William Byron credits controversial Next Gen car in his NASCAR success

William Byron opened up on how the Next Gen car has helped him in his career. The Hendrick Motorsports youngster, who recently won the regular season championship, made his full-time Cup debut in 2018, the Gen 6 era.

In the first four seasons of his career, from 2018 to 2021, Byron collected two wins. Ever since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022, the #24 driver has won 13 times in less than four seasons.

The transition to the Next Gen car and the car suiting him was something William Byron spoke about in a conversation with Kevin Harvick.

"I feel that this Gen 7 car is kind of given me a chance to have a clean slate and really learn about the race car. I feel like I understand this race car way more than I did last the last generation. It's probably just the way my career was kind of driven and how much testing I did with this car.

"I was one of the first to test the Next Gen car and then I was one of the first at Hendrick to test it. So I feel like I got a really good idea of where the direction was with setup and it's evolved a lot over the last year, especially on the road courses and short tracks," he described.

Having said that, William Byron admitted that he hasn't fully understood everything about the Next Gen car. However, he claimed that he has 'a general sense' of it, which is why he's had more success, as he understands the current car more than the previous one.

William Byron on the change in learning curve for young drivers in NASCAR's Next Gen era

During their conversation, Kevin Harvick mentioned that the 'hundred race mark' was when a young driver can be properly assessed. The former NASCAR driver asked Byron whether the target of 100 races has moved in the Next Gen era from the Gen 6 car.

The #24 driver said that, in his opinion, it could and should be 'sooner.' He explained, via the aforementioned source:

"The reason I say that is because I feel like this was a clean slate for guys like Joey Logaon or Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin, like they had to relearn as well. And so I felt like when I was coming in Cup, I was up against a pretty steep learning curve of what the car should feel like and all those little track notes like where the tracks going and where the tires going."

William Byron mentioned that the Next Gen car is 'as level a playing field' as it has ever been in NASCAR. He called for more parity and a quicker learning curve, as he emphasized how it has helped him in shortening his learning curve in the Cup Series in general.