William Byron Creates History, Showcases the Disparity in Performance in the NextGen Car With His COTA Win

After taking the lead for 42 out of 68 laps right from the get-go, William Byron clinched his second win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season with a standout performance at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Last year, they ditched stage breaks for road courses, but after a snooze-fest at Watkins Glen and the Indianapolis Road Course with only one caution apiece, NASCAR decided to bring back the stage break cautions.

However, at COTA, the race unfolded with just those two mandatory stage breaks. With this win, William Byron made history as the first driver to nail down 10 victories since the next-generation cars hit the NASCAR scene.

HMS’s William Byron needed eight extra races to bag his first 10 wins compared to the Gen-6 cars

Not only did Byron lead the charge in the driver standings in 2022, but he also made waves this year. Back in 2022, it took Byron eight races to nab his first double victory in the Next Gen era. Then, in 2023, he slashed that in half, doing it in just four races. Fast forward to 2024, and he’s now celebrated 10 wins in the next-gen cars.

But the interesting part is that William Byron took 78 races to reach his 10-win milestone in a next-gen car. Back when the Gen-6 cars rolled out in 2013, Jimmie Johnson was the speedster, hitting 10 wins first, but he pulled it off in just 70 races. And before that, with the 5th generation of cars, Johnson clinched 10 races within the first 45 races. Here’s a breakdown of some fascinating stats recently shared by Twitter user Tray Ryan:

William Byron grabbed his first win before the Next Gen car era during the 2020 ALSCO Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His latest victory marks his second time winning on a road course, and his first time taking the checkered flag at COTA. It’s also worth noting that for the third year running, Byron is the first driver to snag multiple race wins, a feat previously achieved only by Jeff Gordon. Just six races into the season, Byron has already scored two wins, securing his spot in the playoffs and currently sitting pretty at 6th in the driver standings.

But what’s really interesting is that despite clinching the win at COTA, Byron admitted the final ten laps were a bit rocky due to a couple of minor slip-ups on his part.

#24 admitted he wasn’t flawless in the closing laps at COTA

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Crossing the finish line first, William Byron had a narrow lead over Bell, but during that last lap, Bell nearly closed the gap before Byron managed to extend his lead right before the finish line.

Talking to Fox Sports’ Jamie Little, William Byron said, “I feel like I made a lot of mistakes in the last ten laps, just little micro errors. Christopher was really fast there on the longer run.”

Read More: Daredevil William Byron Reveals a Shark-Infested Desire Backed by Boss Rick Hendrick

Following Byron and Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, and Alex Bowman took the next spots, with last year’s COTA champ, Tyler Reddick, rounding out the top five. It seems Byron is stepping up his game, especially when you consider Kyle Petty’s words about him outperforming Chase Elliott, who hasn’t won since 2022, and Kyle Larson, who’s juggling a lot right now, from his High Limit Series to preparing for double duty in May.

Could Byron be the one to steer the team into a new era?