NASCAR star William Byron opens up on hit and miss 2026 season so far

NASCAR Cup Series star William Byron has admitted that his 2026 season has had lots of hits and misses so far.

Byron was hotly tipped to be one of the drivers contending for the championship this year following the return to The Chase, but 18 races into the regular season, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet sits 12th in the standings.

Of course, there is still plenty of time to make up ground, and things are somewhat reset for The Chase, but the fact that Byron is 273 points adrift of championship leader Denny Hamlin is indicative of his season so far.

Indeed, even the man himself admits things have been mixed, offering an honest assessment of his year ahead of Sunday's race at Chicagoland Speedway.

NASCAR TODAY: Denny Hamlin speculation addressed and team owner talks tough financial reality

William Byron assesses 2026 so far

“Yeah, I'd say on the ovals, I thought we were starting to gain on it and get in the right direction," Byron explained to the media at Chicagoland.

"And then the road courses, I thought we were just OK. I made a mistake in San Diego. I wish I could have that back because I thought I was going to finish probably in the top eight.

"Last week [at Sonoma], I just kind of felt really good about it going into the race and then just a little bit worse throughout the race. But I think based on the ovals, like where we were at Michigan and Pocono, I was starting to feel pretty good about things.

"But yeah, I think we've just kind of been really up and down, and we’re just trying to find the balance and just be able to have some sort of rhythm.

"You know, in the past, we just had a lot of notes and we could just kind of lean on that. And this year, it has just been kind of relearning everything. It's been a lot of hits and misses, so hopefully we can just have a good weekend here and kind of get back on track.”