Here’s what’s happening in NASCAR with the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway in the rearview and Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock) up next.
MORE: Daytona entry list
HOW TO WATCH: NASCAR on NBC, USA | Driver Cams on HBO Max
1. With the Regular Season Championship in hand, Byron wants more
The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver spoke with NASCAR.com about wrapping up the title, prepping for Daytona and eyeing a Cup Series Championship.
The gratification in William Byron’s eyes couldn’t be erased days removed from winning the NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship. The 27-year-old cruised to his first regular-season title Saturday night at Richmond, leaving with an insurmountable 68-point gap over teammate Chase Elliott, who wrecked out for the first time all year.
It’s a crowning moment for the Charlotte, North Carolina native, and even though he’s hoping to hoist the Bill France Cup come November, he and the No. 24 team have taken time to soak in the moment. Rocky races dotted the summer months for the group, with crashes, mechanical failures and an overall lack of results overshadowing the team’s top-ranked speed since mid-June. Overcoming that adversity to clinch the title with one week remaining highlights the core strength of Byron and his crew.
“It was starting to stack up and feel difficult — feel like a tall mountain to climb,” Byron said in a Tuesday teleconference. “We just started to slowly put weeks together. And not everything was perfect either. We had moments where it felt like we were doing all the right things and then it didn’t work out still. So it is definitely cool to look back and think about where we were as a team at, say, Pocono or Chicago, where we had speed, but we had things happen and had to work through that adversity and then just slowly climb back up the mountain.
“It seemed like we started to see the light at Iowa when we had that big win. That really got us on the other side of things momentum-wise and we just took that and ran with it.”
RELATED: Cup Series standings | 2025 schedule
Climbing that mountain midseason may make all the difference. To enter the postseason battle-tested instead of determining your mettle in a championship chase may prove to give Byron and his team an advantage.
“I think we’re just weathered,” Byron said. “I feel like we have a really good team. We’ve been through a lot of different adverse situations. I mean, we’ve been through it all really, so I feel like that just weathers you for whatever adversity comes your way. That anxiety about what’s going to happen next is not as high anymore. It’s kind of like, OK, we’re equipped to deal with those things and just perform. I mean, we’ve been through the wringer really, in a lot of ways, so I feel like we just are ready for that.”
But before the playoffs comes one more race at Daytona, where Byron scored his first career win in the summer of 2020. Now the two-time defending Daytona 500 winner, Byron and teammates Elliott and Kyle Larson will try to help Alex Bowman — currently hanging onto the final provisional spot in the 16-driver playoff grid by 60 points — get the fourth and final Hendrick Chevrolet into the championship fight. Allies are critical in superspeedway racing, and the order in which teams leave pit road could factor into shaping the running order as the checkered flag nears. So, without the burden of fighting for a regular-season title hanging overhead, how can Byron help Bowman?
“Without kind of giving it away, I feel like just kind of racing with that in mind and just trying to be smart, be a good teammate,” Byron said. “Drafting tracks are tough because you have to be selfish. You have to position yourself and your car well to get towards the front, and a lot of that is on you and your decision-making. It’s really a big place for decision-making. A lot of times, you have finesse, you have speed, racecraft. This place is really about decision-making, so it’s really important to be on top of that and just be smart with that.”
2. RFK Racing in must-win mode after Richmond — but so are 19 other drivers
It all comes down to Daytona for 22 racers. RFK Racing’s trio is in the spotlight, but a case can be made for many not yet locked into the postseason.
Richmond started nearly perfectly for RFK Racing when Ryan Preece rocketed the No. 60 Ford to just the second pole position of his Cup career. Team co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski time-trialed in sixth place and Chris Buescher put the No. 17 Ford 12th.
But by the end of Stage 1, trouble seemed afoot. Preece’s team banked a set of tires early by not pitting through the opening 70-lap stint and fell to 14th. But myriad strategies unfolded around Preece, and suddenly the pole-sitter who entered Richmond 34 points out of the playoffs was stuck in a hole he couldn’t race out of. Eventually, his brakes faded and plummeted him to a 35th-place finish, a gut punch to his postseason hopes. Buescher’s night wasn’t much better in 30th, but Keselowski left with a solid ninth-place finish.
And then there was one. The final race of the regular season strikes Saturday at Daytona. Fourteen drivers are locked thanks to wins throughout the 2025 campaign. Two spots are available. Provisionally, those are held by Tyler Reddick (89 points above the provisional elimination line) and Alex Bowman, who sits 60 points ahead of Buescher and 94 ahead of Preece, with Keselowski mired in 22nd in the playoff standings. But with at least one of Reddick and Bowman in jeopardy of being ousted by a new winner, that puts 22 drivers in must-win mode entering Saturday night’s superspeedway showdown.
MORE: Current Cup Series Playoffs standings
With help from Racing Insights, let’s make the case for those who are left fighting for what could be the final spot in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Reddick has finished runner-up twice at Daytona — including in this year’s Daytona 500 — and won both a Duel at Daytona and the Talladega spring race in 2024. Bowman was the runner-up in the 2024 Daytona 500, while Buescher was victorious in the summer Daytona race in 2023. Preece crossed the star/finish line second at Talladega earlier this spring before a disqualification nullified the result, while Kyle Busch is a three-time superspeedway race winner with two at Talladega and one at Daytona (July 2008). Keselowski is the winningest active driver at Talladega and has a Daytona victory on his resume in July 2016.
Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell won the Daytona 500 in 2021 and was a key contender in last year’s summer spectacular before crashing from the lead. His teammate Carson Hocevar was second at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta in February. Legacy Motor Club also heads to Daytona with optimism: Erik Jones earned his first career win there in the 2018 summer race and nearly won a Duel back in February, meanwhile teammate John Hunter Nemechek boasts the best average finish at Daytona among active drivers. Then there is Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who has two career Daytona wins and two at Talladega.
A valid case can be made for plenty contenders heading into Saturday’s last-gasp chance to qualify for the postseason. But who will fate afford the upper hand when the checkered flag waves?
3. Welcome back, North Wilkesboro!
NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer Ben Kennedy announces North Wilkesboro’s return to the 2026 schedule as a Cup Series points race while Dover Motor Speedway shifts to hosts the 2026 NASCAR All-Star Race.
4. Going as fast as Xfinity Mobile
New in 2025, the Xfinity Fastest Lap awards an additional regular-season point to the driver who sets the fastest lap in a race. Denny Hamlin leads the series with six points earned this season, nearly a full quarter of the regular-season so far. With one race remaining, a look at who has taken the most advantage of the extra point up for grabs. (Credit: Racing Insights)
| Drivers | Fastest laps |
|---|---|
| Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| Kyle Larson | 4 |
| Michael McDowell | 3 |
| AJ Allmendinger | 2 |
| Bubba Wallace | 2 |
| Tyler Reddick | 2 |
| William Byron | 2 |
| Brad Keselowski | 1 |
| Carson Hocevar | 1 |
| John Hunter Nemechek | 1 |
| Justin Haley | 1 |
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
Paint Scheme Preview: 2025 Daytona summer race
Richmond win was more like validation than redemption for Austin Dillon
Three Up, Three Down: Team Penske rises, RFK falls after Richmond
Two playoff spots remain after Austin Dillon’s Richmond win causes shakeup
William Byron wins 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship
Hauler Talk: How Zilisch would get cleared to race after an injury
Playoff bubble ready to burst? ‘There’s so much talent below the line’
Power Rankings: Is Austin Dillon primed for another Daytona win?
@nascarcasm: Fake texts to Richmond winner Dillon
