NASCAR insiders react to aggressive William Byron move on Ryan Blaney, dominant win at Martinsville

William Byron didn’t hesitate to lean on his chrome horn when it mattered most at Martinsville. The Hendrick Motorsports driver bumped Ryan Blaney late in the race, taking control of the lead and never looking back on his way to a victory that clinched his spot in the Championship 4.

On the latest episode of The Teardown, The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi broke down Byron’s assertive move. They believe it represented a defining moment in his evolution as a driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“We saw in the head-to-head battle, Byron was able to get past Blaney,” Gluck said. “Contact or not, Byron had been catching him and was there. … When you think about what Byron has been able to do — look, you could say regular-season champion and all that stuff, but as you pointed out on a podcast a few weeks ago, you didn’t feel like he’s led enough laps.

“Ultimately — by the way, this 300 laps put him as the season laps-led leader — but your point was that he led a lot of those in a few races. Byron seems to start off well, and I don’t know what happens to them in the summer — and Hendrick was off as a whole in the summer. ‘What’s going on?’ … We’ve seen this guy come in, and he was a kid. He was legitimately a kid. He was a teenager. I will say, you talk about Conor Zilisch as a teenager, but he acts so wise beyond his years, and he’s so particular.”

Gluck added that Byron’s growth from a quiet, young racer to a confident, composed contender has been years in the making: “Byron, I think there was so much of trying to find his way in the spotlight for so long. Remember Chad Knaus yelling at him to stand up for himself more and all this stuff. It was just like, he was a kid that didn’t know how to carry himself and be a leader and have that strong mentality,” Gluck said. “We’ve seen him before our eyes become a man. It’s not just like — this dude now, he has the confidence. He has the mentality.”

Bianchi agreed, saying Blaney didn’t view the contact as dirty or over the line: “(Blaney) didn’t even begrudge him. Like, he understood. It wasn’t a dirty move by any means,” Bianchi explained. “You’re in traffic, you’re racing hard, the door had opened a little bit to go low. Blaney had no issue with it whatsoever. … Byron, he was just better today. I asked (Blaney), I said, ‘Did your car fall off?’ He’s like, ‘Byron led like 350 laps, man.’ Like, he had the better car.”

Alas, Byron’s assertive move and dominant drive sent a clear message ahead of the championship finale in Phoenix, as he’s not the quiet kid in the garage anymore. He’s a title contender who’s learned how to take control when it matters most, and his third time in the Championship 4 might be the charm.