With 10 races left in as many weeks before the season concludes, NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace has laid his cards on the table with a prediction for the Cup Championship. Interestingly, the former driver chose to ignore heavyweights such as Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney.
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On his regular YouTube talk, Coffee with Kenny, Wallace went all in while naming his picks for the title. He said, “I’m going to go with William Byron. And here’s why. Because William was so consistent all year long, and he had a lot more races won than he (actually) won, but got beat like the slide job.
“I mean, he led that whole Coke 600, William Byron did. And then Ross Chastain got him at like the last handful of laps. So, I’m going to go William Byron.”
For his second and third picks, Wallace added, “I’m going to go (with) Denny Hamlin just because you got to. And then… between Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, I’m going to go (with) Christopher Bell. There they are.”
True to his nature, Wallace even scribbled down the names in one of his notebooks, promising to revisit the list in November to see whether his predictions hold water.
Statistically though, Larson heads into the postseason top of the table heading into this Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington. Wallace’s favorites, Byron, Hamlin, and Bell, sit second, third, and fifth in the standings, respectively.
The betting markets tell a slightly different story. Oddsmakers peg Larson and Hamlin as co-favorites, followed by Blaney and Bell, with Byron rounding out the top five.
Even in a season where Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team have lacked their usual dominance, he remains dangerous. With 32 playoff points, tied with Byron for series-best, Larson can strike at any of the 10 postseason venues. Yet the No. 5 team has endured a rough stretch recently, leading only 34 laps across the last 14 races.
Byron, meanwhile, has arguably carried the best car all season, bagging the regular-season title and pacing the field in total laps led. Still, Hendrick cars have struggled to crack the code at Phoenix, which remains the ultimate battleground in the finale race.
Byron has been the organization’s strongest driver there in the Next Gen era with five top-10s in the last seven starts, including a regular season win in 2023. But the track continues to resist Team Hendrick’s collective push.
Hamlin enters tied for the series lead in victories with four, but the numbers flatter to deceive. His playoff bids have always seemed to hit roadblocks. Last year, a lawsuit filed by his 23XI Racing team against NASCAR consumed his focus. This time, without such distractions, he will simply aim to seal the deal for his first-ever Cup title.
The other driver with four wins this year, Shane van Gisbergen, collected all his trophies on road courses. Bell has been the only other road course winner so far in 2025, winning at COTA.
For his part, Bell has shown flashes of brilliance when he and his team hit their stride. With two additional low-banked ovals, Gateway and New Hampshire, added to the playoff slate, his prospects only brighten, given his strength on such tracks.
Yet, mistakes have cost him several close calls this season, and if those errors resurface in the playoffs, his path back to the Championship 4 will be uphill.
