William Byron feels that Kansas might be the place where he could grab his third win of the 2025 season. The Hendrick Motorsports driver endured a "rough" Darlington race, but believes the team has improved since then.Byron has an average finish of 12.7 in the last seven races at Kansas. While he finished just inside the top-25 during the 2025 spring race at the intermediate speedway, he has finished in the top-10 five times in his seven playoff races there.Before Byron qualified in 11th for the Cup playoff race at Kansas Speedway, he spoke with cautious optimism about the team's chances this weekend during a media session on Saturday (September 27)."I feel like this is a place we can win, if everything goes right. I'm cautiously optimistic cause I think that Darlington was rough on us on this style of race. But I feel like we've done a lot of work since then and feel optimistic about this weekend," William Byron told Bob Pockrass."I don't wanna get too excited till I get on track and see what we have but I feel like, based on history here, we should be good, but you just never know," he added.Byron won the pole at Darlington and led the first 243 of 297 laps before green-flag pit stop strategy cost him the lead. He finished second to Denny Hamlin.William Byron hoping to be 'in the mix with whoever's up towards the front" at KansasWilliam Byron started the spring Kansas race in seventh place this season. During the AdventHealth 400, the 27-year-old suffered a flat tire on lap 67 after he lowered the air pressure as a gamble, but it backfired, and the car spun on pit road.Byron finished mid-pack in a race dominated by Kyle Larson, who led 221 laps and won. He is ultimately hoping for a strong finish in case of unexpected issues."Hopefully, we can be in that mix we were in the Spring until we had a flat. So, hopefully we can just kind of be in the mix with whoever's up towards the front," William Byron said (via 5GOATs).Byron is second to the NASCAR Cup points leader, Ryan Blaney, who has already advanced to the next round by winning at New Hampshire. He is 47 points above the cutline after a top-5 finish at the Round of 12 opener last weekend.The Hollywood Casino 400 is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday (September 28). Chase Briscoe took the pole position and will start the race beside Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on the front row. Meanwhile, Byron's HMS teammates, Larson and Chase Elliott qualified in third and fourth place.