Jeff Gordon Discusses William Byron’s Dominance

Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports discusses William Byron’s win at COTA.

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***thumbnail photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images courtesy of NASCAR Media

I mean what a what a weekend they put together just um you know the race car that that rooting the in the guys brought and then the way that that William drove it I mean just watching him qualify how smooth he was um and and same thing throughout the the race just

Um just seemed to put the car in all the right places and I I never saw him make a mistake which is what it was going to take to win today in those closing laps because Belle you know had a faster car with the with the fresher tires and and

Any you know big Lo up into a corner I think I think that it would have been a different outcome so a lot of credit to to William uh in doing that great job but um you know takes the whole team to pick for everybody so um they they’re uh

They’re truly on quite a quite a run here to start this season off and can’t wait to to see where they take it next how do you feel about the development of William I mean this is a guy when you look at his career he is such a quick

Study I mean he starts and he finds success pretty quick now he’s finding Maybe a little bit of domination I mean you look what he did today can you talk about how you feel about his progression and you know he’s getting to the point now where he’s the top winner at hendrik

Motorsports yeah it’s been incredible um you know certainly when you look at history and and you know some of the best of the best throughout the years uh you know certainly since I’ve been a part of of NASCAR you just don’t see somebody with with this uh progression or this this

You know path to uh to succeed at this level the way that he is yet yet he’s defining all that and honestly it’s it’s making us look at um young upand cominging drivers that that might be the next stars because you do have to even

Though we got a young lineup you do have to be thinking about that and planning for it and and it makes you um yeah makes you you kind of look at what’s out there what are options what what does Sim racing mean and and what do um guys

That that maybe don’t get into cars at five and six years old what what are they capable of and and that’s all due because of what we’ve seen with with William and and how he’s um I mean I I will say that that he makes up for the

Lack of of experience you know that he had prior to coming to The Cup Series through his his you know the way he focuses the way he preps uh the effort he puts in so I I I still think that don’t discount you know what what um you

Know what he’s done to get here because it’s not always the stuff that’s just on track there’s a lot more to it and and that’s what he’s proven is uh is working to get him to the top right now in in this series did that 24

Out front and that kind of domination on a road course bring back anything from from your past performances I was thinking about Watkins Glenn that day you just kind of had the perfect day and ground everybody up any of those memories I mean yeah a little bit but

But we did it with better brakes and better cars and better A lot of other things too you know uh I mean I do think that when you find a combination um you know with with the whole team then magical things happen I feel like that’s

Sort of what we had but you know the the the cars are all so equal now it’s so hard much harder to find a um an advantage with with your car and your setup so I I think that to me is what makes this even more impressive Jerry Jord the.net once again

You find yourself with the bitter and the sweet you were uh you know it’s sweet with wind with William but you bitter with h with Bowman you were out there kind of pumping him up a little bit uh he raced a good race as you you

Told him but you know how what was uh what was going through your mind and talking to him and his thoughts yeah let me go back I me yesterday was huge right because um I remember sitting on the pit box uh with with Rick at Watkins Glenn

Last year during the exfinity race and I think we dominated that race and and didn’t get the win and and I remember Rick hearing over the loudspeaker how hendrik Motorsports had never won an Xfinity race on a road course and I remember the look in his eye and how

Fired up he was and I I’m quite certain that day is when we started adding more races to our Xfinity program um and and also with the 17 you know how special that number is so that was truly special um and what was a what was was the oh and

Bowman yeah I mean you know when Bowman gets on a roll and he gets his confidence up I mean there’s no telling what what they’re capable of doing so I’m really happy for them two top fives in a row um and and you know they they’

Had a couple rough weeks so they they needed this and uh Hendrick Motorsports is tough right I mean you’re you’re four of the top drivers and teams out there and there’s a lot of pressure on you and and if you’re winning then there’s there’s pressure to continue when you’re

Not you know winning or you’re not um you know at the same level as your teammates there’s a ton of pressure you know that you got to get there so I’m proud of him and Blake the way that they’ve been working hard together to to to get some good finishes and now I

Can’t wait to see what they do next as well Z stolo nascar.com Jeff uh congratulations on this what from your perspective what what do you feel like is something that we can take away from this first road course race of 2024 um obviously you and uh the 24 and the 48

Um had a lot of speed here but the Toyotas were right there Bell was really closing late what can we take away from what we saw today I honestly even though the 24 got the poll I I really thought it was going to be a Toyota dominated race I just we’re

Seeing they’ve got a lot of speed um and and you know it’s it’s one thing when one car has speed it’s another thing when a a group of them have speed that tells you a lot about what they have and what they’re bringing to the racetrack

So it’s certainly on our race radar in a big way it also to me is that much more impressive of what the 24 and the 48 were able to do today um I thought the nine had great speed too um please don’t get me started on track limits and my

Thoughts and feelings on that how that needs to be police but I’ll save that for another day um you guys can argue that if you want in the media um but um and and even the five I thought had had a solid car and you know with the spin

And having to let the whole field go by you just you just can’t make that up when the race flows the way it did there just there just weren’t a lot of which is kind of surprising we normally at this place see cautions and you know

Once you once you get a couple of those random cautions especially in the late stages then it just gets wild and crazy down into turn one so um and maybe the restart Zone helped a little bit with that on the on the um stage breaks but

Uh yeah it was you know you just couldn’t make up time I thought all four of our cars had good speed but um you know the the bell at the end had the Speed they played a pretty good strategy I mean I think you know I’d actually heard

Some of our guys talking about that strategy of of staying out and just kind of doing a two- stopper um earlier and and didn’t end up going that route so we were all anxious to see how it worked out for for Christopher um I mean they I

Think he had a fast car all day but but certainly with the fresher tires at the end it it showed how much that that was really mattering as well along with a good Karm do we have any final questions for Jeff we’ll go to Chris Knight Chris KN

Catch.com uh Jeff to follow up on Jerry’s question um the strategy that the 48 team did with uh um pitting a lap before everybody else did propelled Bowman two spots and he was able to come out behind William were you impressed with that strategy I mean it almost kind

Of worked for him other than the balance went away there at the end yeah I I mean I I would I I want to dissect it and dive into it a little bit more with with Blake and the team um you know do some of on the flight home or when I leave

Here as well as you know tomorrow in our debrief but um yeah I mean it seemed like it was it was the right call but at the same time they were they were a little bit short on fuel so I don’t know if they didn’t get it full or or they

Were just useing more than they anticipate but you know it was going to be really really tight for them even if they could have held off uh Gibbs and and um and Bell but as soon as those guys got by and they started saving and

And you know so yeah I be I’ll be I don’t want to comment too much on until I I get a little bit more of the information from those guys but but I mean getting the top five I think was was huge and it was a you know it was a

Good call to obviously get the track position and who knows I that may have helped the 24 as well right because they had to get by the 48 and and you know that takes a little bit of time to do that I mean it was Bowman’s fourth

Consecutive top five and fifth top 10 overall here so there’s something about this place in Bowman yeah I mean uh Alex is one of those guys where the bigger the challenge it seems like the the the better he does so I’m going to I’m going to leave here and try to find

More ways to really challenge him even more uh you know but but uh you he you know he’s a great race car driver and and it just you know just takes the whole combination to to get the I mean they didn’t qualify well but they had a

Good car it seemed like all weekend and I think his confidence in the car uh especially when they dropped the green flag it it it showed and and Blake called a good race