A big part of racing and racing in NASCAR is walking the fine line between aggression and recklessness. A wrong move here, a mistake there, and the race is over. The driver’s reputation becomes worse than what it was before the green flag dropped. This happens to most drivers in their younger days, but what’s important is how they learn from it.
For William Byron, such incidents have helped him for sure. Many consider the Hendrick Motorsports driver as the next big thing, a generational talent by some, and one of the most talented drivers in the garage by everyone.
But despite that, his young age and his talent haven’t got the better of him, which is very common in racing and in NASCAR in particular. Think about it, how many times has a driver made a silly mistake on the track after losing control over his emotions?
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As for William Byron? In his own words, he’s walked that line and emerged as a wiser man on the other side.
William Byron has learned his lesson after run-ins with the older guys on track
The young driver was recently confronted with a question about encountering “jealousy” and “envy” during his younger days, to which he promptly replied, “Oh, for sure.”
“When I was younger, and I was racing against people that were 40 to 45 years old at the local track, it was definitely tough to manage the aggression and try to have respect but still be aggressive to win,” he described to Boomer Esiason in an episode of the Boomer Chats podcast.
The Martinsville winner admitted it to be “definitely a learning process,” post which he’s only tried “to just earn the respect” from the more established drivers.
“I think that helped me in the long term,” Byron emphasized.
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Byron lost it on two-time NASCAR Cup champion earlier this year
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One of the most divisive moments in the NASCAR Cup Series this past season was definitely the legitimacy of the eventual champion Joey Logano, moving William Byron out of the way to win at Darlington.
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Everyone had their own opinions and judgments about the incident. But Byron was pretty convinced of his own.
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“He’s just an idiot. I mean, he does this stuff all the time,” he said of Logano. “He’s just a moron. He can’t win a race, so he does it that way.”