Of William Byron’s nine career victories, five have come at tracks that appear in the 10-race NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, starting with Darlington, which hosts the postseason-opening Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
In addition to the Track Too Tough to Tame, Byron has victories in the Next Gen car at Martinsville (Round of 8 elimination race), Las Vegas (Round of 8 opener) and Phoenix (Championship 4 race). His victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Round of 8 second race) came in 2021 in the Gen 6 iteration of NASCAR’s Cup car.
Bottom line? Byron has victories at the final four tracks in the Playoffs.
“I didn’t know that stat,” said Byron, who enters the postseason with 36 Playoff points, tied for most with Martin Truex Jr. “It’s nice to know that a lot of the tracks line up well for us. It’s a comforting thing to know that. But I don’t want to think too far ahead and get too excited about Vegas or even Phoenix, because we’re not there yet.
“So, we’ve got to get there first and hopefully this first round goes smooth and we don’t have too many headaches at night and can get through it.”
Byron doesn’t have a victory at any of the tracks in the Round of 12, and Talladega is particularly concerning.
“Talladega’s a weak track for us right now, admittedly,” said Byron, who leads the series with five victories this season. “We didn’t feel great about how Daytona went (last Saturday). We finished eighth but didn’t have a lot of up-front speed.
“So, we’ve just got to hopefully work on Talladega. The (Charlotte) Roval (Round of 12 elimination race) I feel good about, because we just won a road course race (at Watkins Glen).”
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