Rick Hendrick star William Byron predicts chaos in playoffs with new format: "It’s going to be crazy"

Ahead of the Quaker State 400 qualifying, William Byron discussed the uncertainty of the newly scheduled tracks in the initial rounds of the playoffs. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is set to start ninth on the grid for the upcoming first Round of 16 race.

The #24 Chevy driver Byron clinched three victories in the first eight races of the 2024 regular season, one of which was the season opening Daytona 500. However, he has shown inconsistent results, including four DNFs in the summer.

Since his full-time debut for Rick Hendrick's team in 2018, Byron has shown great improvement and has garnered enough experience competing in the playoffs. He finished third in the final drivers' standings of the 2023 Cup Series championship, behind his teammate Kyle Larson.

When asked about the inclusion of drafting tracks and road courses in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the 26-year-old addressed the uncertainty and hinted towards a chaotic playoff fight. He said (via Cup Scene):

"Yeah, I mean it’s going to be crazy. You know, you’ve got two superspeedways and two road courses in the first two rounds, so it is crazy. It’s going to put an emphasis on being good at those places and being good at road courses, especially when there’s two of them now and not just the ROVAL anymore." [3:40]

Furthermore, Byron is looking forward to a promising yet unpredictable start to the post-season. He continued:

"I think for us, it’s just race-by-race. Try to show up here; put a good effort in and see what we can get out of this weekend and then that really dictates the pace for the next weekend. There are definitely a lot of elements of the first two rounds that are pretty unpredictable, but you’re going to see the teams that can handle the adversity and work through that really thrive."

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"We're a pretty confident group" - William Byron on his approach for the 2024 playoffs

In recent years, William Byron has made quite the name for himself. The 2017 Xfinity Series champion is eyeing a Cup Series title run as he has qualified for the 2024 playoff round with three wins.

Speaking to Bob Pockrass, Byron talked about his lack of consistent performances over the summer despite comfortably qualifying for the playoffs.

"I feel like we're a pretty confident group," William Byron said. "I think it's hard to motivate ourselves in the summer when we've already won races. So I feel like the playoffs is a chance to reset and go from there."

"I think we've been up and down and ideally we'd want to have a really consistent, great summer, but I think the emphasis is put on winning and that's what we see with the format. So we just try to race to that," he added.

As things stand, Byron finds himself in P4 in the standings after the playoff re-rack. He has accumulated three wins, eight top-fives, and 13 top-10s in 26 starts for the Rick Hendrick-led organization.