William Byron: 2018 Autoweek Rising Star Award
December 18, 2017
Source: Matt Weaver – Autoweek
William Byron has big shoes to fill in 2018, but pressure never seems to bother the 20-year-old top prospect.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, native will inherit the iconic Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet (future Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon’s old ride) next season just three months after capturing the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship for JR Motorsports.
Byron is the latest young gun that Rick Hendrick has hired to succeed the likes of Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson as stock-car racing’s version of the New York Yankees goes through a rebuild. Byron is the definition of a wunderkind, a racing prodigy who had never raced anything until he was 15 years old.
Once he became a NASCAR driver, the successes started piling up. He has overachieved at every stop on the NASCAR ladder system, winning the K&N East title in 2015 and earning the most wins in the Camping World Truck Series in 2016 before a blown motor denied him a championship.
And this season, he responded by bringing home the Xfinity Series championship.