Despite entering the NASCAR playoffs as the regular-season champion, William Byron noted that several drivers have shown strong speed, making the field highly competitive. Because of this, he predicted the postseason races would be “crazy.”Byron, driver of the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, clinched the regular-season championship after finishing 12th at Richmond Raceway last weekend, awarding him 15 additional playoff points. He now turns his focus to the championship battle against contenders such as Denny Hamlin and teammate Kyle Larson, both of whom he acknowledged have shown speed throughout the 2025 season.Speaking about the postseason, the 27-year-old North Carolina native said (via Speedway Digest and NASCAR):“I think the #11 (Denny Hamlin) has been extremely fast all year. The #12 (Ryan Blaney) has been really fast. The #5 (Kyle Larson) has been really fast. There's the #20 (Christopher Bell). There's a number of guys who have been really quick throughout the year.”“No one's running away with this thing, which is going to create a really crazy playoffs. Nothing we don't expect to have,” he added.William Byron became a full-time NASCAR driver in 2018, earning Rookie of the Year honors in his debut season. Since 2019, he hasn't missed the playoffs. Over the past two seasons, he reached the Championship 4 but came up short of the title, finishing third in the standings on both occasions.Joey Logano enters this year’s postseason as the defending champion, having edged out Byron, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick in last year’s finale at Phoenix Raceway. The most recent HMS title came in 2021, when Kyle Larson captured the championship in his first season with the team after moving over from Chip Ganassi Racing.“Just a really proud moment”: William Byron's crew chief on clinching the 2025 regular-season championshipWilliam Byron's crew chief, Rudy Fugle, was proud of the #24 Hendrick Motorsports team after clinching the regular-season championship. He acknowledged the mid-summer slump that briefly set the group back, but credited their resilience in rebounding to reclaim the front of the field.In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Fugle said:“It's really, really cool for the team. Just a really proud moment, to kind of recognize the entire group. Everybody here at Hendrick and Chevrolet... We'd built up a huge lead early summer and then kind of went through that rough patch, lost the lead, and being able to come back from that and grab it and then finish it a week early is huge. I think it's huge for the confidence of the team.”William Byron (right) and Rudy Fugle (left) at Texas Motor Speedway in 2023 - Source: ImagnByron kicked off the year strong by winning the season-opening Daytona 500, marking a back-to-back for the #24 team. But since then, he hadn't returned to the victory lane until the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway earlier this month.The Chevy driver currently has two wins, nine top-5s and 13 top-10s to score 839 points, 68 points clear of runner-up and HMS teammate Chase Elliott. Denny Hamlin is third in the points standings, followed by Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney.