William Byron (racing driver)

Racing career

Byron became interested in racing when he was six years old after seeing a stock car race on television, later attending a race at Martinsville Speedway in 2006. He began racing on the iRacing simulator as a teenager, with over 100 wins and 298 top fives in online competition. In 2012, he and his father explored how Byron could start racing offline – in real cars. He started racing Legends that year at the age of 15, relatively late for modern drivers. That year he won 33 races and became the Legend Car Young Lions Division champion.

For 2014, Byron signed with JR Motorsports late model program, in addition to continuing Legends competition. Byron competed in the No. 9 Liberty University Chevrolet at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina for JRM. Byron scored a single victory and 11 top-five finishes, finishing second in points to teammate Josh Berry at Hickory.

K&N Pro Series East

Byron was signed to drive in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for 2015 by HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks, with sponsorship from Liberty University. Byron also continued racing late models for JR Motorsports. In his debut K&N East in February at New Smyrna Speedway, Byron finished 7th. Byron won the second race of the season at Greenville-Pickens Speedway after starting second and leading all 152 laps (two laps past the scheduled distance). Byron made his ARCA Racing Series debut at Lucas Oil Raceway in July, driving the No. 55 Liberty University Toyota Camry for Venturini Motorsports. Byron finished second after leading 120 laps. He scored four K&N East wins en route to winning the series championship.

Camping World Truck Series

On October 29, 2015, Kyle Busch Motorsports announced that Byron would run a full-time schedule in the team's No. 9 Toyota Tundra in the Camping World Truck Series during the 2016 season. To prepare him for the run, KBM fielded the No. 9 for him in the 2015 Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway. Byron started the 2016 season on a low note crashing on the final lap at Daytona to finish 13th, and finishing 32nd at Atlanta after blowing an engine. Later, Byron would get his first top 3 and 10 in the Truck Series after finishing a strong 3rd at Martinsville. Byron won his first Truck Series race at Kansas in May, after avoiding Ben Rhodes and Johnny Sauter's crash on the last lap of the race, and took his second race win in Texas in June. He won the next race at Iowa, finished 17th at Gateway due to a crash, and won yet again at Kentucky, propelling him to first in points. He followed that up with his fifth win of the season at Pocono Raceway, breaking the Camping World Truck Series record for most wins by a rookie. The previous mark was held by Kurt Busch during the 2000 season with four wins.

During the playoffs, Byron won the first race of the Round of 8 at New Hampshire, but suffered an engine failure at the last race of the Round of 6 at Phoenix, which cost him the chance to join the Championship 4. With a win at the final race at Homestead, he placed fifth in the overall standings, with a total seven wins, eleven top 5s, and 16 top 10s in 23 races. In addition to clinching the owners' championship for the No. 9 team, Byron was named Rookie of the Year.

Xfinity Series

On August 18, 2016, Byron and Hendrick Motorsports announced they have signed a multi-year driver agreement, with Byron running full-time in the Xfinity Series driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports in 2017. Byron finished 2nd at Michigan, just losing out to Denny Hamlin. One week later, Byron won his first career race at Iowa, after Christopher Bell wrecked late in the race and battling for a win with Ryan Sieg within 10 laps to go. He ended up winning again the week later at Daytona after having a couple things going his way towards the end. Although a caution came out for the first attempt at overtime, as Byron was well past the overtime line. Byron also won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the third Xfinity victory of his career.

Monster Energy Cup Series

On August 9, 2017, Byron was announced by Hendrick as the replacement for Kasey Kahne in the No. 5 car in 2018. Twenty days later, however, HMS announced Byron would instead drive the No. 24, while Chase Elliott moved to the rebranded No. 9 car.

Personal life

Byron was born the youngest of two children in Charlotte, North Carolina. He attended Charlotte Country Day School, while taking online classes through sponsor Liberty University, graduating in May 2016. Byron plans to attend the university after high school. His parents, Bill and Dana, and his older sister, Kathryn, are his main sources of inspiration. Kathryn is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Economics and is now pursuing a career in finance in New York City. Byron is an Eagle Scout.

He is not related to NASCAR's first champion Red Byron.

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Racing Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points