{"id":258645,"date":"2025-11-03T10:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/258645\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:58:11","slug":"is-william-byron-nascars-most-underrated-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/258645\/","title":{"rendered":"Is William Byron NASCAR\u2019s Most Underrated Contender?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Denny Hamlin<\/a> won his 60th Cup Series race at the Las Vegas playoff race, many wondered if any current driver could ever reach that mark.<\/p>\n

The sport has changed, with shorter careers, tighter competition and the Next Gen car leveling the playing field.<\/p>\n

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But NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi think one driver stands out: William Byron<\/a>. The 27-year-old Hendrick Motorsports star has made the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway, his third time to contend for the Cup Series title.<\/p>\n

On the Teardown podcast<\/a>, Gluck addressed the ongoing conversation about whether current drivers can get to 60 wins, recently achieved by Hamlin:<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was interesting when this whole conversation started when Denny won his 60th and people were like, I don\u2019t know if anybody can get to 60 again. I really think Byron is being overlooked. I mean, how old is Byron still?\u2026 He\u2019s still so young..\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin is 44 and achieved this milestone over more than two decades and 700+ races. That\u2019s a long time and a lot of races.<\/p>\n

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Bianchi added: \u201c[William Byron] doesn\u2019t make mistakes. Very rarely overdrive. Very smart and mature. And you talk about your point of kind of seeing him come out a little bit of this, you know, being more comfortable with who he is. He\u2019s not afraid to talk about big picture topics now and have a voice in this sport. And that\u2019s something that\u2019s a lot of people aren\u2019t comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read:: How Denny Hamlin Plans to Win His First NASCAR Cup Title<\/a><\/p>\n

William Byron\u2019s Under the Radar\u00a0Rise\"NASCAR:<\/p>\n

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Byron\u2019s steady, methodical approach is the opposite of more flashy drivers. He puts his #24 Chevrolet in position to win and contend<\/a> for championships.<\/p>\n

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His youth, talent and seat time with Hendrick Motorsports makes him a long-term candidate to get to 60 wins. This weekend Byron faces the ultimate test in the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway against Hamlin, Larson, and Briscoe.<\/p>\n

Hamlin is going for a career championship, Larson a second, Byron and Briscoe their first. Regardless of the outcome Byron\u2019s skill, maturity and consistency is why insiders say he\u2019s being overlooked as a future NASCAR star.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has this killer mentality where it\u2019s like, if you give him a fast car and you give him a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read:: NASCAR Denies Bias Claims Against Denny Hamlin Amid 23XI Lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Denny Hamlin won his 60th Cup Series race at the Las Vegas playoff race, many wondered if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,3932,4384,21164,21623,634,43326,82,4382],"class_list":["post-258645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-hendrick-motorsports","tag-jeff-gluck","tag-jordan-bianchi","tag-nascar","tag-phoenix-raceway","tag-sports","tag-william-byron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}