William Byron is 100/1 to win 2019 Food City 500 at Bristol

William Byron luckiest of all getting Chad Knaus as his crew chief.

William Byron on Bristol:
“The atmosphere is great at Bristol. The cars are fast and it feels really fast inside the car. I would say all of that stuff just contributes to the overall atmosphere there. It’s just a really fun track to go to as a driver. It’s challenging but also very rewarding to be able to get around there fast.”

TAMED TEXAS: Having one of his best career NASCAR Cup Series weekends, William Byron qualified a track-best second on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. Running near the front almost all race, including leading 15 laps, Byron brought home a career track-best sixth-place finish in Sunday’s race – tying his previous career-best Cup finish from last season at Pocono Raceway – coming up a position short of capturing his first Cup Series top-five to his teammate Jimmie Johnson.

BATTLE AT BRISTOL: Heading to the “Last Great Colosseum” this weekend, Byron is set to make his sixth national series start at Bristol Motor Speedway. With two NASCAR Cup Series starts last season, two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts and one NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series start at the 0.533-mile concrete oval, Byron also has one regional touring series start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. Byron was strong in qualifying for both Cup Series races, qualifying 11th in the spring and fifth in the fall – his best qualifying effort of 2018. Fighting handling issues in both races, he posted a best finish of 18th. In the Xfinity Series, his best finish was a 12th-place effort in the spring, while he collected a fourth-place finish in his lone Truck Series start, leading one lap in the process. In his K&N start, Byron led 44 laps before coming up just shy of the win with a runner-up result. If Byron were able to win this weekend, he would become the sixth driver to earn their first career Cup win at Bristol, as well as become the youngest Bristol winner of all time, which is currently held by Kyle Busch when he drove for Hendrick Motorsports in 2007.

AT IT AGAIN WITH AXALTA: For the sixth time in 2019, Byron will carry the iconic Axalta flames on his No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. This weekend will complete a stretch of five races in a row for Axalta on board the No. 24 car before returning to Byron’s machine for the spring race at Dover International Speedway in May.

KNAUS’ KNOWLEDGE: Set to call the shots for his eighth race with Byron this weekend, Knaus will be making his 35th start at Bristol as a Cup Series crew chief. With two pole awards and two wins in his career at the 0.533-mile concrete track, Knaus’ most recent win came in the spring race in 2017. At the notoriously tough track, Knaus also has 12 top-five finishes and 20 top-10s to his credit.

Q&A WITH BYRON: Byron will take part in a question-and-answer session with fans at the Trackside Live stage in the Bristol Motor Speedway Fan Zone on Sunday, April 7, at 11 a.m. local time.

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2019 Season 18th in standings 7 starts 0 wins 1 pole position 0 top-five finishes 1 top-10 finish 83 laps led     Career 43 starts 0 wins 1 pole position 0 top-five finishes 5 top-10 finishes 144 laps led     Track Career  2 starts 0 wins 0 pole positions 0 top-five finishes 0 top-10 finishes 0 lap led

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William Byron to benefit from knowledge of Chad Knaus at Atlanta

William Byron is 80/1 to win Sunday at Atlanta.

William Byron on his expectations for Atlanta:
“I really don’t know what to expect when we get to Atlanta. I feel like it’s going to be a challenge in the sense that it’s a slick racetrack. We are going to go there and try and understand the new aero package, but also try and understand what that racetrack is going to do throughout the race. I think it’s going to present different challenges than we normally deal with there.”

Byron on looking forward to getting into a rhythm starting with Atlanta:
“I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s pretty much a normal, routine race weekend for us there, especially compared to DAYTONA 500 weekend. I’m looking forward to that part of it. I’m just trying to go there and have a pretty normal weekend and do what we need to do.”

KNAUS HOT AT HOTLANTA: At a track where past knowledge is crucial, crew chief Chad Knaus will add valuable experience to the No. 24 team when the Liberty University Chevy hits the track this weekend. Calling the shots for 27 NASCAR Cup Series races at the weathered track, Knaus has snagged the checkered flag five times, most recently back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. In his 27 races at the venue as a crew chief, Knaus’ car has left the 1.54-mile oval with 14 top-five finishes and 15 top-10s. In fact, Knaus has a knack for intermediate tracks in general, collecting 34 wins at the track type across his Cup Series crew chief career.

