THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined by William Byron. William clinched the regular-season championship tonight during the race at Richmond Raceway. We’ll open it up to questions.

Q. From a top-level thing, being involved in a wreck to winning the regular-season championship, how big of a swing was that?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I was kind of losing my mind there for a minute. Just felt like there was so much going on. Just such a balance of trying to manage tires all night. It just got crazy on those couple restarts. That one restart was kind of the tipping point.

We had honestly some really good runs tonight. Was happy with, like, the end of stage one, the beginning of stage two. Throughout stage two was pretty good. Beginning of stage three, we climbed, had that one set of tires that we put on, we fell way back.

Feels great. I think, like I said in my interview, it’s really the best 12th-place finish I’ve ever had. We came in here and really just did a solid job. We qualified solid. We always want more, but this is definitely our toughest racetrack. We just kind of came in here, had a solid plan and executed it.

Feels really good. This team has worked extremely hard. All the guys have worked hard through the summer months. Feel like this has been the best summer we’ve ever had speed-wise. Had a lot of tough things happen throughout probably really early July. We had a lot of speed, but some crashes in practice and qualifying. Just some car issues and things that happened.

But yeah, just really, really cool. Looking forward to the Playoffs.

Q. Now that that pressure is off, what is the approach for next week? Just ride around, try to go for another Daytona win?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think I’m going to have to figure out the game plan there, for sure. I mean, I only feel like I know one way, and that’s just to go as fast as I can. Going to try to really be up front, do all the things it takes to win the race, just knowing that that’s — the potential is there to be in a crash or whatever.

Yeah, you can’t really, like, drive around in bubble wrap. You just kind of got to go out there and do your job, try to get a good finish. Usually you crash more when you’re conservative.

Yeah, just go out there, be aggressive. I don’t know, take the week off, most of the week, probably, good race (smiling).

Q. How do you go from 16 points down four weeks ago to clinching it?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, pretty awesome. I think just finally some things went our way. I think honestly we’ve been doing a really good job on strategy, execution. We’ve brought good speed in August. I’d say our speed was the best in mid to late June.

I would say in May we were super-fast. Then June we were really fast. I crashed probably our best car at Pocono. Then July we just had some really bad finishes, really bad things happened to us. Ran out of fuel a couple times.

I think we buckled down and really got back to the team we’re capable of being. Pretty impressive August probably. Probably our best August we’ve ever had just executing, thinking outside the box, bringing fast cars.

Q. This should put you on pace with Hamlin and some of the others, Larson, as far as Playoff points. How important do you feel that is going forward?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, it’s huge. No one’s really pulled away in a sense. I feel like we’ve let some races slip where we could have gotten another five bonus points.

All in all we’ve had a really good year, which shows in the stage wins, the amount of points we’ve had.

I think the 11 has been extremely fast all year. The 12 has been really fast. The 5 has been really fast. There’s the 20. There’s a number of guys that have been really quick throughout the year. No one’s running away with this thing, which is going to create a really crazy Playoffs. Nothing we don’t expect to have.

Just got to kind of close this chapter, enjoy it for a few days, because it’s something to celebrate. 25, 26 races that you have to perform. Really proud of that.

Q. Tell me a little bit about the accident. How were you able to recover from that?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think our car was as good after. We had some splitter damage. The splitters are really sensitive on these cars. We had some door damage, which I don’t think was a big deal honestly.

But yeah, I mean, it never helps getting damage like that. I felt like, I mean, it was another example of making something out of nothing. We put on that set of tires, and we kind of burned that set of tires, got some track position from that. We got back to the top 10.

Then that kind of set us up for a really good stage three. All of a sudden we were in the top five. We just had that bad run where we just couldn’t hang on to all four tires really.

Yeah, I don’t know. It just was a crazy night. I think that wreck, it was building. Everyone was starting to be really aggressive on restarts. That wreck I think was just kind of the last thing to go. Some guys got into each other.

Yeah, it seemed like it kind of calmed down, normal Richmond after that.

Q. What does it say about the strength of you, Rudy, this whole team, that you can take a period of the schedule that has been your Achilles’ heel and now all of a sudden turn it around that it seems like a ton of momentum is in your corner?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, it says a lot. I think we knew within our team that we were different this year, different towards the end of last year, just really kind of buckled down and started to make some really good moves, good decisions. I started driving the car pretty well.

Yeah, I think it all has kind of come together. So we had confidence, even when we lost the lead or whatever. Just kind of some random stuff, right? I spun out in qualifying. Cost us at Pocono. Chicago was a mess. Through all that stuff, we were fast, so…

It’s kind of speed was always there. Feel like that’s always what you need. We’ve been able to make something out of the races where we don’t have as much speed, too.

