that’s helping lay rubber. So, yeah, I think you’re going to see — like I said, I think you’re going to see a really similar race to the fall, and hopefully we’ve just made those improvements where we can be right there.”
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