To date, Kyle Busch remains one of the most outspoken personalities in the NASCAR Cup Series. While this approach has turned into controversy more often than not, the Richard Childress Racing driver was at it again. This time around, he went unfiltered as he spoke candidly about Hendrick Motorsports superstar William Byron.
The #24 driver has been in stunning form this season, with three wins already to his name in the first eight races. While his skills behind the wheel have been more than impressive, Busch has a different perspective on it.
Kyle Busch feels fortune played a key role in William Byron’s success
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With two championships and participation in over 600 Cup Series races, Kyle Busch is undoubtedly a veteran in the industry. While he knows what it takes to succeed, he has certainly had his own set of struggles throughout his career. In fact, his current form hasn’t been great, with just a single top-five and two top-ten finishes in the 2024 campaign so far.
However, he remains an experienced entity in the sport. Recently, in a candid conversation with Kenny Wallace on the “Kenny Conversation,” Busch went deep into multiple discussions. One of them involved the role of fortune and talent for a driver in the Cup Series.
To explain his point, Rowdy used William Byron as an example. He started off by giving some background on Byron’s father. Not many know, but the HMS driver’s father is a financial advisor. Busch explained that it is unusual for anyone to expect a financial advisor’s son to go on and become a NASCAR race car driver.
When there’s a big @TeamHendrick milestone to be reached, you can count on @WilliamByron to perform. pic.twitter.com/UJjyRZ2BBv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 9, 2024
In Busch’s words, “Like the kid enjoyed racing, he watched racing, he grew up in Charlotte, so he knew what it was. He got on the simulator, he was playing on that and thought it was fun, thought he was pretty good at it, and then kind of asked his dad to get a start into racing in go-karts and legends cars and that sort of stuff, and he won and everything that he was in.”
While Busch did not deny that Byron had his own set of challenges, he claimed the HMS driver had it easy as compared to others. He said, “William worked at it, but I think he had good people around him that taught him what to do about it. His dad was not a car guy like he was not in the garage working on cars, figuring out cars, and all that sort of stuff, but he still became a really good race car driver without having all of that knowledge and that background.”
It was then that he used two words to specify Byron’s secret to success. Kyle Busch said, “So, he probably had a god-given talent that fortunately he found and was able to go do what he loved to do with that and made the most of it.” Surely, Busch did not mean to undermine Byron’s progress by any means here. However, Rowdy’s statements look a tad contradictory given what William Byron said after his recent success at Martinsville.
Willaim Byron feels people’s belief in him played a key role in his success
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The race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday might not have been the most entertaining, but it surely earned William Byron a crucial victory. The win meant the Hendrick Motorsports driver now has 13 wins to his name, with nine of them coming in the past year.
Speaking to the media after the victory, William Byron deep-dived into how it all worked out for him. Having joined HMS as a 15-year-old, it would have been a distant dream. Speaking about it, he said, “I don’t know, I just know that I knew where I wanted to be. I knew that if I put the work in, I felt the first time I got in a race, I felt everything going on. It took a lot of work to catch up.”
Is this @WilliamByron‘s year?
Spotter Branden Lines believes so. pic.twitter.com/sUriT4pV4q
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 8, 2024
While Byron didn’t deny having great people around him, he felt people believing in him helped him more. He said, “I don’t know. I think I just try to stack year after year and try to learn more. I’m surrounded by great people. I think that’s the key in the whole thing, is people that believe in you, having a chance to go out there and give you what you need.”
Interestingly, William Byron also added how difficult it is to win consistently. He said, “I think the more times that you win races, the more you realize how difficult it is and how many things have to go right just to stay on that edge to have what it takes to win.”
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Surely, winning consistently is not just a God-given talent. After all, succeeding in the Cup Series is not everyone’s cup of tea. While Kyle Busch didn’t mean any disrespect with his choice of words, Byron has the credentials that justify his case.