As playoffs begin, William Byron dismisses concerns about summer doldrums

HAMPTON, Ga. — 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 Speedway, but the 26-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, hasn‘t won since.

Nevertheless, Byron enters the 10-race playoffs with confidence.

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“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.

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“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.