William Byron through the years, career highlights

William Byron has had a meteoric rise up the NASCAR ladder. From his start in iRacing to Legends cars and the grassroots levels to his current Cup Series stardom, the young star continues to be one to watch.

Byron nabbed the 2015 ARCA Menards Series East title (then NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) with four wins on the season. He led the standings for nearly the entire season as he held off Scott Heckert and Austin Hill for the title.

Byron made his national series debut late in 2015 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Phoenix Raceway with Kyle Busch Motorsports. He finished 31st due to a crash six laps in but had qualified fifth for the race.

Four races into the 2016 season and in just his fifth start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Byron grabbed his first victory in a national series race, at Kansas. He led 34 laps and took the lead for good on the final lap following an incident between Johnny Sauter and Ben Rhodes in Turn 3.

During the summer of 2016, Byron signed a deal with Hendrick Motorsports that set him up to run for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for 2017. He would drive the No. 9 Chevrolet for the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Kelley Earnhardt-owned organization.

Byron's lone Truck Series season ended in heartbreak due to an expired engine, eliminating him from the playoffs in the race before the championship. The series' top rookie in 2016 scored a series-best seven wins, 11 top fives, 16 top 10s and a fifth-place finish in the standings.

Byron's move to the Xfinity Series in 2017 saw him nab back-to-back wins in the summer at Iowa and Daytona to mark his first victories in the series. He added a third win in five races with a victory at Indianapolis.

With a strong season in the Xfinity ranks well under way, Hendrick Motorsports made the decision to move the rising talent up to the Cup Series for 2018. He would take over the No. 5 car that Kasey Kahne had driven. But after some renumbering that moved Chase Elliott to the No. 9, Byron was assigned the iconic No. 24.

Byron capped off his Xfinity season with a victory at Phoenix to reach the Championship 4 and then a series championship with a third-place run at Homestead-Miami -- best among the Championship 4. He scored four wins, 12 top fives and 22 top 10s in his championship season.

Byron made his premier series debut in the 2018 Daytona 500. He finished 23rd but would go on to win the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award.

Ahead of his second Cup Series season, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Byron would be paired with seven-time championship-winning crew chief Chad Knaus atop the box in a move that brought Knaus back to the No. 24 team.

Byron and Knaus wasted no time getting off to a fast start by scoring the pole for the 2019 Daytona 500. The pole was the first of his Cup career and one of five he earned on the season -- poles at the Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 were among his top starting spots.

In his second season, Byron reached the playoffs, was eliminated in the Round of 12 and would go on to finish 11th in the final standings. The 2019 season saw Byron score two runner-up finishes among his five top fives and 13 top 10s on the season.

Entering the regular-season finale on the bubble and vying for one of two spots with his teammate Jimmie Johnson and Matt DiBenedetto, Byron took matters into his own hands by fending off the field on the final lap at Daytona to win his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race.

It didn't take long for Byron to win with new crew chief Rudy Fugle in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. The victory came during the third regular-season race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Byron led 102 laps and cruised to a 2.777-second victory of Tyler Reddick to lock his way into the playoffs for the third straight year.

A run of 11 straight top 10s from Miami to Dover saw Byron become the youngest driver in Cup history to record a top-10 streak of at least 10 races. On the season, he would go on to finish 10th in the final standings.

It took the No. 24 team just five regular-season races to reach Victory Lane in 2022, with Byron acing the newly re-configured Atlanta Motor Speedway. The win extended his streak of consecutive seasons with a win to three.

There's something about a truck and William Byron. Byron won seven Craftsman Truck Series races in 2016, propelling him upward through the NASCAR ranks. In only his second series start since that dominant season, Byron again found Victory Lane in 2022 at Martinsville Speedway among a stacked field that included perhaps the greatest in series history, Kyle Busch.

And on Sunday in the Cup Series race, he completed the double. It was an emotional night, as his mother, a cancer survivor, and father were on hand to celebrate his dominant victory. With the Martinsville Cup win, Byron became the first multi-race winner in 2022.

If there were any questions about Byron's future with Hendrick Motorsports, May 2022 news saw them laid to rest. The rising star inked a three-year extension with the organization, keeping him in the No. 24 through the 2025 season.

Byron claimed his first win of 2023 in impressive fashion, sweeping all three stages in a Cup Series race for just the 23rd time in the era of stage racing, holding off his teammates for a 1-2-3 Hendrick finish.

Byron netted a career-high fourth race win of 2023 in the rain-shortened July race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, rallying from an early spin and even falling off the lead lap. The victory was his eighth Cup win and the 2,000th NASCAR triumph for Goodyear.

A storied 2023 season continued at Watkins Glen International for the 25-year-old Byron, who collected his fifth Cup Series win in August 2023. After tying his career Cup win total in all previous years at Atlanta in a single season (four), Byron officially surpassed the total at The Glen. 

Byron recorded his series-leading sixth win on the 2023 season after a blistering day at Texas Motor Speedway to kick off the Round of 12. It wasn't just a huge win for him, however. The win was also the 300th overall in the Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports.

Starting the 2024 Cup Series season in winning style was just what Byron had up his sleeve. After all, what's bigger than winning the 2024 rendition of the Daytona 500? Stylish, indeed. 

Byron tallied his second Cup Series victory of 2024 at Circuit of The Americas in what was a dominant effort from start to finish. The win marked Byron's 12th in the Cup Series and second on a road course.

Continuing a spectacular start to the 2024 Cup Series season, Byron won for the third time in eight races following his triumph at Martinsville Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver got to kiss the iconic grandfather clock, delivering win No. 29 for Hendrick at the 0.526-mile short track.

Another major moment at Martinsville was in store for Byron in the 2024 Round of 8 finale, where he narrowly edged Christopher Bell for the final Championship 4 spot after a post-race review deemed the No. 20's late, on-track maneuver was unsafe.

For the second consecutive year, Byron kicked off his season in style by picking up another Harley J. Earl Trophy after winning the 67th running of the Daytona 500. Byron joined the likes of Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Sterling Marlin and Denny Hamlin as back-to-back winners of the "Great American Race."