Entering Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at the Charlotte Roval, William Byron is 12th in the standings, two points above the cut line for the second round of the Playoffs.
Alex Bowman, Byron’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports is 13th, two points behind Byron in the race for the final spot in the Round of 12. But, according to Bowman, the competition between the teammates hasn’t affected their working relationship.
“I think that’s a big strength for Hendrick Motorsports, just in how well everybody shares everything,” Bowman said. “Whether it’s rough situations or times where you get racing teammates really hard, I feel like we’re still all able to sit down and do a really good job sharing and helping each other. Sometimes you can give little tips away that you might want to keep to yourself, but at the same time, when the whole company is running better, it’s better for everybody involved.
“I think we do a really good job of that and always have, whether it’s William or Chase (Elliott) or Jimmie (Johnson) or a combination of them. So I think, obviously, we’re racing each other for that last spot, but hopefully we can both get in and not have to worry about it.”
If the cooperation won’t change because of the close competition, neither will the actual racing, according to Byron.
“As far as racing him (Bowman), I race him the same way every week, so I don’t think it will really change for this race,” Byron said. “I think we just race each other hard, clean and just try to go for as many points as possible.”
Both Byron and Bowman put themselves in ideal position to do just that. Byron won his fifth pole of the year in Friday’s time trials, and Bowman will start beside him on the front row in Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.