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Dale Earnhardt Jr. has picked his favorite to win the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship, as the 2025 campaign moves towards its final race. It’s William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports.Byron made the Championship 4 by winning the final race of the Round of 8 last week at Martinsville Speedway. His teammate, Kyle Larson, who is also running for a championship, ended up fifth.Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe bagged the remaining two spots. During an episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, the 50-year-old spoke about Byron's on-track performance and picked him as the potential Championship winner.“The way Byron looked and the way looked his weekend, I think you gotta look at him as the favorite,” In 35 races this year, Byron has amassed three wins, 11 top fives, and 16 top-10s. The former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion has led a total of 1278 laps in 2025 with an average finish of 14. However, to Dale Earnhardt Jr., momentum doesn’t matter too much.“You can believe in momentum all you want,” explained the NASCAR Hall of Famer. “Byron's gotta unload a car at Phoenix, go into practice, and get out there and in the first five or ten laps, it's either gonna be, 'Man, this car's amazing', or 'Boy, we got some work to do'." What's momentum doing at that point? Is momentum gonna help you fix the car?”NASCAR will host the 2025 Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway on November 2, the 312-lap event will be televised on Peacock, with live radio updates available on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio starting at 3 pm ET.“It’s tough to replace him”- Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens up about losing JRM team member to Richard Childress RacingNot long ago, it was announced that Jim Pohlman, who won the 2024 Xfinity Series championship with JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier, would join Richard Childress Racing as Kyle Busch’s crew chief in 2026. As much as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was happy for Pohlman’s new job, he knew it would be hard to replace someone like Pohlman.Pohlman has previously worked with Richard Childress Racing. That was back in 2022, the same year NASCAR introduced the NextGen car. Next year, he guided Allgaier to his first-ever Championship 4 appearance.“It is hard to replace a guy like Jim,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his NASCAR podcast (19:52). “I told Jim I wanted him to stay, but I knew that he had this opportunity and that it was great for him to go and hear it out, right?"“He’s worked at RCR before, so he knows that environment,” he continued. “He would know himself whether that's a comfortable environment for him. He's been there. And, uh, you know, he made the choice to go, and I love it. I think, you know, it's tough to replace him."Kyle Busch’s former crew chief, Randall Burnett, will serve as the new crew chief for Connor Zilisch at Trackhouse Racing. 2026 is going to mark Zilisch’s rookie year in the NASCAR Cup Series.