DAYTONA 500 RECAP: Capturing his first NASCAR Cup Series pole award during the first Sunday of Speedweeks, William Byron showed patience and speed throughout the 61st annual running of the DAYTONA 500 before being relegated to a 21st-place finish after an on-track incident with only two laps remaining. Despite the finishing position, Byron led a career-high 44 laps during Sunday’s race. The 21-year-old driver also spent 133 of 207 laps within the top-five running order, the most by anyone in the race. His 154 laps inside the top 10 throughout the race were the second-most of any competitor.

Phoenix Storylines: All Kinds of Stuff Going on in NASCAR Thanks to Texas

Need a breather after that wild race at Texas Motor Speedway? Too bad. There are two races left to run and one of the closest championship battles ever to decide.

After two races at two big tracks, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series shifts gears to the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway this Sunday for the Kobalt Tools 500. Only 59 points separate the top-three drivers – Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick. That’s the second-closest margin between the top three with two races left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup era (2004-Present)

The NASCAR Nationwide Series crowned Brad Keselowski its 2010 champion, but there’s still a heated owner’s title to decide. Keselowski’s No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge currently trails the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota by 81 points going into Saturday’s Wypall* 200 powered by Kimberly-Clark Professional at Phoenix.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season also has two to go, and Todd Bodine has his sights set on a second career championship. He can clinch the title this Friday night in the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

New Leader, the 11
You’ll have to go back a bit to find the last time Jimmie Johnson failed to hold the points lead at this juncture in the season. In each of his four championship seasons, Johnson was atop series standings with two races to go.

Not this year.

That luxury belongs to Denny Hamlin, who won his series-high eighth race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Here’s some history Hamlin will like hearing: the points leader with two to go has won the championship every season in the Chase era (2004-2009). The last time the points leader with two races remaining failed to win the championship was 1992, when Bill Elliott relinquished an 85-point advantage to Alan Kulwicki.

Feud Brewing Atop The Box?
Mike Ford, crew chief of the No. 11 team, had some interesting things to say about No. 48 crew chief Chad Knaus’ decision to swap pit crews mid-race at Texas: “I think it was kind of a desperation move. But it's something that Jimmie [Johnson], Chad and Rick [Hendrick] needed to do if they wanted to win a championship because they just took their team out of it. They removed their team. Their team got them to this point and they pulled them out, so this is more about trying to win a championship for the company and not the team.”

Knaus decided to replace the usual No. 48 crew with the No. 24 team of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon during Sunday’s race. It was a move that got some attention, to say the least.

The immediate future of the No. 48 over-the-wall crew is currently TBA. Stay tuned.

Johnson Down… For Now
Finally, here’s some good news for Jimmie Johnson: a race at Phoenix is up next.

The one-mile track might be his best. Johnson has won four of the last six races there, and has finished in the top five in each of the last eight. His Driver Rating of 123.7 is by far the best in the series.

But points leader Denny Hamlin and third-place Kevin Harvick are pretty strong there as well. Hamlin has five top fives in 10 starts at Phoenix; Harvick has two victories there in 15 starts.

Harvick and Phoenix Go Way Back
Though Jimmie Johnson owns more Phoenix NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories than any other driver, few have a longer history with the track than Kevin Harvick.

Harvick, who has two NSCS wins and one NASCAR Nationwide wins and four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wins at Phoenix, first raced at the one-mile track in a K&N Pro Series West race in 1998. Starting from the pole, Harvick finished second that event.

Gordon vs. Burton Have At It

We have seen it a number of times already this year: drivers showing emotion after the pre-season “Boys, Have At It” edict from NASCAR. To name a few: Joey Logano vs. Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton vs. Kyle Busch; Logano vs. Ryan Newman; Todd Bodine vs. Kyle Busch.

But this past weekend might have been the most interesting case in point.

During a late-race caution at Texas, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon wrecked on the backstretch. Gordon, clearly upset, got out of his car, walked to Burton and, well, threw down.

The shoving match between NASCAR’s two elder statesmen was quickly broken up, but the bad feelings may continue. Here’s what Gordon had to say after the incident: "I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for him, but I certainly lost a lot of respect today."

- from NASCAR Media Services