| After sweeping the stage wins and leading a race-high 176 laps, William Byron and the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 team captured their first win of 2023 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
· The win is Byron’s fifth victory in 183 career starts in NASCAR’S premier series.
· The win marked Byron’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
· Hendrick Motorsports recorded a one-two-three finish with Byron leading teammates Kyle Larson (second) and Alex Bowman (third).
· Chevrolet is now three-for-three in NASCAR Cup Series points-paying races in 2023, with Byron becoming the third driver from the third different Chevrolet team to claim a victory and a playoff berth.
· Byron’s victory marked Chevrolet’s 11th NASCAR Cup Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the manufacturer’s fourth win in the series’ past six races at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.
· For the second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race, Chevrolet drivers have swept the top-three finishing positions.
· The winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history, Chevrolet now has 836 all-time NASCAR Cup Series victories.
· Chevrolet earned victories in all three NASCAR national series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend: William Byron (NASCAR Cup Series), Austin Hill (NASCAR Xfinity Series) and Kyle Busch (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series).
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1 – RACE WINNER
“I’ve been really confident about this group of guys on the 24 team. They work extremely hard. We spent a lot of time int he offseason just going through and running at the sim with Chevy and running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a racecar driver and as a team. It’s all about the team. It’s a great pit crew. We’re also thinking of Chase (Elliott) back home. We wish he was out here. He’s a great racecar driver and great teammate. I wish he was out there. Thanks to Mr. H (Rick Hendrick) and Jeff Gordon. I know he’s watching. This RaptorTough.com Chevy was awesome. When we got back in traffic, it was a little tight but we knew we had speed so just had to have the right things play out. Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) made a good call, so it was good.”
ON THE FINAL PIT STOP: “The one pit stop they had where we lost the lead, I slid through the box or slid long so that delayed the stop. That was on me and I knew they could get it done in the end. Rudy has been under the weather all day so he’s been really quiet on the radio. Luckily, it worked out there. Just thanks to all the fans for coming out. I always love racing at Vegas and how you move around. I’m excited for the year.”
MORE ON THE WIN AND PIT CREW: “It was awesome. They did a great job all day. The one pit stop that I messed up, I slid long and we lost the lead. So they just did an amazing job all day. We wanted to bring this thing out (oversized victory hat), too. It was something I saw in the NFL and wanted to do it. It’s pretty cool. It’s got all our sponsors nice and big.”
HOW BADLY DID YOU NEED THIS RACE? “It’s been tough. Honestly, we started out and speed in the first two races but we just didn’t put it all together. We had speed at the (Daytona) 500 and had speed at California and had some issues. So it just worked out. It’s awesome.”
THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL RESTART: “I was focused on getting a good launch and launch with the 19 and see what happened from there. I’m fortunate that it worked out the way it did. Rudy made a great call, and we were able to put a little bit of a block on the 11 to keep him behind us. It worked out.” |
