Chase contender William Byron sits down with NASCAR Roundtable's Tyler Jones, ahead of Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Chase got off to a rough start for William Byron.
A DNF and 37th-place finish at Darlington put him in an early hole. Since then, though, the No. 24 team has looked a lot more like the group everyone expected coming into the postseason.
In an interview with NASCAR Roundtable on Saturday, Byron gave his team credit for the recovery.
“I think we’ve had some pretty good performances since Darlington,” he said. “We’ve had our issues.”
This weekend at Kansas Speedway offers a couple of chances at firsts. Byron still doesn’t have a win in the 2026 Cup Series season, and he’s never won at Kansas. Intermediate tracks have generally been a strength for him throughout his career, and he knows what it takes to get to Victory Lane on this style of track.
When asked about the challenges Kansas presents, Byron broke it down simply.
“Wide, a lot of options. You can move around quite a bit. You gotta be able to make your car work in the middle. Gotta make it work up top. Long run speed is so important. Last portion of a run is really critical.”
He’s not wrong. Kansas has produced some of the most exciting racing on the schedule in recent years. Back in 2024, Byron’s teammate Kyle Larson edged Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds in the closest finish in Cup Series history. The place rewards drivers who can manage their tires and find speed as the run goes on — exactly the kind of racing Byron has usually handled well.
Even with the improved results the last two weeks, the math is still tough. Byron sits 13th in The Chase standings, 121 points behind leader Larson. That’s a massive gap to make up, and it leaves very little margin for error the rest of the way.
The bigger picture at Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t been great either. While Larson has surged lately with a win and a second-place finish, the organization as a whole has spent most of the season trying to adapt to Chevrolet’s new body package. The speed hasn’t been consistent across the four cars, and Byron admitted everything is still a work in progress.
“I think we’re just plugging away at it,” he said. “I don’t think anything has really changed, executing a little bit better, just a little bit better speed, normal stuff, just incrementally getting better as the season goes.”
That’s the reality for the No. 24 right now. They’re not where they want to be, but they’re also not as lost as they looked after Darlington. The last two races showed progress. Kansas is the kind of track where that progress could turn into a real result if the car comes alive on the long runs.
Practice and qualifying were both rained out, so Byron will start Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 from the ninth position based on the metric system. The green flag drops at 3 p.m. ET on USA Sports.
A win would change the entire complexion of his run through The Chase. It would also give Hendrick another much-needed bright spot in a season that has been mostly frustrating for the organization outside of Larson’s recent surge. Byron has the talent and the track record on intermediates to get it done. Whether the car and the team are close enough to support that talent this weekend is the real question.
The hole is still deep. The opportunity is still there.
For a driver who has already shown he can bounce back once, Kansas offers another chance to prove the Darlington nightmare was the exception, not the rule.
