William Byron made his 300th start in the NASCAR Cup Series after taking the green flag in Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has made all of his starts at the premier level with the same team — joining a shortlist of drivers to do the same such as Hall of Famers Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and teammate Chase Elliott and Jeff Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick.
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Starting on iRacing and in Legends cars, Byron caught the eye of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and competed for JR Motorsports in the late-model scene in 2014. Byron then broke through into the Craftsman Truck Series in 2016 and stomped the competition with seven wins in 23 races.
Despite not winning the series title that year, Byron earned the call-up to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for JRM.
Byron tallied four O’Reilly wins in 2017, culminating in a championship and a fast track to Hendrick Motorsports for his rookie campaign in the Cup Series in 2018.
Filling in the shoes of Gordon after Elliott moved from the No. 24 to the No. 9 for the 2018 season, Byron had immense pressure to succeed and it bit him early with winless campaigns in his first two Cup seasons.
Byron eventually broke through in 2020 with his first career trip to Victory Lane in the Daytona summer night race.
He’s tallied 15 Cup triumphs since, highlighted by back-to-back wins in the Daytona 500 (2024, 2025). Byron has qualified for the Cup Series’ postseason in eight consecutive seasons, with a best campaign in 2023 as he scored six victories and finished third in the final standings.
MORE: Byron through the years
Eleven starts into 2026, Byron is winless but sits 10th in Cup points with six top-10 results.
He’s looking to become the ninth driver to win in their 300th Cup start, with the most recent being Joey Logano (Richmond) and Brad Keselowski (Talladega) in 2017 when they were teammates at Team Penske.
