Byron's 142-Race Title Streak Quietly Ends at Talladega

William Byron's remarkable run as a perennial championship contender has quietly come to an end. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was the only man to qualify for the Championship 4 in each of the 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons, but his defeat at Talladega — combined with the mathematics of the new format — means Sunday's race at Martinsville will be the first since the 2022 season finale at Phoenix in which the No. 24 car is not eligible for the title. With two races remaining and only 152 points still available, Byron sits 214 points behind championship leader Kyle Larson, who heads to Martinsville 73 points clear of Denny Hamlin and 79 ahead of Chase Briscoe. Larson, Hamlin and Briscoe are the only other drivers who entered Talladega having been eligible for 70 consecutive races, and all three remain in contention — but Byron's streak, which survived three straight title deciders, is done. There is still something to chase. Byron is 11th in the standings and hunting a seventh consecutive season with at least one win, and he arrives at Martinsville as the defending race winner after last year's victory carried him to a third straight Championship 4. The Xfinity 500, live on NBC from 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, will feel very different for him this time.