William Byron composes a string of top-10 finishes. But that tremendous finish to open the 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup overwhelmed him.
Look at Byron’s last four races and you’d think he’d do well in the Chase. Byron’s average finish following courses in Gateway, Bristol, Kansas, and Las Vegas is 6.5 stars. Yet he’s still 12th in the standings, thanks to his 37th-place finish at Darlington.
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Byron also dominated the 1.5 mile races in 2026. Third at the first race in Las Vegas, seventh at the first race at Kansas, eighth at Texas, ninth at Charlotte, fourth at Chicagoland, seventh at the second race at Kansas, sixth at the second race at Las Vegas.
However, after points leader Kyle Larson dominated the intermediate stages on his way to a recent string of top-10 finishes.
Pat DeCola of NASCAR.com assessed. After finishing the first five races of the Chase, DeCola wrote that Byron “…remains 12th and has 160 points, despite being the only driver to finish inside the top 10 in all seven 1.5 miles this season.”
Darlington evil still threatens William Byron
Byron’s 37th place clunker at Darlington put him in an immediate hole. Byron accumulated five points for the stage, but finished with six points overall. Most of the drivers involved in the Darlington Chase were components of Byron’s accident.
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What’s worse about Byron? He is one of just eight drivers in the Chase to record a positive point differential in Chase points to regular season points. In the current season, Byron accumulated 25.62 points per race. Through the first five races of the season, that number climbed to 28.6, an increase of 2.98 per race.
Byron drove through the Chase, but in front of him are Carson Hocevar (11th, plus-2.12/race), Ty Gibbs (8th, minus-4.71), Tyler Reddick (7th, minus-4.98), Ryan Blaney (5th, minus-3.48), and Denny Hamlin (2nd, minus-3.90).
This shows how devastating a back-of-the-pack finish can be for a driver, despite four straight top-10 finishes and a net positive of Chase points per race.
Still a Silver Lining for Bryon
Bryon needs to finish off the streak from the drivers in front of him to have a good chance of coming out of nowhere to win the championship. He also needs to finish top 10 and land in the top five tracks where he performs his best.
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Charles is one of their footsteps. In the last four traditional oval races at Charlotte, Byron has finished ninth (2026), second (2025), third (2024), and second (2023). That could play into his hands on Sunday afternoon if he can stay out of trouble.
While four of the line’s top 10 finishes have unfixed damage, Byron can at least save that damage on Sunday. He also ran well in Phoenix and Martinsville, where they are two final four races, earlier this season. He took seventh at Phoenix and fifth at Martinsville.
Byron’s last two finishes at Talladega — the other race on the remaining schedule — were washouts (25 in the 2025 fall race and 35 in the 2026 spring race).
Talladega will be on the schedule for the power bankers. But if he bounces back there, with top-10 finishes at Charlotte, Phoenix and Martinsville, then Byron could have an extra chance when NASCAR heads into the finale at Homestead-Miami.
This article was first published in GRAVIS
Club One’s Wild Still Haunting William Byron NASCAR Chase appeared first on Heavy.