NASCAR Cup Series: When will William Byron earn his first victory?

William Byron has only driven in 15 NASCAR Cup Series races in his career thus far. But when should we expect to see him win a race for the first time?

William Byron, 20, landed his first ride in the NASCAR Cup Series prior to the start of this season. He landed that ride, a full-time ride driving for Hendrick Motorsports, even before he secured the 2017 Xfinity Series championship driving the #9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, the team that is co-owned by Rick Hendrick, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports.

Byron replaced Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports this season, although he is not driving the #5 Chevrolet that Kahne drove. Instead, the team did away with the #5 Chevrolet, switched Chase Elliott from the #24 Chevrolet to the #9 Chevrolet and put Byron in the #24 Chevrolet.

Through 15 career Cup Series races, of which all 15 have taken place so far in the 2018 season, Byron has been fairly consistent, as he has only finished outside of the top 20 in five races. His top finish of the season and of his career thus far is his lone top 10 finish. That was a 10th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

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However, Byron’s consistency has kept him in the mix to make the playoffs in his rookie season. He currently sits in 20th place in the championship standings despite the fact that he has never finished a race in the top nine in his Cup Series career. In fact, of the 11 full-time drivers who trail him in the standings, six of them have finished at least one race in a position higher than 10th place.

This goes to show that the consistency that Byron has shown as a rookie driving for a team that have struggled mightily to start the season can certainly not go unnoticed. Given the fact that his average starting position and his averaging finishing position through 15 races so far this season are 18.9 and 20.1, respectively, it is not hard to imagine him continuing to record top 20 results on a consistent basis. He could possibly even set a new career-high finish every once in a while as Hendrick Motorsports continue to improve, and he could very well end up getting into the playoffs.

However, even if Hendrick Motorsports improve to the extent where their other three drivers, who have combined for zero victories since last June, start winning, it is extremely hard to imagine Byron going to victory lane in any of the remaining 11 races of the 2018 regular season or even any of the the remaining 21 races of the entire season. He should continue to focus on keeping it clean and learning as much as he can learn in his rookie season.

Maybe doing so will pay off in the form of a new career-high finish or two and a playoff berth for Byron, but then again, maybe it won’t. However, the experience that he would gain by doing so would likely prove to be extremely valuable in the long run. After all, he is still only a 20-year-old college student. A win may be just a bit out of reach for him at this point, although it would certainly be a pleasant surprise if it occurs.

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William Byron has tons of talent and could very well be a future star in the NASCAR Cup Series. However, will he have what it takes to win one of the remaining races in the 2018 season? While that would appear unlikely, it could certainly happen if Hendrick Motorsports make big improvements and all of the right pieces fall into place for the 20-year-old. However, the 2019 season could and should produce at least one victory for him regardless of whether or not he wins a race before this season comes to an end.

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