Q. Since the pressure is off for you, impossible to go in and think you can execute a whole game plan at Daytona, knowing the only Hendrick car that’s not locked into the Playoffs is Bowman. If the opportunity exists towards the end of that to be able to help him, is that something that could be on your mind?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I’m definitely going to try to help all those guys at Daytona. Just the Chevrolets in general. That’s your best bet. Going through the Playoffs, I’ve learned that. You just have to have allies. They’re never going to be like the ones — you’re always racing, but it’s good to be racing teammates.

Yeah, I think try to be stronger within the group and try to help those guys out at Daytona, for sure.

Q. What has been the difference for you and the crew this year, for your success?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think this was kind of building since the round of 12 last year. We really hit our stride and started to run really consistently well.

Then this year it was kind of getting frustrating that we weren’t converting some of those things, but we were still doing a really good job. I think it’s kind of been building.

Probably I would say May was our strongest month. Darlington, then the 600 was really good. Yeah, I think we have just kind of been building it. Kind of strong on all fronts.

We can always get faster. Hopefully these next few weeks we can work on that.

Q. You talked about some of the deficits during the season, things you could have done better. Moving into the Playoffs, what are the takeaways from the regular season that you think will transfer into the final races?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I don’t know. I think we just got to keep kind of shoring up some loose ends, I guess.

This team, this is probably our toughest track. New Hampshire is that way, as well. It’s really tough. I feel like New Hampshire is different. It’s more of a speed track. It’s a little bit like this, but it’s more speed-based. This place is just kind of more long runs and managing tire wear.

I feel like today especially we had a car that was very tough on the tires. I think if we had today to do over again, we’d definitely work on that. Going towards these next few weeks, it’s just about having speed. Darlington has been really good for us.

I don’t know, I’m really excited about Darlington. I think we can always improve on pit road, rolling time, in and out, all that stuff. Yeah, we’ll just see.

Q. What would you say is the difference between your mental fatigue and the momentum now that you’re in the lead versus coming into the back? Do you feel it’s easier or a stressor for you, or do you feel you’d rather have the momentum going in chasing?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I feel like we’ve had summers where we’ve been kind of under the radar, just completely out of it, not running well. Then we just turn it on in the Playoffs.

This year we’re coming in, I feel like we’re in rhythm, in sync. I feel like it’s better this way honestly. I feel like the years we’ve been on the other side, it’s a lot of questions, a lot of doubt sort of that things are going to work out.

I feel like now we’ve been kind of through the wringer of a lot of different things this year. I mean, every race has kind of been different in terms of what we fight. There’s been some easier races with speed.

Yeah, just kind of feels nice to go into the Playoffs hitting on all cylinders, just operating well. I don’t feel like we’ve ever really slowed down, so it’s been good.

Q. How does Rudy make you better?

WILLIAM BYRON: I feel like our relationship has really evolved this year. Like, I feel like we communicate to each other like we’re more on the same age. I feel like that has helped us just push each other.

I think there’s a lot of accountability between the two of us. He holds me to a high standard of my prep during the week, what is expected of me, how I execute. Like, he can see. He can see the small details that maybe a lot of people can’t.

I appreciate that. I appreciate that he can tell if I had a good qualifying lap or if I did little things with changes in my driving style. Yeah, I think ‘accountability’ is probably the world. That’s the evolution of the relationship this year. I even do that sort of back to him on strategy decisions or whatever it is. I kind of want that clarity and that picture.

We’ve evolved. We’ve worked together since I was 18. He was teaching me everything. I was just driving and executing. He was giving me that balance I needed.

Now it’s like more of an equal footing. He’s just a great crew chief, works extremely hard. His work ethic is just incredible. He wants it more than anybody.

Q. Because he worked with you at such an early age, it was a different relationship than it is now. Why has it continued to work as well as it has? Sometimes when the driver gets older, they want more things or look at things differently, which can create friction.

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think it’s just any relationship: you just keep working on it. You just know that’s your person. Okay, that’s my guy. I’m just going to work with him. So we just sit down, we talk things out, we get better.

I think we’ve had maybe two, three times this year where we’ve kind of sat down. I don’t remember exactly when the last one was. Sometime this summer. Yeah, it just works. We kind of keep talking.

He’s not as much of a talker as I am. I’m always the one initiating. He always gets it out. Yeah, he’s just a great person.

Yeah, it’s fun to work with him. He’s got a lot going on. I think his son Blake just started playing high school football. I think he started on Friday night. That was pretty cool. Hated that he missed that.

Cool to work with him. Cool to work with all the guys on the team. We have a lot of good personalities. Pretty tight-knit group.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, William. Congratulations.

WILLIAM BYRON: Thank you.

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