CONCORD, N.C. — For William Byron, this trip to Hendrick Motorsports was different.

 

As a fan of the organization with 11 Sprint Cup championships, Byron had visited the Concord, North Carolina, shop before. He peered through the windows at an organization he dreamed of driving for one day.

 

Thursday, his multi-year contract in partnership with JR Motorsports was made official.

 

Friday, he was back at the shop — only this time wearing a black Hendrick polo shirt and a bright smile.

 

“I’ve got a bunch of apparel and things I’m trying out, so I’m really excited about that,” Byron said. “It’s like a kid in a candy store. That’s the cool part about it, but I also can’t wait to get to know some of the guys and meet the crew chiefs.”

 

Team owner Rick Hendrick will give Byron a personal tour of the shop after this weekend’s events at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hendrick came calling a few weeks ago, which Byron had no inkling would happen. Not when his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner, Kyle Busch Motorsports, also has Sprint Cup Series ties.

 

“For Mr. Hendrick to put the deal together and to have the interest in bringing me along as a driver and not have any strings attached is just a really special opportunity,” Byron said. “Not only was it a great fit meeting with them, but then when I heard what he had to say, what he was proposing, it’s something that I just couldn’t turn down.”

 

What was it like for an 18-year-old to meet the legendary car owner?

 

“I was pretty nervous,” Byron said with a laugh. “I was probably trembling a little bit. He just has such a good perspective on the sport and such good insight, so every minute that I got to listen and learn was really neat for me.”

 

There have been no talks or a timetable put in place for his future beyond 2017, when he will run in the NASCAR XFINITY Series in a JRM entry, Byron said. The immediate focus is the Camping World Truck Series championship. Byron leads the drivers points standings by 37 points after Bristol, on the strength of five wins. He also is locked into the series’ inaugural Chase.

“It’s just one thing at a time,” Byron said. “They want me to succeed at JR Motorsports and get to know the guys, get to know the culture, and that’s the most important thing. But it’s encouraging to know I have a future here, and that’s really cool to me.”

 

The excitement of what’s ahead will be hard for Byron to suppress.

Chase Elliott set the bar with JR Motorsports in 2014 with an XFINITY Series championship, and Byron wants to try to match it. Teammates like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne are at his disposal. Jeff Gordon is still around, and his was one of the coolest phone calls Byron said he received. And Jimmie Johnson is someone Byron grew up idolizing and at whose house he once trick-or-treated.

 

“Once we got up there, all the dads that were carting around the candy were really amazed,” Byron said. “They didn’t think he was going to open the door. It was really neat and something I’ll always remember.”

 

As will this week, which Byron could only describe as a whirlwind.

 

“It’s such a surreal feeling,” Byron said. “I’m really proud to be a part of it. It’s fun to have something to want to race for like that, and it’s going to really help the future because I’m so passionate about being here. That’s always a good fit for everyone, and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”

BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Chris Buescher has a victory but remains outside the top 30 in points, a situation that the Front Row Motorsports rookie driver hopes to remedy in the coming weeks as he seeks a berth in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR  Sprint Cup.

For the third consecutive season, NASCAR’s Chase field will consist of drivers in the top 30 in points who have one or more wins, with any remaining positons in the 16-team field determined via points.

Buescher earned his first career Sprint Cup victory at Pocono Raceway, and trails 30th place David Ragan (BK Racing) by only three points heading into Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR). But it’s not just Ragan and the seemingly slim deficit that Buescher said he and his Front Row Motorsports team have their sights set on.

“I think anyone will tell you that it’s not necessarily just three points,” said Buescher. “It’s going to be constantly changing. There are four drivers in this window that can basically upset the balance or change it each and every weekend.

“For us right now, yeah, it’s three points to David Ragan, but after Bristol it could be a completely different story. We could gain points on David, but get passed by the one behind us. It’s a balance, but we’ve got to take it week by week.  … We have to capitalize on our weekends as much as possible. That’s what is going to be important for us — to do the best we can and let everything else fall the way it’s going to.”

Regan Smith trails Buescher by 14 points; Brian Scott sits 11 behind Smith.

Ten drivers have clinched one of the 16 Chase berths based on wins and their current points positions, including defending series champion Kyle Busch and 2012 champ Brad Keselowski. Tony Stewart has a victory, but has yet to officially clinch a spot since the three-time series champ sits 26th in points and could fall out of the top 30.

Eleventh through 16th in points but winless this season are Ryan Newman, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson and Trevor Bayne.

Should Stewart remain in the top 30 and Buescher advance, only four positons would be set based on points.

Just outside the top 16 are Kasey Kahne and Ryan Blaney.

“Right now, we’ve got to get all we can get and be aggressive with it to gain points and that’s more fun racing,” Buescher, one of four drivers competing for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, said. “We can enjoy these weekends and not be too worried about giving it up, just knowing that we’ve got to do everything we can do to run as well as possible.

