How Did William Byron Get Into iRacing? Dale Earnhardt Jr. Connection, and More

The developments that have been brought to enhance precision in racing simulation over these last few years have proven to be extremely beneficial for race car drivers. Just ask William Byron. The Hendrick Motorsports star is someone who sharpened his skills behind the wheel through iRacing as a youngster and is now a prime candidate to lift the Cup Series championship in 2024. But where did this iRacing journey begin for him?

The introduction to iRacing came through different means for NASCAR’s best. For Byron, it came through a Dale Earnhardt Jr. press conference in which the icon spoke about the benefits of the tool. Byron said in an interview with Lindsay Czarniak, “I was inspired by that and then I just started driving on there. Creating my own paint schemes, you know, working with all the tools on there and really just kind of came became a project for me to learn.”

Dale Jr. has been a long-term supporter of iRacing in NASCAR for the technological precision that it brings and the economical costs that it saves. In the press conference, he said, “I mean it’s such an impressive thing to be able to see how close these racetracks truly are to the real thing… Trust me. The gap between where iRacing is and the nearest competitor is quite large.”

Little could Dale Jr. have known that a young boy from Charlotte would be inspired by his words and take them seriously enough to use iRacing to hitch a ride to the Cup Series grid.

The first impression that William Byron got from iRacing

From when Byron first sat down to press the gas in iRacing as a teenager to now, the simulation has undergone massive advancements. The aerodynamic properties of cars, the wear on the tires, and the realism of the tracks are just a few to mention. But even at a time without all these improvements, the simulation had been hard enough to beat.

Byron said, “It was really hard. I think… Immediately, I was like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of… there’s a lot that I have to learn.” Though he had been taken aback initially, Byron kept at the game and managed to find his flow with time. He added, “Over time I won a lot of races on there and eventually it was like, ‘Hey, you know, I really need to try to get into a real race car of some sort to see if I can… I honestly want to see if I could do it.“

Well, he certainly could do it. From a computer to a Championship 4 finale at the Phoenix Raceway, William Byron sure has come a long way.

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• Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• William Byron