William Byron can make more NASCAR history at Atlanta
William Byron could join an elite list if he is able to win the Ambetter Health 400 Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
An Atlanta victory would make Byron the first driver since Matt Kenseth in 2009 and the sixth driver in NASCAR history to win the first two points races of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has won at the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway in its drafting-style era of racing, winning the first race on the surface in March 2022.
“It’s a short week for our group, for a good reason, but I still think we’re ready for Atlanta,” Byron said in a press release. “I think you’re going to see similar racing to what we saw this past weekend and probably another crazy finish. I really think Atlanta has become one of the best tracks we have.”
The first driver to achieve back-to-back season-opening victories was Marvin Panch in the 1957 season, winning at Lancaster and Concord.
Two years later, Bob Welborn won the first two races of the 1959 seasons with wins at Fayetteville and Daytona to open the year.
David Pearson became the third driver to do so, winning at Riverside and Daytona in 1976.
Jeff Gordon was the next driver, winning at Daytona and Rockingham in 1997 en route to his second Cup Series championship.
Kenseth, the two-time series champion, most recently did it in 2009, winning at Daytona and Fontana.
All drivers who have accomplished the feat have either been nominated (Panch and Welborn) or inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Pearson, Gordon, and Kenseth).
The Ambetter Health 400 is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 23 at 3 p.m. ET.
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.