MOORESVILLE, N.C. — It wasn’t so long ago that Hendrick Motorsports’ NASCAR Cup Series drivers were unable to participate in racing events outside the series.
That has changed since Kyle Larson joined the team prior to the 2021 season, and now all four of the team’s drivers are active competitors on the short-track circuit.
William Byron, who won Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at the recently reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway, followed in Larson’s footsteps by following up a Saturday night victory, with a Cup Series triumph.
Byron won Saturday night’s Easter Bunny 150 super late model race at Hickory Motor Speedway and arrived in Atlanta to lead a race-high 111 laps and become the third (Larson and Alex Bowman) Hendrick driver to win this year.
Byron’s teammates Larson, Bowman and Chase Elliott have all been making the rounds on dirt tracks this season, while Byron has done his moonlighting on asphalt.
“Yeah, I love it. I hope for my sake that it doesn’t get overcrowded and a bunch of guys start doing that because I think it’s unique and cool, but it was a lot of fun to go to Hickory last night,” said Byron. “That was the most nervous Saturday I’ve ever had. I was nervous in the Cup car. How was that going to go? How was the travel going to be going back to the other race track, and what is that going to feel like once I get back on the track?
“Really just having good people around me to calm my nerves and just get me in the right state of mind,” Byron said. “It was really nice to have something to kind of fill the space and be able to put my mind to something on Saturday night.”
A former track champion at Hickory, Byron hadn’t raced there in more than seven years.
“Hickory is such an iconic track,” he said. “The tire management that I had to go through last night was such a cool thing to go do, and really kind of challenged my mind completely different than this, but at the same time just the ability to adapt to stuff I think was a lot of fun and definitely hope to do more of that.”
Byron, who also won a late model race at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway in February, hopes to run more short-track events this season.
“I hope to do Nashville in May, the Darlington weekend, and I think it’s just a lot of fun,” he concluded.