William Byron ends successful season with third Championship 4 showing in Phoenix
November 3, 2025 : By Ted Allen - Office of Communications & Public Engagement
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season was another phenomenal one for William Byron, the 27-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., who claimed the checkered flag in three races and advanced to his third-straight Championship 4 on Sunday.
Byron drove the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet in six races this season; Liberty was a primary sponsor for the 12th straight year.
In his eighth season racing in the Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports, Byron jump-started his year by winning the Daytona 500 for the second time in a row on Feb. 16. He later drove to victory lane at the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway and clinched his first regular-season points championship at Richmond International Raceway in August. That earned him 15 bonus points to take into the 10-race playoffs (in addition to the 17 he collected from regular-season race and stage wins).
On Oct. 26, Byron clinched his Championship 4 bid by leading 304 laps en route to a dominant win at the penultimate Xfinity 500 playoff race at Martinsville Speedway. There, he was inspired by a patriotic rendition of the national anthem by Liberty’s Spirit of the Mountain Marching Band, complete with a flyover and fireworks.
“We finally capitalized,” Byron said in a NASCAR on FOX “Victory Lane” interview with Kevin Harvick as the team prepared for the Championship 4. “We were able to put all the pieces together. Other races this year that haven’t exactly gone the way we’ve wanted them to were lessons for us. Those moments and opportunities that we’ve been through helped shape us. Those experiences give you things to fall back on, and if you can learn from them and focus internally and find a different level of motivation, it usually works out.”
The playoffs culminated in Sunday’s Championship 4 final in Phoenix (Byron’s third consecutive final appearance), where Byron finished 33rd. He qualified second for the final and trailed only pole-winner Denny Hamlin with three laps remaining in the 312-lap race on the 1-mile track before his Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 blew the front-right tire and crashed into the wall on turn three. The crash led to a caution flag that sent the race into overtime and a restart that reshuffled the leaderboard. Byron’s teammate Kyle Larson finished third to clinch his second Cup Series title in five seasons and the 15th championship title for HMS.
Overall, including his three wins for the season, Byron posted 11 top-five finishes and paced all drivers with 1,330 laps led in the 2025 regular season and playoffs. That included 52 laps led in Sunday’s final. In Phoenix, he won the first stage for his 10th stage victory of the season, tied with Larson for most in the Cup Series.
Based on the 36 Cup Series race results — not factoring in playoff round bonuses and advancement points — Byron (1,181) finished second to Larson (1,195) in total points this season.
The late tire trouble in Phoenix relegated Byron to the fourth-place position in the final playoff standings. Byron had third-place showings in his first two Championship 4 appearances in 2023 and 2024.
After a three-month break in NASCAR’s marathon schedule, Byron will attempt to become the first driver ever to win three consecutive Daytona 500 championships when the race again waves the green flag to open the 2026 season Feb. 15 at Daytona International Speedway.
