Saturday Atlanta Notebook
09/07/2024 03:12 PM
As Playoffs begin, William Byron allays concerns about summer doldrums
Don‘t put too much stock in William Byron‘s spotty performance in the NASCAR Cup Series this summer.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet brushed off those concerns during a Saturday question-and-answer session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday‘s Quaker State 400 available at Walmart (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
After winning the season-opening Daytona 500, Byron picked up victories in two of the next seven races, at Circuit of the Americas and Martinsville, but the 26-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., hasn‘t won since.
Nevertheless, Byron enters the 10-race Playoffs with confidence.
"Well, I mean, yeah, we finished second two and a half weeks ago at Michigan, so I feel like we‘ve been pretty good; hit or miss, though," Byron said. "Some of those tracks during the summer aren‘t as good for us as a team, but we‘ve really circled all of the Playoff tracks and worked really hard to have our best at the end of the year.
"So, yeah, I think once you win two or three races early in the season, like I said this week, the goal is to try and stack Playoff points. If you can‘t do that, then the goal is to try and position yourself well for the fall and all the tracks in the Playoffs. So, I feel good about that."
Byron has won two of the last five races at Atlanta, and he took the checkered flag last year at Watkins Glen, the second venue in the first round of the Playoffs.
"We‘ve had success here at Atlanta," Byron said. "Although it can be unpredictable, I feel like, as I‘ve studied and watched it back, a lot of times if you‘re up in the front and making good decisions, you can kind of control your destiny here.
"I think that‘s the goal for us… try to have a good day today in qualifying. Not quite sure what kind of speed we‘re going to have in qualifying, because you want to be able to have enough pace in the pack and everything like that — enough grip. Hopefully we can make the top-10 and go from there."
Byron did just that. One of six Playoff drivers to make the final 10 in time trials, Byron will start ninth on Sunday.
Despite two straight DNFs, Ryan Blaney is ready for title defense
Ryan Blaney believes the experience he gained in last year‘s NASCAR Cup Series championship run will inform his defense of the title this season.
Despite crashing out of the final two regular-season races, at Daytona and Darlington, Blaney thinks his No. 12 Team Penske Ford team is up to the challenge.
The path to the Championship 4 race at Phoenix will be different this year, given the unique mix of race tracks in 2024 Playoffs, starting with Sunday‘s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
"I definitely think you‘re more confident in trying to get back to Phoenix," Blaney said. "It‘s not as simple as just do what you did last year, though, but I feel like once you have that experience and you persevere through the three rounds to get there, then I think it really motivates your team and just gives them a level of confidence of like, 'Hey, we know we can do this.‘
"We‘ve been there before and now let‘s try to figure out a way to do it again and accept all the challenges that are going to be thrown at you and use your experience to your advantage."
Last year, Blaney handled the Playoff pressure with aplomb. He won at Talladega to earn a spot in the Round of 8 and secured his berth in the Championship 4 race with an 11th-hour victory at Martinsville.
"Hopefully, we can bring that same intensity that we did to the Playoffs last year again," Blaney said. "The first couple of rounds were a little funky, obviously, but it‘s the same for everybody, so hopefully you kind of stay clean the first round. I think that‘s the biggest thing.
"It‘s like finish where you are supposed to finish. You never know what‘s going to happen, but I think our group is doing really well right now. The last two weeks obviously haven‘t been very fun, ending up on the hook, but it was none of our doing. I don‘t think that‘s really bothered us at all. We‘re just ready to go, and Atlanta is the first task in a task of 10 that we have to achieve."
Harrison Burton is playing with house money during Playoffs
Before the penultimate regular-season race at Daytona International Speedway, Harrison Burton‘s prospects were understandably bleak.
The driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford hadn‘t cracked the top 30 in the NASCAR Cup Series standings since the fourth race of the season at Phoenix. And by the time the series headed for Daytona for the second time this season, Burton already had learned that he would be out of his ride at the end of the year.
That was before Burton stormed into the Playoffs with a dramatic win at the World Center of Racing, holding off Kyle Busch by a car-length in a two-lap overtime shootout. Even though his victory was a bolt of lightning from the blue, Burton hesitates to call himself an underdog.
"If I was not a part of this team, I would say the same thing," Burton said. "You can‘t help but look at where we were in points, look at how our season had gone, look at the fact that I was on my way out of my job. They were making changes because the performance wasn‘t there. I love them and they love me as a person, but we didn‘t perform the way we needed to, but now we have this great opportunity to reset all of that.
"We have a great opportunity to kind of be born again. It‘s like, 'OK, a whole new season right here. Let‘s go.‘ That‘s a rare opportunity in sports and a rare opportunity in life to get to do that, so I‘m going to make the most of that.
"I know my race team is making the most of it. I got to go there a little bit, and those guys are fired up. That‘s so fun. It‘s so fun to be a part of a team that‘s fighting for something like we are, and we‘re going to use that energy in a positive way."
