Denny Hamlin wasn’t the only driver who fell short at Phoenix Raceway. William Byron, who had a stellar 2025 campaign, was also in contention for the elusive Bill France Cup, the first of his career. Unfortunately, fate had other plans, and with just four laps to go, the Hendrick Motorsports driver brought about a late caution because of a blown tire, which shuffled the grid and handed Kyle Larson the title. And Byron, who felt guilty about stripping Hamlin’s race lead, apologized after the checkered flag was waved, admitting, “It just doesn’t seem right.”

But in hindsight, Byron can take plenty of positives from the season gone by. And with the 2026 campaign on the horizon, the Hendrick Motorsports driver will look to build on his performance and hope that it’ll be enough to lift the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway in next year’s season finale.

William Byron is turning over a new leaf

In a recent interview with Racer, the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver looked refreshed. William Byron leaned on the sunnier side of 2025 as a springboard for future expectations. “Winning the regular season championship, winning the (Daytona) 500, three races a year, is something to really be proud of. So, yeah, I feel like it was our best year yet, honestly. But there was a lot of adversity,” he said. “It seems like a lot changed for us in the results with about three laps to go this year. We’ve got to learn from that. A lot of it was out of our control, but we’ve got to move past it.”

Indeed, moving past it is easy enough, as William Byron achieved truckloads this season. Besides repeating his crown jewel victory over Daytona, Byron also posted an incredible consistency of 16 top tens and 11 top fives, which earned him the regular season championship. He led the point standings for 21 of the first 26 races. Byron also led the series in multiple statistical categories, such as laps led, miles led, stage wins, stage points, and laps run inside the top 15. “Overall, yeah, it was our best year with results,” he said.

William Byron eventually finished 4th in the championship race. Due to the current playoff format, both he and Denny Hamlin succumbed to the cutthroat, unpredictable, and caution-riddled possibilities of the finale. Byron and company appeared to be the only title contenders able to hang with Denny Hamlin and were running second before the incident. But after Byron blew his right-side tire and pounded the wall, everything changed.

“I think I’m mature enough now to understand that and the way this format is – the way it comes down to one race,” Byron said. “You want to put everything you can into it, and you go out there waking up feeling like you have a one-in-four chance to win the championship.” Nevertheless, he chooses to be optimistic: “But when it’s all said and done, you’re like, OK, we put everything we could put into it.”

And a big chunk of that optimism stems from the sparkling camaraderie of his team.

Hailing his comrades-in-arms

No magnificent goal is possible without perfect teamwork. And that is the reality of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team, which has been intact through all four seasons of the Next-Gen car. Five members work in harmony and precision, searching for every hundredth of a second in changing tires and emptying fuel cans. Fueler Landon Walker, tire carrier Ryan Patton, and jackman Spencer Bishop are just some of the names behind crew chief Cliff Daniels’ leadership. And the unison of all these talented hands led to William Byron’s win at Martinsville Speedway.

The Round of 8 finale was a do-or-die situation, and William Byron’s team lived up to the expectation. He made his winning move with 43 laps remaining, seizing the bottom lane and moving Blaney up the track by tagging him in the left rear. And he delivered after leading for 304 of 500 laps, winning the race and cracking the Championship 4. That is what Byron highlighted recently: “I think Martinsville is going to be a major highlight because we really took control of our destiny there, and that was cool. That weekend is going to stick with me personally to think about what that meant as a team.”

Clearly, great prospects await the No. 24 HMS team. Let’s wait and see how William Byron prepares for his comeback in the off-season.