April 27, 2025
In the Next Gen era, William Byron has been one of the best at drafting tracks. In addition to his two Daytona 500 victories, Byron also has two wins over at Atlanta, which was recently converted into a drafting-style track. One place that Byron has yet to get a win at, though, is Talladega Superspeedway--although you have to think that a victory is coming soon. Over the six Next Gen races at this track, Byron has yet to finish worse than 15th at Talladega, and he's currently on a four-race streak of top-seven results. In the last two fall races, he's came home with podium finishes each time. This weekend, Willy B qualified mid-pack in 16th, which gives him Place Differential upside with a moderate amount of risk. In tournament-style contests on DraftKings, he makes for a strong play to consider, especially when you take into account his history at this track type.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: NASCAR.com
April 14, 2025
When Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin started on the second row in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol, most people expected one or the other to dominate and overtake front-row starters Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It turned out to be Larson, who led over 400 laps for the second consecutive Bristol race, but Hamlin ran in the top five for the entire race (except for pit stop exchanges) and eventually finished second. He never had anything for Larson but was also never really challenged for second in the second half of the race after Bowman's engine failure. Although he failed to win his third race in a row, he gained 19 points on William Byron in the championship and now trails him by a mere 30 points.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 14, 2025
Despite blowing his qualifying lap after expecting to win the pole, William Byron recovered from 26th to finish sixth at Bristol, which would've been called a good points day in the Latford points system era. It doesn't matter as much in today's playoff points system where wins and stage wins are vastly more important, but making the most out of bad situations will help him in his quest to win the regular season championship and max out the regular season playoff points. Since Byron tends to have a history of being hot in the first third of the season before fading in the second third, having a strong cushion now will likely help him in the summer races at tracks where he doesn't tend to run as well.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 13, 2025
William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports obtained a starting position of 26th for this week's race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Food City 500. Byron is the only driver from Hendrick to fail to qualify inside the top 20 this week. In 11 races at Bristol, Byron has seven top-20 finishes, with four inside the top 10. In eight races so far this season, Byron has one win, six top-20 finishes, and an average finish of 9.5, which is the best of all full-time drivers this year. In practice, Byron ranked eighth in overall lap averages while displaying top-10 speeds in the 20, 25, and 30 consecutive lap average categories. With his high upside, despite his last two Bristol finishes being underwhelming, Byron is worth rostering in all DFS formats this week due to his equipment and overall 2025 performance.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
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