The Hendrick Motorsports driver sits down with Boardroom to discuss where NASCAR can improve, his journey to becoming a racing superstar, and more.
The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the most important day of the year on the motorsports calendar. In the morning in the U.S., Formula 1 fans can have breakfast with the iconic Monaco Grand Prix, the crown jewel of the sport’s calendar. Then, you can tune in to the legendary Indianapolis 500, the reason why IndyCar is called the way it is. For the nightcap, NASCAR fans hunker down for the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the season held in Charlotte since 1960.
While the racing sports are generally competing for fans, attention, ratings, and revenue, Sunday is the one day everyone can come together and learn from one another in a grand motorsports showcase. A few weeks ago, I had the chance to sit down with NASCAR superstar William Byron, the 27-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver of the illustrious No. 24 car who’s won the last two Daytona 500s and been a NASCAR Cup finalist the last two years in a row. On Friday, he was rewarded for his run of success on the track with a new four-year extension, keeping Byron behind the No. 24 wheel at Hendrick through 2029.
And while he said NASCAR races are far more exciting than Formula 1 Grands Prix, with NASCAR drawing far more U.S. television viewers, Byron said there were things F1 can teach NASCAR.
“NASCAR races are super long,” Byron told Boardroom in New York as part of a promotional tour for the Netflix NASCAR series Full Speed. “So as a younger person, I don’t mind the race being as long as it is, but it’s definitely a bit more old school that we race for four hours. Most basketball games are two to three hours, and our races are four. So that’s probably one big difference.”
Another way NASCAR can improve is the way it promotes its drivers, which Byron said F1 excels at. NASCAR hopes Full Speed can peel back the curtain and showcase its stars like Netflix did with Drive To Survive, but the 20 Formula 1 drivers are more accessible on social media and in the overall media landscape. They’re out in the world shooting major commercials or at Paris Fashion Week or being associated with huge luxury and consumer brands.
“They’re household names,” Byron continued. “A lot of people my age know Lando Norris or Lewis Hamilton. Their sport is more worldwide, but I think we have to continue to work on that as a sport and be more new age. Maybe the length of the races is a start.”
Even before races, Byron admires how F1 handles the proceedings in an exciting, chaotic way, from celebrities in the paddock to how drivers are introduced. The new set of younger NASCAR drivers, he believes, has a lot of energy to promote and be proud of the sport. Some of the older drivers, Byron continued, can be negative about rule changes, race procedures, and differences in the new car. Still, he thinks NASCAR is overall in a good place as a sport and that the competition is as tough as ever.
Byron compared the current competition in NASCAR to that of golf, where from the outside it looks like nobody is standing out, but the reality is that there are so many strong competitors that it’s hard to separate yourself from the pack. Seven drivers won at least three races last season, and everyone has their strengths and different types of tracks they excel at.
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At just 20 years old, Byron debuted in the Cup Series driving the No. 24 car as the permanent replacement for Jeff Gordon, one of NASCAR’s all-time greats and the current Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick kept many of the same sponsors, but all Byron was asked early on was what it was like replacing such a legend. He won Rookie of the Year that year by finishing 23rd in the overall driver standings, but he still had a ton to learn on and off the track. He went from having Sundays off and multiple weekends off per month in the lower truck series to having a legitimate, high-octane full-time job.
“I would have all weekend to go hang out with my high school buddies while all my friends were still in college,” Byron said, “and now you had to do these six-hour production days and you had to go visit this sponsor while staying fresh for each weekend. It took me a couple of years to figure that out, and the successful drivers are the ones that manage everything about the sport.”
Byron slowly crept up the NASCAR ranks, finishing 11th in the standings in 2019, 10th in 2021, 6th in 2022, and third place in the last two seasons while reaching the playoffs’ championship round. Some of his recent successes can be attributed to him and his crew being better at overcoming adversity during races. Even when things started poorly, they’d calmly assess whether there were enough laps left in the race to make the necessary changes to escape an in-race rut that used to bring him down for weeks at a time.
“We now know the blueprint it takes to win,” Byron said. “Learning from the setbacks is where the real growth happens.”
Byron never went through formal media training other than what NASCAR mandated for rookies and younger drivers, but he tries to view obligations with media and sponsors as just regular conversations that became part of his routine as a racecar driver.
“I wouldn’t say you’re fully comfortable with it, but you’re just trying to be at ease with it,” he said. “And the more you can just be yourself, you’re more proud of what you see out there.”
Byron was able to bring in new car sponsors like Celsius and Valvoline as the team’s results began to improve, but he’s also proud that he was able to carry over many of the same sponsors Gordon had when he drove the No. 24. He’ll continue to work with brands that feel like a natural fit and partners who get what he’s about and see the value in growing together.
While he’s no Lando Norris in popularity quite yet, my conversation with Byron was part of a one-day New York media tour that included Boomer Esiason‘s radio show, ABC News, and Jomboy Media. Still in his 20s, the potential is there for Byron to win multiple NASCAR championships and become an all-time great, like a Gordon.
As his success grows on the track, his voice off the track will hold more weight. Then, perhaps he could have a better platform to advocate for changes that would help NASCAR learn from Formula 1, implement changes, and grow globally. As motorsports celebrates its biggest day of the year across IndyCar, F1, and NASCAR, the pathway is there for Byron to emerge as one of racing’s brightest stars.
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