Byron cruises to second straight third-place finish in championship race in Phoenix

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports’ only Championship 4 qualifier and a current student in Liberty University’s online programs, matched last season’s career-best third-place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway.

Byron led with 53 laps to go before being passed by third-time champion Joey Logano, who held off Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in a spirited duel down the stretch.

“Our No. 24 Chevy team worked really hard all day, and I feel like we maximized the most part of what we had,” Byron said after the race. “We just didn’t quite have enough … but I’m really, really proud of our team. We fought hard. t was a great strategy there in the final stage to do something different, but … Those guys were just faster than us. We would have a short, little surge there in the middle part of the run, and then they would start to drive away on the short and long runs.”

For Byron, it was his seventh-straight top-six race finish, a streak that should provide plenty of momentum heading into the offseason and the 2025 campaign, when he will seek to repeat his season-opening Daytona 500 triumph on Feb. 16 in Daytona, Fla.

 Liberty student and NASCAR No. 24 driver William Byron back in Sunday’s Championship 4 in Phoenix

11/6/24: Driving the Liberty University No. 24 Chevrolet Camero ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, William Byron secured the fourth and final Championship 4 bid with his sixth-place finish on Sunday in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The Charlotte, N.C., native and current student in Liberty’s online programs, will make his second consecutive Championship 4 appearance, joining Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, and Ryan Blaney with 5,000 points and an equal chance to win this Sunday’s Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway, set for 3 p.m. (EST) on NBC.

In HMS’ 40th anniversary season, Byron will seek to become the third member of the current lineup to clinch a NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix’s 1-mile tri-oval, which has hosted the championship since 2020. Chase Elliott won it that year followed by HMS teammate Kyle Larson in 2021. Elliott and Larson placed second and third at Martinsville behind Blaney, who earned his Championship 4 berth with the win.

HMS drivers have experienced more than their share of success in Phoenix, winning 13 of 56 races there, including one by Byron in March 2023 and four by seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

This season, Byron is one of six drivers with three wins in 35 race starts while Larson has six but did not make the Championship 4 cut as the sixth-place driver in the playoff standings. Byron also has 12 top-five finishes and 20 in the top 10 for the 2024 campaign. He won the season-opening Daytona 500 for the first time in February and led a 1-2-3 HMS sweep at Martinsville for his 13th career Cup Series victory in April.

He enters this weekend’s Cup Series Championship with confidence in his team, and faith in God’s hand of providence, as he explained at last month’s Convocation.

“God does things immeasurably more than what we could even imagine or ask for,” Byron said, citing Ephesians 3:20. “That to me always reminds me that it’s bigger than what I’m doing or what I’m praying for. He has His hand on my career and my journey, and that’s big for me.”