William Byron is hoping that the so-called \u201cMadden Curse\u201d, which plagues athletes that are featured on the cover of that year\u2019s video game in their respective sport, does not have an impact on what looks to be a promising run in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.<\/p>\n
Last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, Byron was named the cover athlete<\/a> for the soon-to-be-released NASCAR 25 console game, set to release on gaming consoles on October 14, courtesy of iRacing Studios.<\/p>\n The honor means a lot to the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, who has a close connection with the iRacing brand.<\/p>\n Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Byron would race on iRacing (an online motorsports simulator) and was successful doing so, which led him to convince his father to race cars, for real. Well, one thing led to another and eventually, Byron made a meteoric rise to the NASCAR Cup Series, where he now drives for Hendrick Motorsports.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, I mean that\u2019s a curse in Madden, I guess, but I didn\u2019t really think about that,\u201d Byron said. <\/a>\u201cBut, yeah, [winning the championship] would be a perfect bookend for sure, if I could carry that through. I think it\u2019s a bigger deal than you kind of realize when you\u2019re a part of the sport, you\u2019re not thinking about the video game, so much, but that\u2019s a lot of people\u2019s way to relate to the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n The 27-year-old driver enters the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson as the top seed, after winning a pair of events (DAYTONA 500<\/a>, Iowa<\/a>), as well as winning the regular-season championship \u2013 which he clinched a race early, after leading the points for much of the season.<\/p>\n Even though Byron has only secured two wins in 2025, it\u2019s been a really strong year for the No. 24 team, in terms of raw speed, with circumstances thwarting attempts to win the Goodyear 400 (Darlington) and Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte) after dominating performances.<\/p>\n \u201cI think our strength is just that we\u2019re fast at all the different tracks. I really don\u2019t see a track that we\u2019re at a big deficit,\u201d Byron said Wednesday. \u201cSo, I think at the same time, though, you never know what everyone else is going to bring and how fast they\u2019re going to be. So, we\u2019ve got to keep working. We can keep getting better, but that\u2019s our strength.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not a huge glaring area [where we need to improve]. We could always be faster on pit road. We could always be faster, have a better-balanced car, but I think the underlying theme of the Playoffs is you\u2019ve got to get to the Round of 8, and then you\u2019ve got to start peaking as that round goes. October is the most important time of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n In each of the last two seasons, Byron has been able to get to the Round of Eight, and in the final race of the three-race round, squeak into the Championship 4. However, this year, the Hendrick Motorsports driver says the post-season is going to be a battle.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve been through a lot of adversity this year. I feel like in the past we\u2019ve had races that we weren\u2019t in contention maybe, and we won, and this year we\u2019ve dominated some races and didn\u2019t win those. That\u2019s what I mean by battle tested. We came back from those, and we carried that same speed, but we overcame.\u201d<\/p>\n So, does reclaiming the regular-season title after having a tough stretch of races during the summer make Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team the championship favorite?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know. I mean, we\u2019re up there for sure. It\u2019s really going to be kind of week-to-week, and it\u2019s kind of clich\u00e9, but it just changes so much. I think the time of year, you know, the races change as we go into the rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n