NASCAR CUP SERIES
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DRYDENE 311
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 20, 2020
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference to discuss his outlook going into the doubleheader race weekend at Dover International Speedway, the pressure that comes with racing on the Playoff cutline, the mindset that comes with preparing for a doubleheader, and more. Transcript:
WILLIAM, A BIG DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND AT DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY – A VERY IMPORTANT WEEKEND. WALK US THROUGH WHAT’S GOING ON WITH YOU HEADING INTO THIS RACE AS WE GET READY FOR THAT DOUBLEHEADER.
“I’m excited for it. I think Dover is probably one of Chad’s (Knaus, crew chief) best tracks. Obviously, working with Jimmie (Johnson) in the past, I feel like he has a really solid notebook there and I feel like a really clear direction of what he wants to run there. So, that’s always good. I think that helps us, especially when we won’t have practice. I’m excited for it. Two races, two shots at it. We’ve done some simulator work this week and I feel like we’ve done our homework. I know the guys are working hard getting down to the final couple races here to try to make the Playoffs. I think we can do that and hopefully we can have a good weekend and kind of try to extend that point advantage that we have.”
YOU MENTIONED THE PLAYOFFS, OBVIOUSLY EVERYONE HAS AN EYE TOWARDS IT AS WE WRAP UP THE REGULAR SEASON. HOW ARE YOU TRYING TO MAYBE ALLEVIATE SOME OF THE PRESSURE FROM YOURSELF OR FROM BEING OVERWHELMED?
“You just have to go out there and race your race. I think that the last few weeks, honestly, have been more challenging than any other, just because you can’t let that kind of change your mindset for the weekend. It’s definitely just tense times – you have to try to capitalize on every point. I really don’t think about the points until the race is over. That’s kind of our mentality on it – kind of just grab as many spots as we can on the racetrack and hopefully that puts us in a good position. I think Daytona is probably the only place that I’ll be super worried about points. But hopefully we can go out there this weekend and have close to a 30- or 40-point advantage, which is really going to be the only safe bet. So, yeah that’s going to be my goal this weekend.”
IT’S KIND OF WEIRD FOR ME THAT IN ORDER FOR YOU TO STAY UP AND BE IN POSITION ON POINTS, YOU HAVE TO KEEP JIMMIE JOHNSON AT BAY. WHAT’S IT LIKE KNOWING THAT ONE OF YOU, IN ALL LIKELIHOOD AS YOU LOOK AT THE DIFFERENT SCENARIOS, IF ONE MAKES IT, THE OTHER ONE CAN’T. OF COURSE, YOU’RE OUT THERE TO DO THE BEST FOR YOURSELF INDIVIDUALLY, BUT IS IT KIND OF WEIRD FIGHTING FOR THAT LAST SPOT WITH YOUR TEAMMATE?
“Yeah, it’s odd. You’d like to be in a different position than that, but that’s ultimately what’s happened and the position that we’re in. I think for us as a team, selfishly as the 24 team, we want to do as well as possible and get ourselves into the Playoffs so we have something to race for in the last 10 races and really have an opportunity to advance through the rounds like we did last year. Yeah, it’s tough. I’m the biggest Jimmie (Johnson) fan I feel like out there. I hope that we both can make it somehow. I know this is his best racetrack coming up, so we’re definitely keeping an eye on that. Hopefully, we’re within striking distance of a few guys ahead of us in points as well and maybe we can keep climbing our way up there and try to get ourselves out of the hole that we kind of put ourselves in earlier in the season.”
YOU MENTIONED BEFORE MAYBE BEING A LITTLE MORE NERVOUS ABOUT DAYTONA. COMING OUT OF THE DOVER WEEKEND, YOU CAN MAYBE HOPE TO MOVE UP TO 15TH, SOMEWHERE IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD, MAYBE A LITTLE BIT BETTER. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’LL GO TO DAYTONA HOPEFULLY ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, BUT STILL HOW NERVOUS ARE YOU GOING THERE THAT CLOSE TO CUTOFF LINE?
“Yeah, I think you kind of have to take the approach of, this year with that being the cutoff race – typically we have I think Richmond as the cutoff in the past and last year I think it was Indianapolis – those places are somewhat more predictable. Indianapolis being a little less predictable, but you at least had an idea going in of what you were going to face and maybe where you could run. Whereas this Daytona race is going to be like an elimination-style format race, so really just have to go in there with as much of a gap and buffer that we can. I think that you’re going to have to race aggressively at Daytona because if you don’t get any stage points, then you’re ultimately going to be looking at possibly a one- or two-point day, which would be horrible. So, I think you have to go for the stage points, hopefully get five or six – 10 would be awesome – and then you can kind of live with the result at the end of the race. That’s kind of the way the speedways have been lately. When I look at Talladega in the Playoffs last year and kind of how we approached it, we raced hard the whole time. It didn’t work out in the end, but at least we had some points to fall back on.”
SINCE THE NASCAR SERIES RETURNED TO RACING IN MAY, THERE HAVE BEEN FOUR TRACKS THAT HAVE HOSTED BACK-TO-BACK RACES: DARLINGTON, CHARLOTTE, POCONO AND MICHIGAN. OF THOSE EIGHT, YOU HAVE SCORED SIX TOP-15 FINISHES AND YOU ARE ONE OF SIX DRIVERS TO IMPROVE YOUR FINISH FROM RACE ONE TO RACE TWO. YOU’RE ONE OF FIVE DRIVERS WHO’S AVERAGE FINISH FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY HAS IMPROVED BY AN AVERAGE OF EIGHT POSITIONS. WHAT DOES THAT SAY? DOES THAT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE FOR A WEEKEND LIKE THIS?
“I think so. I think having another race in the weekend just makes it easier to learn and improve from the previous race, whether that be the car or even yourself. So, I think it’s definitely an opportunity to get better. I feel like us on the 24 team, we were slightly better with practice last year. I feel like we had really come into our own as a race team, through practice and going through the fall events. The Playoffs, we had some really, really good runs. I do think that hurts us a little bit, so I think the second day kind of allows us, the engineers, Chad and myself to work on all the little details that we need to improve. And ultimately, that’s just our mentality – if we’re not improving the next day, then that’s definitely going to be a poor finish and a poor day. I like the doubleheaders. I think they’re great. It really gives you a chance to get comfortable with the surroundings and just the race track in general.”
YOU HAD SAID EVEN THOUGH DOVER IS CONCRETE, THE SURFACE CHANGES A LOT DURING THE RACE. CAN YOU SORT OF TELL THE RACE FANS HOW THE TRACK CHANGES FROM THE DRIVER’S PERSPECTIVE?
“Rubber at Dover is a huge factor in speed. Typically, you’ll go out there in practice and the first few laps on the track are a half-second faster than the rest of the practice. The first practice is really probably a half-second in lap time difference from first practice to second at Dover. I feel like typically the thing that makes the biggest difference there is rubber. So, you get into the race and under caution, everybody pulls the rubber off the race track. It’s really sticky and the track is super aggressive for rubber being laid down. It’s very unique and really the groove moves up by the wall at some point during the race and then it comes back down. It’s just a challenging track to try to chase those changing conditions, for sure.”
GOING BACK TO DAYTONA, EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE FIGHTING ON THE BUBBLE RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE A GREAT SHOT TO WIN AT DOVER. WITH THE SPEED THAT YOU GUYS HAD AT DAYTONA IN FEBRUARY, DOES THAT KIND OF ALLEVIATE SOME OF THAT PRESSURE OR IS A WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME BECAUSE THE TRACK IS GOING TO BE HOTTER?
“We always seem to have speed in qualifying and the Duels in February. Our guys do a really good job of preparing going into those races. I feel like that’s kind of a normal thing for us. I think that as we get into the summer months and we go back to Daytona in July, typically when we do and what the track is going to be similar to here in August, we typically fight handling a lot more. We try to do a pretty diligent job of trying to figure out where our handling needs to be for this race and making sure that we handle well enough. I think really the cars slide around a lot at Daytona when you come back in July or August. The track is difficult to get a hold of. But I think it also helps some of the better cars, the better drivers and the best handling cars rise to the front in this race. That’s what we’re going to work diligently on. I don’t really think we’ve spent a lot of time yet on Daytona until we get past Dover and know what position we’re in.”
