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William Byron no fan of ‘youngest’ label

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NASCAR America discusses William Byron's steady improvement under Chad Knaus and Hendrick Motorsports as he matures into the job.

CONCORD, N.C. -- Yes, William Byron is on the young side when it comes to the Cup Series garage.

But he’d rather you not rub it in.

That’s inevitable though when you’re 21 years old and win the pole for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.

With a speed of 183.424 mph from his No. 24 Chevrolet, the Hendrick Motorsports driver is the youngest driver to sit on the pole in 60 runnings of NASCAR’s longest race.

“I don’t really like having the youngest term attached to me because I’ve always been the young guy and I just want to be part of the conversation as a normal person, no matter what age I am,” Byron said Thursday after his pole run.

The pole is the second of Byron’s career, following his Daytona 500 pole earlier this year.

But Byron isn’t the youngest Daytona 500 pole-sitter. That honor belongs to Chase Elliott, who was 20 when he won the pole in 2016.

“I don’t really look at myself as younger than other guys, just as what I’m doing and how I’m doing it compared to them or everybody out there,” Byron said. “But yeah, it’s cool. But I really just look at myself as a race car driver.”

Luckily for Byron, he has another birthday awaiting him in November and plenty of other up-and-coming drivers eager to take the “Youngest to....” honor.