William Byron (racing driver)
William Byron (racing driver)
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William Byron (racing driver)

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William Byron (racing driver)

William McComas Byron Jr. (born November 29, 1997) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, and part-time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet SS for JR Motorsports.

Byron won the 2015 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Championship and the Rookie of the Year award in the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. The following season, he won both the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship and the 2017 Sunoco Rookie of the Year. He also won the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year award. He is the 2024 and 2025 Daytona 500 winner, and the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion.

Byron became interested in racing when he was six years old after seeing a stock car race on television, and later attended a race at Martinsville Speedway in 2006. He began racing on the iRacing simulator as a teenager with over one hundred wins and 298 top-fives in online competition.

In 2012, he and his father explored how Byron could start racing offline, in real cars. He started racing Legends that year at the age of fifteen, relatively late for modern drivers. That year he won 33 races and became the Legend Car Young Lions Division champion.

For 2014, Byron signed with JR Motorsports late model program, in addition to continuing Legends competition. Byron competed in the No. 9 Liberty University Chevrolet at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina for JRM. Byron scored a single victory and eleven top-five finishes, finishing second in points to teammate Josh Berry at Hickory.

Byron was signed to drive in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for 2015 by HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks, with sponsorship from Liberty University. Byron also continued racing late models for JR Motorsports. In his debut K&N East in February at New Smyrna Speedway, Byron finished seventh. Byron won the second race of the season at Greenville-Pickens Speedway after starting second and leading all 152 laps (two laps past the scheduled distance). Byron made his ARCA Racing Series debut at Lucas Oil Raceway in July, driving the No. 55 Liberty University Toyota Camry for Venturini Motorsports. Byron finished second after leading 120 laps. He scored four K&N East wins en route to winning the series championship. Byron and his team also competed in the 2015 K&N Pro Series West races at Sonoma and Phoenix, finishing fifth and second respectively.

On October 29, 2015, Kyle Busch Motorsports announced that Byron would run a full-time schedule in the team's No. 9 Toyota Tundra in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series during the 2016 season. To prepare him for the run, KBM fielded the No. 9 for him in the 2015 Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway. Byron started the 2016 season on a low note crashing on the final lap at Daytona to finish thirteenth, and finishing 32nd at Atlanta after blowing an engine. Later, Byron would get his first top-three and top-ten in the Truck Series after finishing a strong third at Martinsville. Byron won his first Truck Series race at Kansas in May, after avoiding Ben Rhodes and Johnny Sauter's crash on the last lap of the race, and took his second race win in Texas in June. He won the next race at Iowa, finished seventeenth at Gateway due to a crash, and won yet again at Kentucky, propelling him to first in points. He followed that up with his fifth win of the season at Pocono Raceway, breaking the Camping World Truck Series record for most wins by a rookie. The previous mark was held by Kurt Busch during the 2000 season with four wins.

During the playoffs, Byron won the first race of the Round of 8 at New Hampshire but suffered an engine failure at the last race of the Round of 6 at Phoenix, which cost him the chance to join the Championship 4. With a win at the final race at Homestead, he placed fifth in the overall standings, with a total of seven wins, eleven top-fives, and sixteen top tens in 23 races. In addition to clinching the owners' championship for the No. 9 team, Byron was named Rookie of the Year.

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