Dale Earnhardt Jr. Backs JGR Veteran Over William Byron in Championship Battle, but Sticks to His Earlier Pick

At this stage in the NASCAR Cup Series, if anyone were to bet on who would win the title this year, a good pick would be William Byron. After all, the HMS driver has 4 wins to his name and is also leading the points table. Although selecting Byron as a favorite would make sense when looking at the numbers, according to Dale Earnhardt Jr, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. would fare better than anyone else at this point in time.

Interestingly, even though Junior sided with Truex, he decided to retain his original pick of selecting Ryan Blaney for the 2023 title, citing how Team Penske had been solid at certain types of tracks over the competition.

Dale Earnhardt Jr takes Joe Gibbs Racing veteran in the championship battle

While speaking on his podcast, Junior stated, “Um, that’s the question I think we need to ask is if you know William Byron… If he’s not the champion favorite then who is? I’ll be honest with you man in my opinion it’s Martin Truex Jr…”

“We went two weeks and now he’s not on anybody’s radar anymore. But right before, as we were going into Chicago, Martin Truex Jr. was the hottest thing on the circuit man. I think he’s still there. He had a pretty good run going the other night at Atlanta.”

“But Kyle Busch obviously with three wins. But they’re hot and cold, depending on the track and I can’t I don’t know what the pattern is and whether that means he’ll be great at Phoenix or not… I picked we picked Ryan Blaney to win the championship and I still am not ready to change my mind. Just yet.”

Junior explains why he is not changing his championship pick

Further justifying his reasons to hold onto Blaney as his championship contender, Junior explained that historically, Team Penske has fared well at Phoenix Raceway. He further mentioned, “When we go to Phoenix, Penske’s has been good there. And I think if a Penske car can get to the Final Four. I’m feeling good about my pick earlier this year, about Blaney.”

Junior believes that Byron “is certainly in a great position to get to the Final Four.” He then said how Byron was not just there yet while comparing him to Truex Jr. He stated that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was just slightly edging him out in terms of competition. Although, he did mention that by looking solely at the stats one would easily pick Byron as the championship contender anyway.