Darian Grubb, William Byron learning in tandem on No. 24 team

FONTANA, Calif. — William Byron has made rapid advances up NASCAR’s national series ladder in a brief amount of time, and he’s in elite territory that 20-year-old rookies rarely visit.

His premier-series experience in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 Chevrolet is just four races old, but Byron is already benefiting from the influence of veteran crew chief Darian Grubb. Byron’s maturation is ongoing, but Grubb says he’s also studying right alongside him.

“We’re definitely learning every week,” Grubb told NASCAR.com. “Every time we go on track, we’re learning a little bit more about each other and what the car needs and what William needs as a driver and how we can compare it to our teammates. It’s definitely been a learning experience so far, for all of us.”

Byron led his first laps in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition last weekend at ISM Raceway, setting the pace for 15 circuits. Grubb called the stint up front a “big confidence booster” that exposed Byron to running with the lead group.

Though Byron has exceeded expectations with winning campaigns in both the Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series, Grubb says they’ve made more measured goals for their progress this season.

“It’s one of those things that we didn’t expect to go out and win the first three races,” says Grubb, whose last full-time season as a Cup Series crew chief came in 2015. “We knew it was going to be a learning process. We thought we’d be a little better than we are right now, but I can sit and look and make a list for each race of what we did wrong as a team, where we missed on the setup and what we did wrong for adjustments during the race to where we needed to be. So the speed’s definitely not just on him being a young driver. It’s all team and us growing together and learning how to set the car up.”

As for Byron, the 42-year-old Grubb says he’s become a more vocal contributor in the shop for Hendrick’s four-car organization. It’s made him adopt a dual role as a student, both at Liberty University and learning the ropes with Hendrick’s development and communication tools — homework all around.

“He’s been a good team member so far,” Grubb said. “He’s in all the meetings we have and when we ask him to be at the shop. Doing all the simulator work and all those things, too, so it’s been really good.”

Contributing: Pat DeCola