THE CHOOSE RULE IS BACK IN PLAY THIS WEEKEND. I’M JUST CURIOUS, WITH THIS NEW RULE, HOW DOES IT CHANGE OR WHAT MORE DO YOU HAVE TO DO IN TERMS OF PREP? OR IS THAT SOMETHING THE ENGINEERS FEED YOU TO HELP YOU DECIDE WHAT LANE TO CHOOSE DURING THE RACE?
“What we found at Michigan – which is much different obviously because the bottom was so treacherous and the draft was so big in the outside lane – I think that there it was a bigger factor in just choosing the outside lane, unless you were really going to lose a lot of positions. I think Dover is fairly even on lane choice. I know the bottom lane doesn’t accelerate as well on the restart zone, so if you’re maybe second, you might choose to restart fourth instead of on the inside in second. I don’t really know, I think it’s all just feel and how your car is handling. Obviously, the engineers can try to science it out as best they can. But typically, just common-sense plays into a rule like this for sure.”
WITH THE DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND, WHAT’S IT LIKE SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY FOR A DRIVER? IN A NORMAL RACE WEEKEND, YOU GO HOME AND DO THE RECOVERY. I’M JUST CURIOUS IN THE MINDSET IN HAVING TO COMPLETE A RACE AND THEN START THINKING ABOUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO THE CAR OR WHAT MORE YOU CAN DO THE NEXT DAY. WHAT’S THE PROCESS YOU GO THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT ON THESE DOUBLEHEADERS AND WHAT YOU MIGHT GO THROUGH THIS WEEKEND?
“I think this is probably going to be the biggest challenge, so I think there will be a lot of physical training and recovery that’s going into Sunday. Luckily, there are quite a few hours in between the races. I believe the races start at 4:00. It’s going to be pretty straightforward in terms of having a lot of time to devote to recovery and eating right. And then you have the team aspect – they’re trying to get the car back through inspection, they’re trying to get it cleaned up from the first race. Hopefully, there isn’t a lot of damage. You have to get your feedback back to them pretty quickly. They pretty much have an idea of what the issues were with the car in the first race based on your feedback and comments on the radio, so try to just give that detailed feedback. Hopefully, we can just make it better with our tools and have a better second race. That’s the goal with the doubleheaders – just trying to improve. It’s almost like the first race is like a practice session.”
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE HEAT. HOW WAS IT DURING THE ROAD COURSE AT DAYTONA? HOW ARE YOU PREPARING FOR IT? WHAT DO YOU THINK NASCAR CAN DO TO HELP ALLEVIATE THIS HEAT IN THE CARS?
“I think there’s really two or three factors with the heat. There’s the fact that we’ve raced a lot more over the summer than we typically are used to, so the recovery time is not as much. Even though we don’t have practice or qualifying, we typically have a mid-week race or a doubleheader race, so we have more events. I think the other thing is the climates that we’re racing in is twice as hot than we typically race in during the summer. Typically, in Daytona, if anything, we’re racing at night – never during the day and never on a road course. I think the right-side window piece definitely made the cars extremely hot this year. It just becomes hard to breathe. You’re kind of sitting in a sauna and suffocating in the same air that just keeps staying in the car. Whereas before, we used to have air kind of evacuate and leave the car. You might not be getting fresh, cold air, but at least you’re not breathing in the same air the whole time. I think NASCAR is doing a good job in making some changes. To be honest, the road course at Daytona was a little bit dangerous how hot it was. I think a lot of us were possibly going to make it to the end of the race, but definitely not anywhere near one hundred percent. It was going to be a difficult challenge. Luckily, we got the lightning delay and had a chance to get some fluids, cool down and go from there. So, that was a blessing, for sure.”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PREPARE FOR IT?
“I train with my trainers, so I’ve tried to amp up my training in August. I typically don’t do a lot of training during the summertime because it’s so hot. But with the schedule that we have, it’s pretty necessary.”
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