Editor‘s note: This is the 27th in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.
Driver: William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Crew chief: Rudy Fugle
Final 2025 ranking: 4th
Key stats: 3 wins, 11 top fives, 16 top 10s, 1,330 laps led
How 2025 ended: William Byron’s evolution behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet led him back to the Championship 4 for the third consecutive season after his fourth straight multi-win campaign. Byron was primed for a runner-up finish in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, but his right-front tire wore out and sent him into the Turn 4 wall coming to three laps remaining in regulation, sending the race into overtime and ultimately leaving Byron with a 33rd-place finish. Misfortune led the young veteran to three finishes of 25th or worse in the final four races of 2025, but the exception during that stretch resulted in Byron’s best performance of the year — and maybe his career — at Martinsville Speedway.
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Best race: Indeed, the year’s penultimate race at Martinsville produced an absolute masterclass by Byron, Fugle and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team. Entering NASCAR’s final race of the semifinal round beneath the provisional cutline, Byron won the pole, swept the stages and led a career-high 304 of 500 laps en route to winning his way into the Championship 4. Byron muscled past Ryan Blaney with 44 laps remaining to reclaim the lead for the final time, ousting Blaney from Champ 4 contention and propelling Byron to Phoenix.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | William Byron driver page
Other season highlights: Byron began the season by winning the 2025 Daytona 500, becoming just the fifth driver to win the “Great American Race” in consecutive years. In addition to an impressive win at Iowa Speedway — in which he led 141 of 350 laps — Byron also had dominant performances equate to runner-up finishes at Darlington Raceway in the spring and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The No. 24 Chevrolet led the first 243 laps of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington but ultimately could not reclaim the lead late. At Charlotte, a fierce battle between Byron, Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain resulted in a Chastain victory despite Byron leading 283 of 400 laps that evening. The No. 24 team showed notable resolve throughout the season’s opening 26 races, overcoming stretches of adversity and inconsistency all the way to clinch the Regular Season Championship one week early.
Stat to know: Don’t let the fact that Byron scored fewer top fives and top 10s in 2025 than each of his past two seasons skew your perspective of his season. Byron ended his campaign with a series-best 1,330 laps led — bettering his previous high mark (1,016 led in 2023) by over 300 laps. The No. 24 Chevrolet was out front more than any other driver this season, leading 224 more circuits than 2025 champion Kyle Larson, Byron’s teammate, who led the second-most laps this year with 1,106 laps out front.
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MORE: Byron: ‘We started to see the light’
Quotable: “Winning the Regular Season Championship and winning the (Daytona) 500 (and) three races a year is something to really be proud of. So yeah, I feel like it was our best year yet, honestly, but it was a lot of adversity and a lot of things that happened all the way to the end. I mean, it seems like a lot changed for us in the results column with about three laps to go this year. We’ve just got to learn from that — and a lot of it was kind of out of our control. But yeah, just gotta move past it. But I think overall, yeah, it was our best year.” — William Byron reflecting on his 2025 season.
Looking ahead: Few drivers have maintained a consistent year-over-year level of performance, as Byron has in recent seasons. That level of production — and sustained championship contention — should remain prominent for him and the No. 24 team entering the 2026 campaign. There is some history on the line in February as he attempts to become the first driver to win three straight Daytona 500s. But the biggest question remains if 2026 will be the year Byron breaks through for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship — and there are very few reasons to think he won’t.
