NASCAR Contenders vs Pretenders: Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Ryan Blaney Share Their Takes

Six races are down in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. There have been plenty of twists and turns already. But has there been enough showing to decide which drivers are going to contend for the championship? Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Ryan Blaney expressed their thoughts at Martinsville.

Larson currently sits second on the points table with one victory lane visit and two stage wins. He also has three top-5s and four top-10 finishes. He noted to the press that it is still too early to declare which drivers have a real shot at being the champion and that even the drivers who’ve been good so far could stumble if they had a couple of bad races.

His teammate, William Byron, held a similar opinion. Byron is currently the points leader with one win, three top-5s, four top-10s, and one stage win. Notably, he is the Daytona 500 winner. He said, “I’d say get to July probably and kind of figure out who’s close in points.” Byron continued to break down that it would all be about who had the most race wins and stage wins.

“It’s whoever’s going to break out and win multiple races,” he said. “Obviously, [Christopher] Bell’s already done that, but they’ve been kind of up and down, inconsistent. So yeah, I think it’s whoever gets a lot of stage points, the stage wins, and then the race wins.” Bell has won three races and yet sits fifth on points due to his inconsistent performances.

When does Ryan Blaney want to start judging drivers?

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion is the last driver who would want to start looking at the scoreboard right now. He has three DNFs in the first six races despite having one of the fastest cars on the field on multiple occasions. Two of those three DNFs came due to engine failures in his #12 Ford Mustang. So, understandably, he wants to wait a few more weeks to judge performances.

He told the press in Martinsville, “I think you can get a really good feed on it after Bristol, going into the Easter break, because you get through a lot of tracks in that span of time – a lot of different variations of racetracks and things like that. I’d say give it a few more weeks.”

Blaney sits 10th on the points table. He has one top-5 and two top-10 finishes, along with two stage wins. Not many race weekends are between now and the Easter break. Hopefully, he will be able to set the ball rolling this Sunday.