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William Byron invites Sabrina Carpenter to NASCAR race after viral Daytona 500 photoshop

JHby:Jonathan Howard•02/21/25•

Jondean25

William Byron
Peter Casey-Imagn Images

What kind of confidence has William Byron found after winning his second straight Daytona 500 last Sunday night? The NASCAR star is trying to get pop music superstar Sabrina Carpenter to a race this season.

If you weren’t keeping up on NASCAR social media this week, William Byron was the victim of a parody account.

“The Daily Downfords” is a parody account of The Daily Downforce outlet. The parody account shared a doctored image making it look like Byron had left a flirty reply under Carpenter’s latest Instagram post.

After responding to the parody post on X/Twitter, William Byron made it a bigger story. Now, he’s on TMZ talking about how he’d love to get the “Espresso” singer to a Cup Series race … or maybe the driver can go to a concert?

“Maybe we can get her out to a race or something, that would be great,” Byron told TMZ. “Or I can get to a show. That would be fun.”

When asked if he had a special message for the pop star?

“I don’t know, her music’s pretty good,” Byron said with a smile. Kind of putting him on the spot there, no? It was all in good fun and showed a side of the Hendrick driver we usually don’t see.

Back-to-back Championship 4 appearances and back-to-back Daytona 500s. As far as drivers go, William Byron is on one of the hottest hot streaks and dare I say, could be a bit underrated all things considered?

Expectations for William Byron in 2025

In 2023, William Byron led the Cup Series in wins. Then in 2024, he started off hot, with three wins in the first eight races. He failed to win another race the rest of the year, but did advance to the Championship 4.

With Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott taking a lot of the spotlight at Hendrick Motorsports and drivers like Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Tyler Reddick earning major headlines, where does Byron fit among the best Cup Series drivers?

Crew chief Rudy Fugle and Byron have been a great match at Hendrick. The results say, Championship 4 or bust, right? But there are only so many wins to go around. I’d argue with the emergence of Team Penske, Reddick, Bell, and potentially a resurgent Elliott, Byron has to define his place in the pecking order.

Is this the season that William Byron not only wins five or more races but does so dominantly? Will we be wowed by his dominance in stage racing and in checkered flags? Or will it be another early season flourish with steady and quality finishes the rest of the year? Time will only tell.