William Byron, 19, working to master 'consequences' of racing in real life
There's reality and then there's reality.
Young NASCAR driver William Byron learned much during his formative years on the iRacing simulation that he brought to his progression through stock car developmental series.
It benefitted him in Legends cars, Late Models and then with Kyle Busch’s NASCAR truck series team. It helped him in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports and in a developmental deal with Hendrick Motorsports. It provided a foundation for the biggest opportunity of the 19-year-old's nascent but accelerated career beginning next season when he takes over for Kasey Kahne in Hendrick’s No. 5 Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
The technical aspects of racing – especially when competing against and gleaning information from other drivers – were there to absorb through the immersive and innovative online platform.
But consequences don’t necessarily translate. And those are a learned skill in racing, too.
Impact hurts and sometimes other drivers make fists on pit road. There are outcomes when speed and ambition mix that do not translate from the cockpit of a car to a corner of the family room, no matter the quality of the gaming equipment.
“There’s definitely consequences you don’t deal with in the virtual world,” Byron told Paste BN Sports. “But, yeah I definitely learned. I was being aggressive and I learned the consequences of frustrating somebody else and definitely it takes a bigger toll on you than on your computer.
"That was a big lesson learned, but it’s something you adapt to ... you learn your human skills that you learned from other things and applied and once you do that it starts to become normal. But it’s definitely different at first to not be just on a computer and be able to push the reset button.”
Byron preferred not to specify the incident he described, but it still resonates.
“It was pretty early on,” he said. “I got into it with somebody and they were kind of frustrated with me and I wasn’t sure how to react because I was so new to it. I definitely learned that lesson pretty early and learned what I was going to deal with and know what was OK and what isn’t.”
In that regard, Byron has proved as quick a study as in absorbing race craft, since he didn’t begin driving actual race cars until 2015. He progressed quickly through Charlotte-area Legends ranks to drive Late Models for JR Motorsports and HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks in 2014 and in the K&N East Series in 2015 before Busch signed him for 2016.
Byron responded by setting a series rookie record with seven wins but failed to reach the championship final because of an engine failure in the next-to-last race of the season at Phoenix.
Entering Sunday's race at Road America (NBC, 3 p.m. ET), the rookie is second in Xfinity points with three wins. His polish on the track, despite crashing out of three races, belies a young driver making a quick pace into new territory.
“The way you make speed is very similar [between virtual and reality],” he said. “If you look at it in a broad spectrum, the feeling of how the car feels and everything, but there (are) a lot of things I had to adapt to just learning the race craft and learning the intensity of that and also just kind of on the simulator you can only race so hard and usually there’s a wreck or something and you’re not racing with guys that are the best in the world.”
And they’re right there in person.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames