William Byron will likely be the one to tell you he’s no stranger to a midseason slump. It happened again this year as the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver has been winless since April after he was victorious in three of the year’s first eight races.
No matter how bad the slump may have gotten in the past, Byron always turned it on once the 10-race postseason kicked off.
However, 2024 has thrown Byron a bit of a curveball early in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as he was only able to muster a best finish of ninth in the Round of 16 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It’s just the second time in his career Byron failed to score a top-five result in the first three races of the postseason, with the other being in 2019, his first playoff appearance.
Despite the slow start in this year’s championship quest, Byron and the No. 24 camp aren’t pressing the panic button any time soon.
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“I feel like that’s what makes our group really good is we’ve really come together during this time and we know we’re not where we want to be or need to be,” Byron told NASCAR.com. “But now is the time to start showing that and now is when it matters.”
This weekend will matter substantially for the 12 drivers remaining in the battle for the Bill France Trophy as Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) opens another potentially chaotic round that ends with Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Byron has a mixed bag of results in 13 starts in the Sunflower State. His last two finishes at the track have been outside the top 10, with 15th- and 23rd-place results, respectively. Neither was due to a lack of speed, but mistakes in both events from the 26-year-old wheelman.
“Just kind of had some trouble early in both of those weekends,” Byron said. “Feel like we had a lot of speed, but we just had some difficulties. In ’23, I spun out in the first stage, kind of damaged the car some and then in the spring this year, hit the wall in qualifying. Just kind of a little bit of driver mistakes and feel like it kind of took us out of the rest of the weekend or damaged our car potential. This weekend, just looking to have a solid weekend, start to finish and I feel like we always have the speed at Kansas and just trying to find that right balance for longer runs and just have what we need to go there and perform.”
With two 1.5-mile ovals waiting in the Round of 8, Kansas will set the tone for how the playoff drivers will fare for the rest of the season.
In 2023, three of the four drivers eliminated in the Round of 16 finished outside the top 10 when Kansas was the middle race of that round and in 2022, the four drivers eliminated in the opening round all finished outside the top 10 at the oval.
“It’s definitely a really important track and it’s really a good judge of where everyone is speed-wise and how they are execution-wise because pit stops are important in Kansas,” Byron said. “It’s one of those places where I think it’ll be really important for the future of the playoffs and kind of where you stack up. There’s just a lot of points that you can get and it’s a little bit more in your control than Talladega. If you go out and get top five in stage points, both stages, you’re going to be in really good shape.”
A points reset starting the Round of 12 sees Byron 14 points above the elimination line and in fourth place of the playoff field. It offers the No. 24 team a golden opportunity to reboot and get its championship hopes back on track.
“I feel like our group is really well prepared. We prepare better than anyone I feel like on our team,” Byron said. “I just think that it’s about things starting to come together and come our way. A couple little things here and there and it’s going to add up and make a difference. So I feel good about where our group is and what we’re capable of. We’ve shown that over the last 14 to 18 months of what we’re able to do and races were able to win.
“I’m excited, and I feel like our team is ready to go.”