In 2016, William Byron dominated the NASCAR Truck Series while driving a Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports, a year before migrating to Chevrolet. In 2023, he will once again race for KBM after they made their own move to the Bowtie.
Byron will race the #51 Chevrolet Silverado RST with sponsorship from HendrickCars.com at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt on 8 April, Darlington Raceway on 12 May, and North Wilkesboro Speedway on 20 May. He has never raced at any of the three tracks in the Trucks as all were added to the schedule after his graduation, with Bristol and North Wilkesboro also providing him with extra practice ahead of their Cup events.
“I am so excited to return to racing with KBM. I’m looking forward to getting back in their trucks and hopefully having some fun for these three races,” commented Byron. “These are three cool race tracks we’re paired up for and I’m interested in running at them since I haven’t raced there in a truck before.”
Byron was easily the top driver in the Truck Series as a rookie in 2016 as he led all drivers with seven victories (champion Johnny Sauter had the second most with three), but missed out on the Championship Round after suffering an engine failure in the penultimate race. After winning the 2017 Xfinity Series title, he has been a regular in the Cup Series with Hendrick Motorsports with five career wins.
Since 2021, he has also made one-off returns to the Truck and Xfinity Series. He blew an engine at the 2021 Nashville Truck race in a second truck for Rackley WAR, but rebounded the following year by winning at Martinsville with Spire Motorsports. He ran three Xfinity races for Hendrick and JR Motorsports in 2022, finishing runner-up with the latter at Texas and leading the most laps at Watkins Glen with HMS, and will once again drive for HMS at Circuit of the Americas in March. HendrickCars.com is also sponsoring his Hendrick Xfinity entry.
KBM, fielding Chevrolets for the first time after owner Kyle Busch joined Richard Childress Racing for the 2023 Cup season, fields the #4 for Chase Purdy and the #51 for multiple drivers including Busch and Jack Wood. Busch won at Las Vegas last Friday in the truck, with Byron claiming the Cup race there two days later.
“Having William return to KBM for three races is going to be beneficial for our whole organisation as we continue to build our notebook as a Chevrolet team,” Busch said. “You expect that he’ll compete for the win each time out, he’ll provide valuable feedback to Brian Pattie and our other crew chiefs and when it comes to the development drivers that we’ve had come through KBM, his race preparation is second to none, so he’ll be a valuable asset as a team-mate to the young drivers we have in the building.”