Dale Earnhardt Jr. predicts 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion ahead of Phoenix

With Team Penske out of the Championship 4, the general feeling is that this year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race is as wide open as it’s been in years. Wouldn’t you know it, “Phoenix… The Championship is Wide Open” was the title of this week’s “Dale Jr. Download.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wouldn’t be surprised if Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, or Kyle Larson won the championship. But if he had to pick one, he’d go with Byron.

“I think Byron’s gonna win the championship,” Earnhardt said.

Byron’s is heading into Phoenix with all of the momentum, one week removed from his dominant showing at Martinsville Speedway. He led 304 laps, taking the checkered flag ahead of Ryan Blaney to advance to the Championship 4. Byron had what Jeff Gordon called, “the race of his career.”

“To me, William, I believe, had the race of his career today,” Gordon said, via John Newby of Savage Ventures. “I know it wasn’t a Daytona 500, but to me, the way he handled himself and the way he approached it and raced today was just unbelievable. And that last restart I would put right in there with that. I mean, he nailed that restart! Not only did he get the jump when in the restart area but then he drove that thing deep down into [Turn] 1, went up wide, turned it, and drove off and cleared the 12.

“And we saw how strong the 12 was on the outside of some of those restarts, so I was anticipating the 12 giving them a heck of a battle, but I was also expecting him to give him the bumper, and William didn’t give him the chance to do that.”

William Byron determined to win first NASCAR championship

This is Byron’s third consecutive season in the Championship 4. He finished third in both of his previous appearances. Byron is ready to make another run at it.

“I have a friend of mine that told me this week, he said, ‘No moment has ever been too big for you.’ As a competitor, you don’t really realize that,” Byron said, via NASCAR.com. “Like, you only view it in your eyes as every opportunity. You only kind of look at it as missed opportunities, things you could get better at. Yeah, I feel like this week, this weekend, it’s just trying to maximize the chance you have in front of you ’cause you never know when the next one’s going to come. Even though you think you’re going to be there all these times, you never know.

“You want to give everything you can to it. I felt good coming into here that I had given everything. Once you get in between the lines, in between the walls, you’re going to give everything. You’ve just got to go out there and do your thing.”