May 22, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

William Byron is fastest in wet and wild practice at COTA

A little rain never bothered anyone. Just ask William Byron.

On Saturday, Byron whipped his No. 24 Chevy around a rain-soaked Circuit of the Americas (COTA) posting a top speed of 77.847 mph in practice. 

Not bad for a driver who not only couldn’t see the cars in front of him during the downpours but who has never raced at the 20-turn, 3.41-mile track. 

“I hope it rains tomorrow,” said Byron, who was fastest in the only practice session for the NASCAR Cup Series cars. “It was really weird at first, just getting used to just where the best line was and getting used to the way you get around there. I’ve spent some time at the go-kart track in the rain and, honestly, you just try to adapt and learn.

“Yeah, it was fun. It was a blast. I don’t know how it was to watch, but it’s so much fun driving.”

Byron has improved significantly on road courses. While he has yet to win when turning left and right, Byron scored consecutive sixth-place finishes on the Charlotte Roval, where he has led 50 of 321 laps combined in three starts at the track. He’s also earned top-10 finishes on the Daytona Road Course and Watkins Glen.

But for a driver whose only experience racing in the rain was behind the wheel of a go-kart, Byron’s initiation was impressive. The 23-year-old racer has proven to be a solid student—particularly under the tutelage of Max Papis, who helped Byron prepare for NASCAR’s newest road course. 

“He’s been probably the best asset for me when it comes to getting comfortable with a road course and just getting comfortable with the race track,” Byron said of Papis. “I feel like, for me, anytime that I hesitate, I’m not so great; especially in adverse conditions like the rain. I kind of felt like I was trying to feel it out there at the beginning of practice and I wasn’t going so great. 

“And then I just started to trust it. I just started to kind of trust my feelings--trust my feeling for grip and what I feel like is a better line and whatnot. It changes every lap with the rain, which is cool. I tried doing one thing one lap and then I’d get comfortable with that and try to do it again and it doesn’t work. It’s cool to have that much dynamic, and I feel like for me, it’s all just about trusting my instincts and my process and not trying to overthink it.”

Establishing the proper comfort zone has been a game-changer for Byron this season—starting with crew chief Rudy Fugle. Byron is currently second in the standings after 11 consecutive top 10s. His five top-fives and 171 laps led in the first 13 races have surpassed his results in the same categories for the entirety of last season.

Despite his tremendous consistency, Byron expects more.

“It sucked to be fourth of four (Hendrick Motorsports drivers) this past week, but I think that we were performing really well,” Byron said. “I’d say the last run of the race (at Dover) was probably our worst run, which wasn’t great. But yeah, I think we’ve had the speed to win. The start of the race was phenomenal, and unfortunately, we had kind of a brake issue that kind of hindered us. But I think we’re showing up with really good speed. We just have to put it all together and build our notebook. 

“We’ve got to be somewhat patient because this is the first time that Rudy and I are going to these tracks together and we don’t exactly know what the track is going to do at the end of the race. Where maybe our teammates have been there a couple of times together. So, I think we’re getting really close It’s just a matter of a couple little things going our way.”

Byron also credits his former crew chief Chad Knaus, who moved into a supervisory role at the end last season. As vice president of competition, Knaus has been able to spread his knowledge among the four Hendrick Motorsports race teams.

“I think he’s done a great job of kind of getting us all working together and giving us all competitive cars at the same time,” Byron said. “In a lot of organizations, it is easy to give one guy something one week, and then roll it out for the other guys. But for us, I feel like Chad is doing a great job of giving us all the same opportunities, which is awesome. 

“That’s all you can ask for as a driver. And I think it’s showing with the cars that we have and with the competitiveness of the four of us. I’m excited for him. I think he fits that role really well.”

After just three seasons on the NASCAR Cup tour, Byron admits there’s still a lot to learn—but for starters, he’ll concentrate on the layout at COTA.

“I’m just now learning the names of the corners; we’re working on that,” Byron said with a chuckle. “I can’t tell you 14 and15; Max was on the radio telling me 14 was not so good and I’m guessing at what 14 is. I’ll talk to him and try to figure out a better name for it, but yeah, I’m going to have to do some studying on the visuals of the turns.

"I didn’t even realize until halfway through practice that when Tab (Boyd, spotter) was saying it was a good lap, the start-finish line was different than what I expected. So, just a lot of different stuff. Just trying to figure it out.”