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William Byron is back at Hendrick Motorsports for the 2023 season as he pursues more NASCAR Cup Series wins and a return to the playoffs. He will also showcase some unique schemes.
Axalta Coating Systems, a longtime partner of Hendrick Motorsports, revealed one of the new looks on January 12. The company confirmed that Byron will once again run a Raptor scheme during the 2023 season. Though there will be changes as it will now be a white-and-black look with neon logos and stripes.
The door numbers have some extra touches for the 2023 Cup Series season. They will now be black, but there will be a neon drop shadow to help them stand out further.
Like his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Byron will have some key associate partners joining him for the 2023 season. The new Raptor scheme had logos for HendrickCars.com, Valvoline, and Liberty University.
Byron Has Achieved Success With Raptor
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GettyWilliam Byron prepares for practice at Kansas Speedway.
Byron showcased the RaptorTough.com scheme several times during the 2022 season, his first with multiple trips to Victory Lane. He achieved success overall with the unique look, especially early in the season.
Byron punched his ticket to the playoffs on March 20, 2022, by winning a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He had Liberty University on the No. 24 Chevrolet, but he took Raptor to Victory Lane three weeks later at Martinsville Speedway. He dedicated this win to his mother Dana, who had undergone treatment for a MALT Lymphoma tumor.
The emotional win secured the iconic Martinsville grandfather clock, and it guaranteed that Byron would still make up part of the playoff field even if there were more than 16 winners in the regular season.
Byron did not return to Victory Lane in 2022. He and Hendrick Motorsports struggled with consistency throughout the summer, but he still added some more top-10 finishes with the Raptor scheme. This includes a ninth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway and a seventh-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
The 2023 Season Could Feature a Historic Win
2021 was the most consistent season of Byron’s career as he posted 20 top-10 finishes in 36 races. 2022 was the best for another reason. Byron won multiple races for the first time in his Cup Series career.
2023 has the potential to be massive for both Byron and Hendrick Motorsports overall. If he can win three races, which would be a single-season career-high, he can take the No. 24 Chevrolet to 100 total wins. He would account for seven (so far) while Jeff Gordon captured 93 during his Hall of Fame career.
Hitting this mark will not be a simple matter. The Next Gen era has made it possible for smaller teams to contend for wins on a regular basis. Though Byron will have the benefit of continuing to work with crew chief Rudy Fugle as they embark upon another full-time campaign together.
“We’re definitely really comfortable with each other,” Byron said about Fugle during an August interview with Heavy. “We talk about the car and what we need out of the car each week. So we’re definitely really comfortable at this point. We’ve worked together for this would be… this is our third year total working together. So yeah, we know what we need to do, and we’re pretty good at communicating.”
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