William Byron’s Iowa Corn 350 victory gave him the distinction of being the only driver to have won at Iowa Speedway in all three NASCAR national touring series and the 27-year-old driver points to iRacing as the key to his success at the short track.
“When I was a kid, the iRacing schedule would always line up with the race tracks in the summer, and that’s when I would have the most time to iRace,” Byron says. “So, I would race this track (Iowa) a ton on iRacing. I feel like that’s why it’s been a good track for me, because I have thousands of laps in my head of how the rhythm of this place goes.
"Even with repaves and everything, I feel like I just spent so much time as a 14-year-old, 13-year-old just racing on iRacing on Iowa and Pocono. Those are usually our fastest tracks.”
Byron secured his first Iowa victory in 2016 in a Toyota when he was competing in NASCAR’s Camping World (now Craftsman) Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He recorded his Xfinity Series win the following year in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Now, eight years after his Iowa victory in the Xfinity Series, he has a Cup victory in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Two of those victories—truck and Cup—came with crew chief Rudy Fugle.
One would think Byron’s success at Iowa would make that his favorite track, but that’s not the case. Instead, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native gives that distinction to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway because that’s where he derived his love for racing.
“My family and I, we’d go to Myrtle Beach (S.C.) so I would drive by that track (every summer),” Byron said. “So, that’s always held the most meaning to me personally.”
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