Editor’s note: This is the 27th in a series in which we goodbye the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the final 2025 standings.
Driver: William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Team leader: Rudy Fugle
Final ranking 2025: 4th
Key stats: 3 wins, 11 top 5, 16 top 10, 1,330 laps led
How 2025 ended: William Byron’s progression behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet brought him back to Championship 4 for the third consecutive season following his fourth consecutive multi-win campaign. Byron was poised for a second-place finish in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, but his right front tire wore out and sent him into the Turn 4 wall with 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 perhaps his career – at Martinsville Speedway.
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Best race: Indeed, the penultimate race of the year at Martinville produced an absolute masterclass by Byron, Fugle and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team. Entering NASCAR’s final race of the semifinal below the provisional cut line, Byron won the pole, swept the stages and led a career-high 304 over 500 laps en route to carving his way to Championship 4. Byron passed Ryan Blaney with 44 laps remaining to retake the lead for the final time, ousting Blaney from contention at Champ 4 and propelling Byron to Phoenix.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series Schedule | William Byron pilot page
Other highlights of the season: Byron began the season by winning the 2025 Daytona 500, becoming just the fifth pilot to win the “Great American Race” several years in a row. In addition to an impressive victory at Iowa Speedway – in which he led 141 of 350 laps – Byron also produced dominant performances equivalent to second-place 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 couldn’t regain the lead late. At Charlotte, a fierce battle between Byron, Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain resulted in a victory for Chastain despite Byron leading 283 of 400 laps that evening. The No. 24 team showed remarkable determination throughout the first 26 races of the season, overcoming periods of adversity and inconsistency to victory. Regular Season Championship a week earlier.
Stat to know: Don’t let the fact that Byron scored fewer top 5s and top 10s in 2025 than each of his last two seasons skew your perspective on his season. Byron ended his campaign with a best total of 1,330 laps in the series — improving its previous record mark (1,016 led in 2023) by more than 300 laps. The No. 24 Chevrolet led more than any other driver this season, leading 224 more laps than 2025 champion Kyle Larson, Byron’s teammate, who led the second most laps this year at 1,106 laps ahead.
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MORE: Byron: “We have begun to see the light”
Quotable: “Winning the regular season championship and winning the (Daytona) 500 (and) three races a year is something that we can really be proud of. So yeah, I feel like it was our best year yet, honestly, but there was a lot of adversity and a lot of things that happened until the end. I mean, it seems like a lot has changed for us in the results column with about three rounds to go this year. We just have to learn from it. lessons — and a lot of that was kind of out of our control But yeah, I just gotta get past that But I think overall, yeah, it was our best year — William Byron reflects on his 2025 season.
Looking to the future: Few drivers have maintained a consistent level of performance from year to year as Byron has in recent seasons. That level of production – and a sustained championship fight – should remain important for him and the No. 24 team entering the 2026 campaign. There’s some history on the line in February as he attempts to become the first driver to win three consecutive Daytona 500s. But the biggest question remains whether 2026 will be the year Byron breaks through for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship — and there’s very little reason to think he won’t.
