Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - William Byron Interview after winning second straight Daytona 500 | Victory Lap

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick sits down with two-time Daytona 500 champion William Byron after his historic second consecutive victory at The Great American Race. The two discuss Byron's journey to the top, the pressure of defending his title, and what it takes to succeed on NASCAR’s biggest stage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour, presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. And today we have the fortunate interview with William Byron, now two-time Daytona 500 champion, one of 12 drivers to do that. So this is quite an accomplishment for William. We'll ask him a few questions and see how things win after the race. Well, William, I don't even know where to start, but let's start with this. You're one of 12 drivers to now win two day-torn. Daytona 500s, and that is, I don't even, you put it into perspective for me because that's, that's quite an accomplishment.

Yeah, I appreciate it. It's, yeah, it just feels surreal, you know, just last night and this morning, just waking up and seeing the race car. And it was just a great night. You know, we, we were able to put it together there at the end, obviously, and, and just feels good. When you, when you got to the end of that race, I think, you, you were able to, you. you were ninth or so there coming down when you took the white flag anyway.

I mean, did you even think that you had a chance to still win the race or were you just trying to get all you could and see how it turned out? Yeah. Honestly, I mean, no, I felt like I could maybe get to fourth or top five. I felt like there was a chance to put together a run into three and go third lane and potentially the middle was kind of choked down because of the way that the lane switches were going on upfront. So yeah, I don't know. I don't really feel like I was in a position to win per se, but I was just thinking about, you know, how can I position myself to get off a four with some

four momentum and hopefully, you know, there's an opportunity to, you know, squeeze in and finish in the top four. So yeah, just these races are wild, as we know, and this car has a lot of drag and it um you know when guys get to lane changing a lot of times it can um kind of change the momentum quite a bit as you went through the night it was very interesting because that bottom lane kind of got singled out and we saw a lot more three wide racing do you think that is just because of the just the way that everything happens when the cars are three wide and and it almost locks everything up and and you talk about the lane changes but i i thought that the i thought that the style of race was a little bit different with that with that third lane i don't know what your opinion is of that

but it was it seemed pretty odd to me yeah it was super odd so like that's really where the end of the race got jumbled up because we felt like the third lane was going to be the place to be based on um i guess it was the end of stage two the third lane was was really powerful and honestly um it changed when everyone started running more throttle and it seemed like as soon as guys put tires on their cars and ran wide open throttle, you know, was back to the bottom and the middle being the dominant or really the only lanes. So it was unique. I mean, I think that there was just enough fuel savings and kind of different agendas

in the second stage where the top was the place to be essentially to make your way through the field. And yeah, it was just, it seemed like in the beginning of the race, the bottom was terrible. like you just would get side drafted by the middle lane and get sucked backwards. And it really changed at the end when I think the combination of everyone putting tires on and then running more throttle percentage, it just kind of it brought the bottom back. We covered your car quite a bit this week in the duels and just talking about the handling of your car. You know, and you were, it looked nervous.

It looked like it was a little edgy to drive. I mean, I know they're all edgy in some way, shape, or form. And as you got into the 500, what do you, how hard is it to kind of dissect who's running hard, how hard they're running? And you talk about those lanes. How do you really know where you're at with your car to understand, you know, where everybody else is, to be able to diagnose if you got a good car or a bad car,

because it seemed really, really hard to understand until the end when everybody started to go? Yeah. super hard. I mean, I think that's my frustration throughout last night was just building because we just we had a good car and we fixed a lot of our problems from the duel and really just put our race setup in and felt a lot better. And I just never had a chance to really show that except for a little bit in the beginning of the race and then at times in the third stage. But just yeah, it was a tough night because I was never on the good side of fuel savings. My crew chief was always kind of backing me down to save more fuel.

And I felt like that was against what I needed to do to gain track position. So we were just kind of, we just kept getting mired in the back towards the end of a stage. We'd be up front, you know, in the middle part of the stage. But yeah, so it was a tough night for us. We just kept getting kind of stuck in different lanes and not making good choices. And, you know, fortunately at the end, I just committed to, I kept choosing the outside for restarts and and it seemed like that was the movement lane at the end. Walk everybody through what happens after this race because this is not your, this is not your

normal victory lane. And I know it's pretty special when you see all the, you know, the sidewalks and trophies and cars. You got to see your car before the race that from last year. That looked like it was, you know, pretty awesome to do. I remember when we were able to take the the RCR car and put that car back into Richard's Museum. That was always a cool moment to see the car before. Was there anything fun, exciting? Did you guys do anything last night? I mean, it is the Daytona 500.

I know you got another race this week, but was there anything cool that happened after the race? Yeah, it was fun. It was one of the rare times I feel like I've gotten a chance to hang out with the guys after and just be, you know, by the hauler and not have to go anywhere. So, you know, we got a chance to drink some beer by the start-finished line, take some pictures, and then we ended up at Waffle House last night. So it was a-oh, my gosh. It was a heck of a night.

