‘That’s a Clear Message’: Kyle Petty Bets His Money on William Byron’s Championship Challenge Despite Darlington Heartbreak

Jerry Bonkowski | 12/04/2025
Kyle Petty (R) and William Byron (R)

This Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway will be only the ninth race of the 36-race NASCAR Cup season, but TV analyst Kyle Petty is already on the William Byron bandwagon to be a strong contender for this year’s championship.

Even with his heartbreaking runner-up finish in last Sunday’s Throwback Weekend race at Darlington Raceway. Byron absolutely dominated that race, including starting from the pole, led the first two stages, and led the most laps of any driver (led the first 243 laps of the event).

Yet that still wasn’t enough to catch race winner Denny Hamlin for the checkered flag.

Even though Hamlin has won the last two races and, like Byron, is still in search of his first Cup championship, Petty feels Byron is in it to win it when it comes to this year’s championship.

“I don’t think we’ve seen that dominant a performance, for that length of time, at a racetrack like Darlington,” Petty said on NASCAR Inside the Race LIVE. “The only one that came to mind was Ned Jarrett in 1965 won (the Southern 500 at Darlington) by 14 laps there.

“That’s a dominant performance, when you win by 14 laps.”

That’s an understatement.

Even though it was one of the toughest ways to lose a race, Petty remains bullish on Byron and his Hendrick Motorsports team going forward.

“Even though William and those guys gave that race away, even though they lost it and they basically gave it away, I think that’s a clear message that that team has shown up this year to contend again for the championship,” Petty said. “That was a performance like we’ve not seen in a pretty good while.”

While Byron left Darlington still in the points lead, for the record, though, Byron’s dominating performance there paled by comparison to the most dominating performance a driver has ever given in NASCAR annals.

Martin Truex Jr. led 392 of 400 laps (588 miles, the most miles ever led in a single Cup race in NASCAR history) to win the 2016 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
Darlington Raceway Kyle Petty Ned Jarrett William Byron

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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