Is William Byron a Championship Favorite in William Byron’s Eyes?

Everyone knew William Byron was a generational talent for a while. But it wasn’t until this season that Byron’s talent, his caliber, and his team’s work all came together to give a picture of what the #24 driver could achieve in his career. This year alone he has won 6 races, and he is on his way to his first-ever Cup title.

If you take into consideration most metrics and statistics and opinions, Byron is the title favorite. But does William Byron consider himself as the favorite with three races left until Phoenix?

The answer is neither yes nor no.

William Byron isn’t focused ‘too far ahead’

Ahead of this Sunday’s playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Byron was asked whether he views himself as the championship favorite. “I don’t know yet,” he replied. “That’s for you guys to decide.”

“I just go out there and drive. For me, it’s one step at a time, it really is. I feel confident in how we’ve prepared and what it feels like. It feels great in the virtual world and hopefully that applies. It felt great here last time, so we just have to wait and see. Take it one step at a time in each race of this round.”

With that said, Byron emphasized that he isn’t looking “too far ahead” and his focus remains on the immediate task at hand.

However, there are big names from the sport who are looking far ahead and putting Byron’s name right up there.

Byron has been hyped all the way through the season

While other favorites for this year’s title have emerged as the season progressed, William Byron was not only right up there from the get go in terms of his results, but his name too was there in other’s minds. Just consider what Denny Hamlin claimed all the way back in June about Byron. He said on his podcast, “Go back to episode one, I said the guy’s gonna make the final four.”

“Breakout year — he was due for it.”

More recently, it was Kyle Petty who hyped up Byron’s chances to win the whole thing. Petty claimed the young Hendrick driver is “just there.”

And along with the fact that he wins a race, does everything he needs to do at the right time, and converts bad days to good days, that’s going to come in handy for him at Phoenix, that in the penultimate race of the season, it’s simply about being there at the end.