William Byron has had the Battle at Berlin circled all year.
After winning the Money in the Bank last year, Byron came back with Donnie Wilson Motorsports and just didn’t have the same speed in what was an overall tremendous season on the Super Late Model side, but he wants to win the big one at this track, too.
“I’m excited for it,” Byron said. “I think last year we struggled in the Battle because I just got too tight and I felt like I just burned my stuff up once we changed the left side tires, so I’m excited to give it another go and hopefully we’re a little bit better this year.”
Byron will be presented with a couple of changes. For one, he has raced this year with Anthony Campi Racing instead and has not taken a liking to the Hoosier 3035 and F45 combination used this week at the Michigan bullring.
“we haven’t been there this year, so I’m a little bit nervous,” Byron said.” We were kind of, we just struggled on that tire when we went to Slinger, and this Midwestern combination throws our setup off.
“So, I thought we were a lot better at Pensacola, and in some of the southeastern tracks but hopefully we’re improved at Berlin too.”
This is a really prestigious field with Chase Elliott, Josh Berry, Erik Jones, Carson Hocevar, Bubba Pollard and Derek Griffith all making the trip to battle local champions Evan Shotko and Brian Campbell.
Byron is excited to see where he stands but it’s not that big of a deal for him.
“It’s definitely good for the fans,” Byron said. “It’s good for the perception of the race but I don’t think it makes it any more or less important for me personally. I’m going to race regardless, because I enjoy these cars and tracks, but I race all the other Cup guys all the time so maybe we’re a little tired of each other.”
He said it with a laugh, but he is excited to Battle at Berlin. The race is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30 and it will air live on FloRacing.

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