Willy B's West Coast Win, One Milestone of Many

William Byron scores the win at Vegas Image: Hendrick Motorsports

By Dylan Alarcon

William Byron has secured his first Cup win of 2023 on the West coast with Sunday's victory at Las Vegas. 

This marks another career milestone for the 25 year old driver of the number 24. In every year of Byron's NASCAR career, he has accomplished a notable feat. 

In 2015 he won the K&N Pro Series East championship. In 2016 he was Rookie of the Year after a phenomenal 7-win truck season with KBM that would have seen him win the Championship with his win at Homestead had his truck's engine not failed leading the race at Phoenix. 

In 2017 Byron won Rookie of the Year again and obtained his first NASCAR championship in the Xfinity series over Elliott Sadler with JRM in the 9 car. In 2018 Byron took over the newly rebranded 5 car at Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series, now the 24 car, and won Rookie of the Year for his third straight year. 

In 2019 he recorded his first runner up finish at Daytona in the Summer and again at Martinsville finishing second to Martin Truex Jr.  He made the round of 12 despite being winless. 

In 2020 he won his first Cup race at Daytona in the summer, this time besting Truex Jr. for the win. In 2021, he partnered up once again with his 2016 Truck series crew chief Rudy Fugle, and won early on in Homestead-Miami and continued a streak of top 10 finishes that was the longest since Jimmie Johnson's in 2010, making him the youngest driver at 23 years old to hold a win streak for 9 races.

In 2022 Byron had his first multi-win season when he won in Atlanta and Martinsville, and nearly had three wins  with the throwback race at Darlington if not for a hard bump from Joey Logano (Thanks a lot Joey) on the last lap. 
He also made the round of 8 for the first time, coming close to making the Championship 4 but falling short at Martinsville. He'd end up 6th in the point standings. 

In 2023, the 24 team had a rough start, with a 34th place finish at Daytona and a 25th place finish at Auto Club. Things turned around quickly as Byron claimed his first win in Vegas. With the trajectory of his career so far, could this be the year Byron makes the championship 4 and races for the title at Phoenix?