It’s no secret the Next Gen car hasn’t been the most popular among drivers and fans since its debut in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022. But for William Byron, it’s been a different story. The Hendrick Motorsports driver recently joined Kevin Harvick’s podcast, where he opened up about his success in the Gen-7 car.
William Byron Opens Up About Fresh Start With Next Gen Car
Several NASCAR veterans have voiced concerns about the car. As Denny Hamlin recently said, “The field is just now running the same speed … first-place fastest car is going to struggle to pass the 25th if he just gets put behind him. That is the fundamental part that is going to be tough for us to overcome.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., after the Iowa race this year, also had criticism, “I want to say that I don’t love the Next Gen car, but it’s here. I don’t love the Next Gen car. It’s an IMSA car, it’s a sports car, it’s got a diffuser, it’s got low-profile tires, it’s got big rims and big brakes. It’s a sports car, it’s not a NASCAR stock car, but it’s here.”
While many believe parity in the Gen-7 makes passing difficult and the racing product less compelling, Byron has found the most success of his career with this car.
Speaking to Harvick on “Happy Hour,” Byron said, “I feel that this Gen 7 car has kind of given me a chance to have a clean slate and really learn about the race car. I feel like I understand this racecar way more than I did the last generation. Yeah. It’s probably just the way my career was kind of driven and how much testing I did with this car.”
Byron entered Cup racing in 2018 with the Gen-6 car, which featured 15-inch steel wheels with five lug nuts, a four-speed manual transmission, and roughly 900 horsepower. But Byron didn’t find much success in that era, winning just two races from 2018 to 2022. Since the arrival of the Gen-7, he has 13 victories and counting.
The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver is the most successful active driver in the Next Gen era, twice making the Championship 4 in three seasons. Byron believes his deeper understanding of the car is the difference.
“I feel like I have a general sense of, like, when I see things on Monday, I’m like, ‘Okay, that makes sense. That’s why we went this direction.’ … That’s probably why there’s been some more success. I feel like I really understand this car more than I did the last one.”
This season, Byron has been consistent again, with nine top-fives, 13 top-10s, and the regular-season championship. Still, the Carolina native has yet to win his first Cup Series title. Both times he reached the final four, he finished third in the standings. Perhaps 2025 will finally be his year.
Byron’s strategy for the playoffs seems simple: “I think our strength is just that we’re fast at all the different tracks. I really don’t see a track that we’re at a big deficit. At the same time, though, you never know what everyone else is going to bring and how fast they’re going to be. So we’ve just got to keep working. We can keep getting better, but that’s our strength.”