There may be a new king of the road in the NASCAR Cup Series.
After his victory at the 3.41-mile road course of Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, William Byron has won two of the last three Cup Series races on road courses.
In fact, in his last three races on road courses, Byron has an average finish of 1.33.
Coincidence? According to Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle, it’s been a steady learning process for the No. 24 team to get to this point.
“Yeah, really the first year with the old car, Hendrick Motorsports was far and above the way to go and the winners of all the road course races when I came in,” Fugle said. “We switched 2022 with a new car, and that wasn’t the case. We were terrible. Qualified in the 20s and ran there for the most part.
“We’ve been working steadily since then and kind of hit it on and off last year. We hit on some things. Obviously Indy road course we started last and hit on some things, and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) winning that race.
“The ROVAL was second. Just been steadily working on it, learning a little bit week in and week out that we race road courses.”
Byron’s last two victories on road courses haven’t been typical, but demonstrated sheer domination.
Between Watkins Glen Int’l last year and this past weekend at COTA, Byron’s led 68 percent of the laps and started on the front row for both races.
The reigning Daytona 500 winner feels that despite not feeling like he’s “the most confident one” showing up at road courses, he makes up for it in preparation.
“I feel like I just focus on the details that it takes,” Byron said. “Once I kind of find that rhythm and cadence of doing the shifting and the braking, you just start to fall into that place that you’ve been familiar with, it just kind of gets you through.
“Each one’s a little bit different. I feel like the quicker we can find that rhythm and kind of find that feel that I need in practice, the quicker we go.
“It’s different every week. I think we just put a good week of prep in. It was nice to have another 20 minutes. That first session, I was just getting up to speed at the end of it. It was nice to have another one to kind of get going.”
Since Fugle joined Byron atop the pit box in 2021, seven of the team’s 12 victories have come in the first eight races of the season.
What may sound concerning at first glance due to the series’ emphasis on winning during the NASCAR Playoffs, Byron sees it in a positive light as the year continues.
“I feel like it kind of ebbs and flows. We’re on a good flow right now in some ways. In the win category, I’d like to finish better on the off days, too,” Byron said. “I’m working on that every week. There’s a few guys in the series, Chase (Elliott) does a really good job when he doesn’t have the day he wants, he still finishes well.
“I’m still trying to look at those days and how I can improve, like last week. But I feel like the ups are up right now. We just got to keep it going.”