It’s the middle of the summer, and William Byron is tired.
The 17-year old is less than two weeks away from starting his senior year of high school, but he has other things to worry about. The biggest being his points lead in his rookie season in the K&N Pro Series East.
“I actually have my first off week (this) weekend,” Byron told NASCAR Talk in a phone interview. “Really, my first off week since April 4. Just this whole stretch. I’ve had summer vacation, but that’s one or two days in town. It’s been tough. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I’m definitely looking forward to that off week. I think it’s going to be well worth it, just to clear my mind and refocus a little bit.”
Byron shared this between practice sessions for the K&N race at Motordrome Speedway in Smithton, Pa., the 11th of 14 races on the season. The race can be seen today at 7 pm ET on NBCSN.
The Charlotte, N.C., native has four wins this season racing for HScott Motorsports with another coming in Super Late Models for JR Motorsports.
Last year, Byron competed in 56 races and earned 24 poles, 11 wins and 37 top-five finishes.
The following Q&A had been edited and condensed.
NT: Do you remember what you were doing when you got the call or message about being a part of NASCAR Next (a program aimed at spotlighting emerging stars in the sport)?
William Byron: I was actually in school. I go to high school. I was in (math) class and my marketing lady, Heather (Kincel), she gave me a call or texted me. I couldn’t answer the phone, but she just told me I was part of the NASCAR Next class and I was super excited. It was something that we were working towards and were hoping that I could be a part of just because the establishment over the past, having young drivers be a part of it that have gone on to be successful. It was a cool thing for me, it definitely was a boost of confidence.
NT: When you tell your non-racing friends that you’re part of something like that, do they appreciate it? Do they get it or do you have to explain some of it to them?
Byron: I’ve gone to the same school (Charlotte Country Day School) really since I was in kindergarten, so I’ve known the kids for a long time. It was funny. When I started racing, it was tough to introduce the idea and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing now,’ to help people understand it. I kind of let them figure it out on their own. Once you start getting on TV, the (Greenville-Pickens Speedway) win was on TV on a Tuesday night, I was like ‘Hey, guys, tune in.’ Once that stuff starts happening, people start posting things on Instagram, saying ‘Oh man, I see my friend William on TV’ and that kind of makes it take off. The NASCAR Next program, when I told them about that, I wasn’t sure how they were going to take it, but they were like ‘You’re one of 12 or 13 drivers that’s part of an elite program.’ They thought it was pretty cool.
NT: You’ve had a lot of success in these first few years of racing, combine that with being on TV and people watching that, how do you keep your ego in check? How do keep from getting full of yourself and buying into your own talent and success?
Byron: That’s a good question. I’m always looking to the next week. I’m so hungry for competition all the time. I’ll win a race and it’s like, what am I going to do next week to back it up? I think I’m always looking for more and I think that keeps me humble more than anything. I also understand really well how much effort and work it takes to get a win because I’ve also had races that don’t go so well and I realize why there’s a difference there. I think having those bad races every now and then, I learn a lot from those and I appreciate why we’re in a position to win at some tracks. I think that keeps my ego in check, I guess. I’ve never really had an issue with it because I’m honestly just thrilled to be driving a race car. It’s never really gotten away from me, I feel like.
NT: Most drivers get started early. Do you feel getting started late (age 14), being more emotionally, mentally developed has helped you navigate this success rather than if you started when you were 4 or 5?
Byron: I’ve played other sports when I was younger. I just never had the opportunity to race. I feel like it’s helped me have a clearer mind about racing in general because I come in eager and ready to compete like everybody at my level does. But I can also relate to other things that I do, because I haven’t done this for an extremely long amount of time, so I can relate it to when I played ball. I’m on the swim team at school. There’s a lot of different things I can relate what I’m doing on the racetrack to, especially with the other sports I’ve played in my childhood.
NT: Why not pursue those sports? Why did you think it was going to be racing that you had a future in?
Byron: With other sports, it was always come and go. Football, I played that for three to five years. I really liked that, but it wasn’t the same as racing to me. I always wanted to watch races. I always looked at races and that drew me more than other sports did, overwhelmingly. I always had a connection and I feel like that’s what brought me to racing. I’ve wanted to race my whole life, but I wasn’t given that opportunity so I found other sports to do, but finally when I was given the opportunity to race at a later age, I felt it was the right thing for me and it kind of took off.
NT: How does your sponsorship partnership with Liberty University work with you being a student there as well?
Byron: They sponsor me full-time in racing, so they sponsor everything that I do in racing. So that’s a huge help, it’s tremendous support for our race team and then I also do go to school there (with online classes). They help me go to school there and then obviously on the racing side, they do everything there. I couldn’t do it without them, they’ve been sponsoring me for two years now, they’ll sponsor me next year as well.
NT: How did your Liberty University sponsorship come together?
Byron: I raced on iRacing, which is a computer simulation, before I started real racing about a year and half before. I found it and it intrigued me a lot and that’s kind of how I learned in the beginning to start racing. Obviously, not in a real car, but I felt that it was close. I went to (Liberty University) and explained how I started that way and took it into a real racing career and I said how I could relate that to their online schooling program where kids can get a degree online and take that into the real world and apply that somehow.
NT: In your three years of racing what’s the most scared you’ve ever been in a race car?
Byron: I don’t think I’ve ever really been scared. I’ve had one wreck pretty bad. It was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the quarter-mile track in a Legend car. I kind of hooked wheels with a guy and went head-on into the wall out of Turn 4, near the start-finish line. I hurt my knee pretty bad. I had never hit the wall dead-on like that. I wasn’t aware of the movement. While I was heading toward the wall I was like ‘I’m not sure how this is going to feel.’ Then when I got to the wall, it was a lot more severe than I thought it was going to be. I think that was the worst one, but I wasn’t scared though. The next week I came back, I was a little bit disoriented going by that spot. The first practice I had to regain my composure I guess, but it was fine after that.
NT: What was the first track you raced on?
Byron: I raced at the Rockingham quarter-mile track. It was called ‘Little Rock’ and it was a quarter-mile track in the back of the big Rockingham Speedway.
NT: What do you remember about that first time you actually got to step on a pedal and just floor it?
Byron: It had a lot more behind than I thought it was going to. I had never driven like a street car or anything. It was different. It was really raw to me. Everything was brand new. It was a lot to take in, especially that first race. there was a lot happening and that was fun. I qualified second and actually finished fourth in my first race. There were about 15 or 16 cars and that was pretty cool. Some of the kids I race against now were in that race, so it’s kind of funny that it started that way.
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