William Byron’s start to the 2026 season has not been ideal, with his best finish so far being 12th at Daytona. Last year, at this stage, he already had a win and a second place finish under his belt, so it is clear he wants to improve. Only after doing that will he begin to focus on his bigger dream.
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Byron, currently 13th in the standings, is not trying to read tea leaves about the year ahead and is keeping his eyes on the long game and the road still to travel. That outlook even stretches beyond stock car racing. He has kept one eye on the Indianapolis 500, but he said his house in NASCAR must be in order first.
Ahead of the race weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Byron faced a question about whether he would consider a run in the IndyCar Series if the stars aligned. “Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, the Indy 500 obviously is always exciting to watch,” he replied per Speedway Media.
“I just feel like I need to win a NASCAR championship first. That’s first and foremost on my goals, and then I’ll kind of look outside, maybe,” Byron added.
“But, yeah, I’ve always been probably a person that could have run a lot of other stuff. Given my background, I could have diversified a lot more. It just didn’t work out that way. So, with kind of the nature of my career, I feel like I just stick to what I’m doing and what I’m good at. But at the same time, it’d be cool to expand outside. I just feel like I’ve got to get comfortable and accomplish what I want to here and then maybe look at that,” he continued.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has already checked one item off the sport’s crown-jewel list with two wins in the Daytona 500. Other prizes remain on the table, including the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500, and the Brickyard 400. But above all sits the title in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The gap between Byron and that title may not be far. Over the past three seasons, he has punched a ticket to the Championship 4 round in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, finishing those campaigns in P3, P3, and P4. With the chase format again in play, the coming months will test whether Byron can keep his nose to the grindstone and remain in that fight through the final stretch.
For now, the numbers from the opening three races show room to move the needle. Byron holds an average finish of 17.66 and an average start of 20.6. To keep the wolf from the door, his team’s engineers may need to do a better job of providing a car that can improve his qualifying position. That would help him stay closer to the front from the drop of the green flag and give him better opportunities to pick his spots during a run.
