William Byron is excited for NASCAR's return at Darlington
The Hendrick Motorsports driver tells Fox News Autos he hopes things go well at the first race of the restarted NASCAR season.
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William Byron’s has been doing as well as he could expect to during NASCAR’s two-month hiatus.
(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The Hendrick Motorsports driver won three of seven televised events during the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational sim racing series, and it’s no surprise.
The 22-year-old started his career racing on the digital platform and didn’t even get into a real go-kart, let alone a stock car, until he was 13, but says the skills honed on the digital platform helped his meteoric rise to the NASCAR Cup series by age 19.
“You pickup up real habits and real trends of the race track that can apply to the Sunday race that we actually do,” Byron told Fox News Autos.
(Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
He hasn’t been in his actual Cup car since the last race in Phoenix on March 8, but has been practicing on the iRacing version of Darlington Raceway, where the series is set to restart on May 17 in an unusual way.
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Instead of over the course of a full weekend, the race is being held on a single day without spectators, practice or qualifying to reduce the time teams and staff spend at the track in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Byron says drivers will be mostly isolated and won’t see their teams until right before the race.
That means the first time the 40 starters go full speed will be when they take the green flag and head toward turn on on “The Track Too Tough to Tame.”
“Hopefully it goes well,” Byron said when considering the prospect.
“You just try to get your senses about you and really try to know what to expect going into the first corner.”
If their cars don’t feel right, Drivers won’t be able to do anything until the first round of pit stops, and even then their options are limited to changing the tires and adjusting the front splitter, track bar and wedge. Given the situation, there will be a special competition caution period on lap 30 where the field will be frozen for the restart to give the teams extra time to work on their cars without having to rush back onto the track.
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Byron said the key to doing well during those first laps is making sure everything inside of the car, including the position of the shifter, is set up to your preferences.
“As long as that stuff is good I think it’ll just be part of a new challenge for us, but I’m looking forward to it.”
The Real Heroes 400 will be broadcast live on Fox at 3:30 pm ET, Sunday, May 17
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