William Byron hopes to start his “preparation for the playoffs” with a “good run and a good track position” at Indy
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William Byron
William Byron, the No:24 driver of Hendrick Motorsports, has been struggling to get Camaro ZL1 back to the podium following his second win of the season that came in the Martinsville 13 cup race weeks ago. Since then, the HMS youngster has finished inside the top 10 only once as the majority of his finishes came inside the Top 15, so breaking this underwhelming run and converting it into a winning run will be vital for his playoff runs.
The Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, the 22nd round of cup racing, will be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With only 5 rounds of racing remaining in the regular season, it’s a make-or-break situation for the drivers in the quest for the playoff or the regular season title. William Byron who was once among the regular season championship contender with his teammate Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain will be hoping to get back to the top 5 in the championship table before the post-0season starts.
Find out what William Byron had to say about his race outing
William Byron pointed out that with the Next-Gen car the team had struggled a lot in the road course races at the start of the season compared to the previous years and only after his Watkins Glenn test outing, they were able to amend the struggles and turn the pages of their road course program. He added that the No:24 team has been able to build the notebook for each road course race this year so far.
“I feel like to start this season with the Next Gen car we really struggled at road courses, especially compared to the year before. We were able to test at Watkins Glen (International), though, and I think that really helped us start to turn the page on our road course program. We’ve been able to build that notebook with each road course so far this year,” William Byron said.
William Byron went on to say that they have made some strides in bettering their road course package together. He acknowledged that the first focus for the race weekend will be having a solid qualifier which can earn then good track position at the start to work on. He added that the team is focused on executing every aspect of racing the right way in order to set them better for playoffs.
“I think we have really made strides to make that package better and put all the pieces together like we need to. The first focus for the weekend is qualifying and making sure we set ourselves up with a good run to get a good track position and just work from there. Our focus for not only this weekend, but races moving forward, is to really execute every aspect of a race weekend from start to finish in preparation for the playoffs,” William Byron added.
William Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle the race in Indy will be more of a survival race for the team than other road course races, He pointed out that the newly expanded run-off area though will be suitable for curbing the incidents such as what happened last year it won’t be good for the Next-Gen car as getting it there might cause some damage to the underwing and diffuser of the car.
“I think this weekend’s road course race at Indianapolis (Motor Speedway) will be a little bit more about survival than other road course races. There are a lot more run-off areas there and they have changed the curbing in some places around the track to try to avoid what happened last year. With the Next-Gen car, it’s going to be critical to minimize running over those to keep the underwing intact and not tear up the diffuser,” Rugy Fugle said.
Rudy Fugle went on to say that managing the transition area from the road course to the oval will be another challenge for the team similar to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL setup. He added that if the drivers can keep the car intact the race is winnable with the normal road course pit and track strategies.
“The other big thing will be managing the transition areas of the track from the road course sections onto the oval – similar to how the (Charlotte Motor Speedway) ROVAL is set up. We haven’t run a course like that this year with this car or this tire. I think that if you can keep your car in one piece throughout the weekend, and can manage your usual pit strategy and track position on a road course, you’ll be in a good position. You have to be around at the end, though, to be able to capitalize on that,” Rudy Fugle added.
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Justin P Joy
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