“That’s not necessarily saying we’ve got to try and get ourselves in a fuel window and run out of gas and lose a bunch of spots. It’s saying we’ve got to be aggressive on track, take passes whenever we can get them, and make sure that we can drive forward so that we’re earning points versus losing them each of these next four weekends.”

Buescher finished 21st at Bristol in the spring race, and said it’s “probably one of our better race tracks this year for speed … and this should be a place where we can gain a lot of those points.”

But, he added, “the guys that we’re racing also run really well here, so it’s going be a battle right up to the end of Richmond.”

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Matt Tifft remembers waking up in the middle of the night in the Intensive Care Unit following his brain surgery. The television was on and the XFINITY Series race at Daytona was playing.

Tifft went right back to sleep that night — but getting back to the track hasn’t been far from his mind since then.

“It’s great to see everyone,” Tifft said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed being at the race track … I don’t know that I’ve ever stayed away from a race track that long.”

The 20-year-old developmental XFINITY driver for Joe Gibbs Racing underwent surgery July 1 to remove a low-grade, benign brain tumor, and has been sidelined from the race track since. Poised and in good spirits, Tifft thoroughly explained the difficult recovery he’s endured for the past month and a half.

“I got this nice scar over here,” Tifft said, gesturing to a long scar on his head. “They got as much (of the tumor) as they could out. The way they best describe it is a wet cotton ball in a cup of water, basically. So, they can pull out as much as they can but there’s always going to be a couple strands left in. … But they were able to go in and do a fairly aggressive surgery and get the most out as possible.

“But one of the most shocking things to me was apparently with a brain tumor, one of the symptoms is a loss of smell. So, I came downstairs the Monday after I had my surgery and my mom, she was washing something with Murphy’s Oil (Soap). I guess I couldn’t smell things for years and it just hit me and it made me nauseous and all of a sudden I just started smelling everything. I was like, ‘My goodness, I can’t believe this.’ “

Scent wasn’t the only sense regained following Tifft’s recovery. He quickly realized how much the tumor had affected details of every day life on many levels.

“The first couple weeks getting back, I could do 30 minutes more of activity without getting too worn out,” Tifft recalled. “What I would figure out, though, is every day I had new experiences — going to the mall, walking around, things that you think are just so normal to everybody – all of a sudden, those things were stressful situations. … It was just fascinating getting to learn about that. And every day I got stronger and better and to the point where I was able to start driving a street car again, get back to normal life, basically. After that, I was able to get back to a normal physical activity level.”

While the process has been wearisome at times, it also has afforded Tifft the opportunity to connect with others who either have gone through brain surgery, themselves, or have children who have undergone a similar process.

“It really puts things in perspective,” Tifft said. “I think sometimes we get lost in this world of NASCAR, sometimes we get trapped in a bubble a little bit with that, and you get hit with something like this and it’s shocking but then you realize with other people, there’s a whole lot more that could be going wrong. It just makes you appreciate things a lot more.”

With a new outlook — and regained sense of smell — Tifft finally climbs behind the wheel Sunday with doctor’s approval for the first time since his procedure, as he tests a late model at Hickory Speedway.

“I think I will be smiling from ear to ear,” Tifft said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to strap back in the seat. It will be a really great feeling.”

But perhaps a better feeling will be eventually getting back into a stock car, the thought that has kept Tifft going since July.

“You get that realization that this is not going to be tomorrow that I’m going to be OK, this is going to take some time and in the beginning that took a while to really understand that,” Tifft said. “There were definitely some times where you’re bummed out and you just want things to go back to normal. Then you just have to keep telling yourself that you have to do everything necessary to get back to that point.

“My goal from the get-go is to get back in the race car. … The reason I was able to stay so positive and so driven was the one goal of getting back in the car.”

RELATED: First session results | Second session results

Kyle Busch captured the top spot on the leaderboard in both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practices Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, clocking in at 129.684 mph in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the final session.

Right behind him in Friday’s second session was Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota at 129.587 mph.

Rounding out the top five were Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (129.386 mph), Ryan Blaney in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford (129.334 mph) and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (129.256 mph.)

Series points leader Brad Keselowski was 10th in the final session at 128.142 mph in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford.

The caution flag came out twice in the final session: first, when Greg Biffle spun, though there was no contact, and a second time when Josh Wise lost a right front tire and slammed into the outside wall.

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In the earlier session, Kyle Busch led the way at 128.969 mph in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Right behind him was teammate Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 JGR Toyota at 128.649 mph. Hamlin also logged the most laps in the 80-minute session at 99.

Rounding out the top five were Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (128.597 mph), Chase Elliott in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (128.511 mph) and Aric Almirola in the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford (128.503 mph).

Series points leader Brad Keselowski was sixth fastest with a speed of 128.468 mph in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford.

The session got underway five minutes late as crews worked to dry a wet track from morning rain. Practice was extended a few minutes to compensate for the late start.

RELATED: Follow Bristol weather updates here