William Byron among fastest of NASCAR Cup Series

How does William Byron, one of the top drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, get away from life in the fast lane? By paying attention to football and his fingers.

TEXAS - How does one of the top drivers in the NASCAR Cup circuit get away from life in the fast lane? By paying attention to football and his fingers.

William Byron is among the fastest of the fastest NASCAR Cup Series drivers on the circuit, but he is a pretty regular football fan living in charlotte, too.

FOX6's Tim Van Vooren: "Do the Carolina Panthers have a quarterback to your satisfaction?"

"I don't know," said Byron. "I have kind of given up hope on that."

Byron's candor is evident around the track, as well. He has made more than 150 starts in Cup and doesn't pretend to remember every one of them, but if someone crossed him during one of those races, that sticks in the memory banks.

"Racing with these guys every week, you kind of realize what each guy's tendencies are, and what they're going to do to race you," said Byron. "Yeah, you learn and kind of build a notebook, and all of those things kind of come back at some point."

At Darlington in early May, Byron and Joey Logano had a late-race philosophical difference, you could say. Afterward, Byron was pretty salty toward Logano, who didn't back down either.

"I think everyone was shocked by how I reacted, but I think that people that know me know that I take the losses really hard and I may not always get interviewed after those times or show it, but yeah, the way that all went down, I was definitely upset," said Byron.

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This time of year, Byron is all about racing, but after the racing run, he doesn't always get much escape from watching the Panthers, so he also is into building high-level LEGO sets.

"During the offseason, I build a lot of things," said Byron. "I built the LEGO Titanic set. That was 9,000 pieces. I built the Batmobiles, some things like that," said Byron.

FOX6's Tim Van Vooren: "So like, if you're 8,950 pieces into the Titanic set, are you good company, or are you like, ‘Hey, leave me alone. I am on the verge here?’"

"Yeah, that last little bit is really hard to push yourself through, so you can definitely get kind of fatigued mentally and your fingers, like, the tips of your fingers definitely hurt after that," said Byron.

But completing a set is like completing a race, and if history is any indication, Byron will get there before most of his peers.

This weekend, Byron and the sports' biggest names will be in Texas.