William Byron ended a successful 2025 Cup Series season with a Championship 4 appearance at Phoenix Raceway. His run in the finale was not enough to make him champion, but it still reinforced his status as one of the best in the field. Now, with racing paused for a few months, Byron is looking to get better at other things.
Advertisement
Several NASCAR drivers have a strong interest in golf, and Byron is one of them. The 27-year-old said during a press meet at Phoenix that he was in a good headspace about the hobby and that he hoped to keep that going during the offseason.
Byron said, “I usually — if I look at my camera roll, I’m usually working on golf from November to February the most.”
Revealing just exactly how good he is at golf at the moment, Byron admitted, “I’m like an 8.4 right now. Not too bad. It could always be better. I don’t know. I feel like when you play with people, though, you want to be a high handicap. You want to overdeliver.”
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has quite a few friends he often plays with. Since his home course is closed right now, he tags along to the courses they use and makes sure his skills do not get rusty.
At times, Byron’s involvement transcends the line between golf being just a hobby and another potential career path. This was evident from his words earlier in the season, when he said, “I play it pretty often. I try to play weekly. I probably went through three or four months last year where I didn’t play much during the racing season.
“But I try to play pretty often and go to the range a couple of times a week if I can. I’ve played pretty seriously since I was 18.”
A brief recap of Byron’s Cup Series season
Byron kicked off his season with a massive win in the Daytona 500. He later drove to Victory Lane at the Iowa Speedway and clinched the regular season championship at the Richmond Raceway. This earned him 15 playoff points in addition to the 17 he had earned in the regular season, to take into the postseason.
On October 26, at the Martinsville Speedway, he led 304 laps to win the Xfinity 500 and earn his spot in the Championship 4. What went down at the Phoenix Raceway then was truly heartbreaking for him. With three laps remaining in the race, he trailed only race leader Denny Hamlin. His front-right tire blew and caused him to crash into the wall, bringing out the yellow flag.
This changed the course of the race, and Byron’s teammate, Kyle Larson, ended up becoming the champion. Including his three wins, Byron secured 11 top-5 finishes throughout the season and led 1,330 laps.
