Only three racers have 3 wins heading into the 2024 Grant Park 165 Chicago Street Race. Within that esteemed trifecta, Kyle Larson & Denny Hamlin, are making waves almost every week battling for the lead, spurring talks of a resurgent ‘rivalry.’ But why has William Byron’s equally resurgent #24 camp been often overlooked?

As it would appear, Byron has been winless from April when alongside teammates Larson and Chase Elliott, he gifted Rick Hendrick a perfect 1-2-3 sweep on Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary celebrations. Since then, it hasn’t completely been dark clouds for William Byron’s playoff aspirations, yet, some would deem his recent form unusual compared to his thunderous early promises.

After all, the ‘Next Gen’ car’s winningest driver had three wins in the first eight races of the 2024 Cup Series season. And now, before a potential 12-race winless streak in Chicago, Bob Pockrass asked Byron if he’s fallen into somewhat of a mid-season “slump” lately.

A mid-season “slump” before the playoffs

Before Willy B’s redemption spin on the streets of Chicago, he faced qualifying troubles in the form of a power steering failure. As a result, NASCAR mandated that the #24 car start from the rear, and when the green flag waves Byron will roll off the grid in P27 alongside Noah Gragson in Row 14. Those are only the most recent of Byron’s flaws, as even Pockrass noted on his X/Twitter post of the interview which held Byron’s definitive refusal of negative claims directed towards his recent regression. The FOX journalist perfectly justified his initial inquiry about a “slump” when he captioned the video, “The three-time 2024 winner says no despite one top-10 finish in his last five starts.”

To elaborate, Byron told Pockrass, “No, I mean, certainly, I wanna have better results. But if you look at our qualifying efforts. I mean, It’s not a slump. We’ve been in the top 8 I think the last few weeks. Yeah, Charlotte was really good. That was just a little over a month ago.”

Accordingly, Byron opined on his contrary perspective, “We just gotta put the whole weekend together. We haven’t on the results sheet, it doesn’t look good cause the last two weeks we haven’t put the results together. But You know, Three weeks ago at Iowa we finished in second battling for the win. So it’s just the way this sport goes, everyone just kind of up and down. You just hope that you can start to put together some consistent results when you get closer to the playoffs.”

Seven races away from the playoffs, Byron’s safely locked in. But apart from three podium finishes and a couple more top-10s, the #24 has registered a finish of P15 or worse in the remaining 6 races since it last visited victory lane in Martinsville. Understandably, this does not inspire much confidence leading up to the second edition of the Chicago Street Race where Byron finished P13 last year.

Nevertheless, a mid-season slump has barely ever been a problem. Even the best of the best face the occasional slump right before securing that coveted championship. Just remember his Hendrick ally, Kyle Larson’s 10-race winless record in his triumphant 2021 season starting at Las Vegas and ending with three back-to-back wins at Charlotte, Sonoma, and Nashville. Larson won his career-high in race wins that year witnessing ten trips to victory lane in total. Can Byron repeat some of that magic starting with a debut victory at Chicago? His preparations & mindset certainly signal that nothing can stop him from doing so.

Can the #24 pull off a Chicago upset for Rick Hendrick’s team?

In a recent unrelated interview with Jim Utter of motorsport.com, Byron declared, “We’re certainly trying hard. I feel like we’re preparing harder than we ever have.” He also detailed one significant moment of his often-evident bad luck with a reminder from the Sonoma road race. As Byron explained, “If you look at the speed that we’ve had, Sonoma comes to mind as a race where we had top-three or four speed, but never really got to show that because we had a flat tire early and then got in that wreck with everyone in Turn 11.” Byron finished P30 at Sonoma.

To combat those fortunes, he believes the #24 team “just have to be able to show up week in and week out and put together those consistent weekends; communication-wise, effort-wise and limit the mistakes and just see where we are.”

As for the regular season battle, William Byron is currently sandwiched 7th between Christopher Bell & Ryan Blaney at 6th & 8th. All three drivers will head to the playoffs aiming for a chance at ultimate post-season glory. But as for the 2024 Chicago Street Race? Sportsline deems William Byron a 15-1 pick for the Chicago Street. That could result in a hefty payday for those willing to dare considering pulls off an upset over the rest of the field starting from P27.