NASCAR Driver William Byron Talks Winning 'New Challenge' at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Exclusive)

By Brian Jones

William Byron won his third NASCAR Cup Series Race on Sunday, taking home the checkered flag at the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway — a race that stood out in a big way because of the repaved and renovated track that now looks like a superspeedway seen in Daytona and Talladega. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Byron who talked about competing on the new and improved Atlanta Motor Speedway. 

"It was definitely a new challenge," Byron exclusively told PopCulture. "I felt like it was a hybrid between our intermediate tracks and the superspeedways. And so we had to manage that and get used to it as we went, and I felt as the day went on everyone got a little bit more comfortable and the cars got better and things started to happen a lot quicker. It was definitely crazy to adapt to it, but glad that we could adapt to it the best and come out on top."

Byron survived a race that featured 46 lead changes among 20 drivers, which are both Atlanta Motor Speedway records. Byron crossed the finish line .109 seconds ahead of Christopher Bell and .145 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain. Bell was penalized for passing below the boundary line on the backstretch of the final lap and was demoted to 23rd. Byron took the lead from Bubba Wallace on Lap 316 of 325 and never looked back. 

"I think just during stage one when we got to stage when I felt I had a really good car," Byron said when asked when did he think he had a chance to win the race. "And if we could just manage everything else that happened after that, I felt we had a good chance to win. So it definitely was exciting to see how the day unfolded and we didn't get the stage two when we were pitted there for tires, but it was good to see how the day unfolded and ultimately to have a chance at the end to still win was awesome."

Before and during the race, the biggest story was Atlanta Motor Speedway being the next superspeedway despite being smaller than Daytona and Talladega. But does the track really feel like a superspeedway? "It was very similar," Byron revealed. "I felt like we were able to do similar moves, but things happened a little bit faster than Daytona. So I thought that was interesting, but definitely, it always has different characteristics just because of the way the track is shaped and where the runs form and stuff like that. So we built on it as the day went along and I'm just again, glad we could come out on top and have a great car."

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