This weekend, the NASCAR Cup and Truck drivers compete at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track. Since this is pretty much new territory for drivers, they are all practicing as much as possible. Some are doing it through other racing series that deals with dirt tracks, others are going online, including Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron.
In fact, he recently won his fourth eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational race.
As it turned out, Byron was pretty adept at Bristol, since he won the tarmac race there. Speaking after the race, he said, “The track changed so much. I mean, they do a good job with that and I kept choking on restarts in 1 and 2. I kept hitting the wall, [Tyler] Reddick was good on the top. Just got to be that good in the real car.
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“It was a lot of fun, really enjoyed it.”
Byron insisted that he really enjoyed himself on the track. Since he won the race, he earned a hefty $5000 in prize money, which he will donate to charity. William Byron acknowledged that he is thrilled that things are working out well for him and the team, and he hopes that they can perform well in the actual race as well.
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What else did William Byron say?
The Hendrick driver admitted that the top line was quite narrow. In other words, it is very easy to plug the wall, and he suspects that many drivers could potentially hit the wall in Sunday’s race. However, he believes that the trick is to keep the right rear tire moving.
With regard to his preparation, Byron declared that he would be ‘okay.’ His job will be to understand the car and do as many laps as possible. That was what he did in this particular race and he couldn’t have done it without his crew chief.
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Looking ahead to the actual race. Byron is excited to tackle the dirt in real life. However, he will be wary of all the other drivers who are itching to go and win as well. Obviously, it is very difficult to say who has the edge, but there are plenty of drivers like Kyle Larson, who have dirt experience in other fields.