FOX NASCAR honored longtime Richard Childress Racing (RCR) pit performance director Ray Wright with “The Byrnsie Award” during Sunday’s NASCAR RACEDAY telecast from Dover Motor Speedway on FS1.
Established in 2016 in honor of late FOX NASCAR broadcaster Steve Byrnes, affectionately nicknamed “Byrnsie,” the annual award celebrates an individual in the NASCAR Cup Series who best exemplifies principles Byrnes embodied in his professional and personal life — preparation, teamwork and family.
Wright, a member of the RCR family for more than 15 years, is the founder of Pit Stops for Hope, a nonprofit organization focused on leveraging the NASCAR community to make a lasting impact on children in North Carolina’s most underserved communities.
Wright was voted the recipient by Byrnes’ FOX NASCAR broadcast team colleagues, of which he was a member since the network’s first NASCAR race broadcast in February 2001. Byrnes passed away in April 2015 following a courageous battle with cancer.
As he has since Steve Byrnes’ passing, Bryson Byrnes, Steve’s son, introduced the award and announced Wright as the recipient on the prerace telecast. FOX Sports had surprised Wright with the news earlier in the week at the Richard Childress Racing race shop.
Past recipients include:
2015 – Rodney Childers
2016- Chris Osborne
2017 – Tony Gibson
2018 – Jimmie Johnson
2019 – Darrell Waltrip
2020 – Bubba Wallace
2021 – Rick Hendrick
2022 – Justin Marks
2023 – Peter Larsson
2024 – Nelson Hastings
2025 – Jon Edwards
— Fox Sports —