So we do have a race next Sunday. So Rudy's off to the shop. But, yeah, it's crazy. You know, like you said, this race is way different than, you know, what you have to do for a normal win. And so there'll be a lot of, you know, media stuff this week. And I think, if anything, I learned last year, what to do and how to do. to prepare and, you know, just to have a, use this as momentum and not as a distraction, because I think it's great positive stuff for our team and we're in a great spot.

Well, I think that's interesting that you say that because I, as we talk about winning the big races and you see, and I think you guys have experienced this a little bit, you guys have won some races early, do you feel like that being able to balance the media, but also know where to put your prep in and where to put your time in has become something that you're better at, Rudy's better at. How do you guys balance that amongst each other now that you have some experience doing this? Because it can totally send you down a path that gets you off focused when you don't have the schedule and everything balanced right. Yeah, I think you said it, like you just have to have your process. And I think this team is really mature. And we have,

I mean, the group of guys we have is pretty much been intact for a few years now. So we have systems and we have methods. And last year was proof of that. I mean, yeah, we didn't have the middle part of the year that we wanted, but we really turned it on at the end. And we're really consistent. We just didn't get to victory lane. So I think this year we're going to continue those processes,

try to bring a little bit more speed and just, yeah, it can be easy to get distracted and kind of get off track. but for us we just want to be a consistent threat every week. Going back to the race, when I look at the end of the race, like I left the TV booth mad last night. I was like, man, I don't know exactly what happened here when the caution didn't fly. We saw the caution on Thursday night fly pretty quick.

From a driver's standpoint, do you know what's going on? Was your spotter? Was he pretty aware of what was going on at the end of the race because the protocol was totally different than anything that we've seen in a while. And just for me, I was confused in the booth because I just looked out there and stopped talking because I thought the race was over when everybody was crashing on the backstretch. And here they come. And it's just two of you coming off the corner.

How is that from a driver's standpoint in not knowing exactly what happened after you saw how quick it was thrown on Thursday night? Yeah, it's, yeah. It's unique for sure. I think for me, in my position, I was just going to, you know, it's the last lap. I'm going to stay in the gas. And I could just see the green on the wall, you know, with the caution lights or whatever. So for me, I was just staying in the throttle.

But yeah, if I honestly, what for us, what worked out about that crash was we had forward momentum going. Like I was going to the third lane and I never had to lift coming around that crash. So I think, honestly, if I had lifted at all, Tyler would have had a run. towards me by the time we got to four because with this car it's so draggy as a lead guy so yeah i don't know it was a unique situation i mean i it was definitely different you know not throwing the yellow but um i was kind of glad to see it end under green granted it was a lot of cars you know crashing and things like that when you when you look at the when you look at winning this early in the season i i always found it was it was somewhat difficult to to motivate the team it was super

to win the Daytona 500. And is that something that you and Rudy have talked about as far as, as far as I know we talked about how you guys were going to direct your season. But I think as you look at the team itself, there has to be some sort of conversation about what the goals are. What have you guys set up for yourself? How many races do you think you can win this year when you start off a season like this to be able to come out of the gate, win the Daytona 500?

do you think it's a five-win season, six-win season, or do you just kind of have to wait and see, you know, what those goals need to be? Or have you made some pre-season goals. Yeah, I mean, we just, we have to see where our speeds at and where we are, you know, in comparison to everybody. But I think, yeah, to your point, it's tough to stay motivated in some ways. But luckily, we've had this experience, like almost every year

where we win early on. And I think that, you know, we've been able to have. successful into the years as well. But yeah, we'd like to sprinkle it in throughout the year. And that's been the messaging all offseason is let's be consistent throughout. And so I think it's really ingrained through our experiences. Yeah, I don't know what kind of season it can be. Hopefully it's not just a one win season.

Hopefully we have a lot of chances to win and lead a bunch more laps than we did last year because that was really a place we wanted to improve. So we know that the Harley J. Earl Trophy is a decorative piece. in your house, correct? Currently? Yes, it's somewhere in my house. Yeah. Yeah.

So what do we do with the second one? I don't know. I've had this idea where it's, it might, you know, I'm a big hockey guy. So I, maybe we'll pass it around for a couple days. Everyone will get their share of it like they do, the Stanley Cup. So we'll do that maybe for a little bit and then see from there. Have you had to clean the first one yet? Because it will, it will change colors.

Yeah. It's, that's a good point. I should probably get on that. You need to, William, you need it. You need it. It's the Harley J. Earl Daytona 500 trophy. You better take care of the freaking trophies. That's, that's a good point. All right. Well, William, congratulations on being a two-time Daytona 500 champion. You're always a class act. And I think as you go through this year, we'll definitely probably be having this conversation again. So have fun with this. Do do something. that is unique and fun, enjoy it while you can. I know you guys are all serious and want to get

ready for next week, but this one's a little bit different than most, so enjoy it. Yeah, thanks, man. I appreciate it. See you in Atlanta.