This season has been an interesting one for Hendrick Motorsports.
Two of their marquee drivers have been duking it out at the top of the standings and jockeying for race leads and wins since the season began.
Kyle Larson has three wins on the season and currently sits at second in the points standings just behind his teammate William Byron, who has the lone win on the year at Daytona, but a plethora of top-five finishes.
With the halfway point in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season eclipsed, there’s enough of a sample size at this point to answer a question that’s been burning between two massive fan bases of the sport – who’s having the better season?
Larson or Byron?
Larson Clears On More Than Just Wins
There’s no question that Larson has been unstoppable for Hendrick Motorsports through the first 14 races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season in just about every category.
Taking a look at Larson’s stats on paper, it seems like this is another Championship Four season that’s shaping up for the No. 5 team. The three wins this season are tied with only Christopher Bell to lead the Cup Series, along with his 10 top-10 finishes on the year.
Perhaps the one stat that jumps out the most to me, though, are the amount of playoff points the No. 5 team has accrued in the first few months of racing. Larson has 23 playoff points, the most of any other driver in the Cup Series, compared to Byron’s 11.
From a head-to-head perspective, Byron does lead the driver standings after 14 races with 547 points to Larson’s 499 total points. However, the driver of the No. 5 has been more consistent than Byron most weekends this season when it comes to closing out races when he’s been the dominant driver to beat.
In his three wins this season, Larson was the class of the field most of the afternoon. At Homestead, it was a late-race green-flag run that allowed Larson to run the wall and pass teammate Alex Bowman to go on and take the win. At Bristol Motor Speedway a few races later, nobody could run with the No. 5, as he led over 400 laps to pick up his second straight Bristol victory. Kansas Speedway was the same song, third verse, with another dominant performance from the pole position, despite his car fading on the long runs that afternoon.
This season, Larson has only had three races in which he recorded a poor finish. At Circuit of the Americas, despite a strong top 10 starting position, the No. 5 team had an uncharacteristic misstep on a late pit stop, resulting in a loose wheel and a 32nd-place finish.
Fast forward to Darlington Raceway, where Larson simply got loose on the exit of turn 2 and slammed the inside wall very early in that race. He suffered a 37th-place finish as a result.
Lastly, in the Coca-Cola 600, the No. 5 driver started on the outside of the front row, but suffered an early spin. He wasn’t able to recover after being caught up in a crash in the late stages of the race, finishing 37th again. The bottom line is that Larson and the No. 5 team are more often than not running inside the top five and top 10, collecting stage points and race wins on a regular basis.
This past weekend, at Nashville Superspeedway, was the first time all season in which Larson’s team seemed to be a step behind the rest of the top runners, posting the 28th-fastest time in qualifying. However, after an up-and-down race in which he dropped outside the top 30 and avoided disaster early in stage two, the 2021 Cup champion methodically picked his way through the field to score a respectable eighth-place finish in Nashville.
If anyone has figured out where the limit of the Next Gen car is, it’s the No. 5 team and Larson. After failing to reach the Championship Four in 2024, Larson’s early season dominance in ‘25 shows that he is as determined as ever to get back to the championship race in Phoenix with a chance to win his second Cup Series title.
The team has shown a few signs of weakness at times this season, but Larson has the drive and determination to lift the Bill France Cup for a second time when the checkered flag waves at Phoenix Raceway in November. – Christopher Hansen
Consistency Is Key For Willy B
While Larson has three wins to Byron’s one and one extra top five and 10, Byron has had the most consistency throughout the field through the first 14 races.
Byron has completed all but four of 4,031 laps on the season. Only two other drivers have completed as many or more. Tyler Reddick is even with Byron, and teammate Chase Elliott has more, failing to complete only one lap.
Byron holds the best average finish in the Cup Series at 9.2. With that and his performances during the race, Byron has amassed more stage points than Larson – 144 to Larson’s 128.
Both have gapped third-place Christopher Bell considerably, with Larson 40 points ahead of Bell. However, Byron has a slightly bigger lead on his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, with a 48-point gap.
Byron has also secured a win on the season to grant him a playoff spot by winning the Daytona 500 in stunning fashion. While the win could be considered the luck of the draw by surviving the last-lap crash, Byron has continued to stay in contention to win races over the season. This was also back-to-back Daytona 500 wins, putting him in an exclusive group of only five drivers to ever accomplish the feat.
The Charlotte native has also come very close to winning, much like his 2023 form, where Byron won six races.
Speaking of 2023, Byron is on pace to break his season-best mark in laps led. The 27-year-old is second this season behind Larson’s 851 laps led thanks in part to Larson leading 411 of 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway. But with 670 laps led, Byron can make a charge at the 1,016 laps he led in 2023.
In his three runner-up finishes of the season, Byron battled for the win with Bell and Kyle Busch at Circuit of the Americas, coming up short to the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20, the same driver he held off to win at the same track last season.
He dominated at Darlington, winning stage one and two and looked on his way to the win in his Jeff Gordon “last ride” throwback scheme. However, a caution set up final pit stops, where the crew of the Carl Edwards-inspired scheme of Denny Hamlin used a fast behind-the-back jack move to steal the race from the No. 24 team.
Byron controlled the vast majority of the Coke 600 after Larson crashed from the lead in his failed double attempt. While Larson crashed yet again later in that race, Byron was a handful of laps away from the win until Ross Chastain’s car came to life and passed him.
Just last week, Byron stayed close to the lead once again in Nashville, securing 16 stage points and a top-five finish while Larson battled from the midfield for his top 10.
Byron seems to have more momentum going into Michigan International Speedway, and while Larson had success in his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing, his last win at the track came back in 2017 where he swept both races there during the season.
On the other hand, Byron finished runner-up last year at the two-mile oval, falling short to the more dominant Reddick in overtime. Byron should be in the mix once again to run well at the track.
For Larson, he needs to eliminate mistakes. Larson would be running away with this season if it weren’t for the two DNFs. Qualifying ended up sinking Larson’s chances at Nashville Superspeedway last week, too. If he can keep all four wheels straight and qualify in position, Larson can certainly close the gap back to his HMS teammate.
Until Larson can stay consistent from week to week, Byron is going to nickel and dime his way to the playoffs and, maybe, his first championship. – Wyatt Watson
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing
