NASCAR
William Byron Goes Back-to-Back in Daytona 500 After Last-Lap Wreck Avoidance
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Seventh out of turn two on the last lap, William Byron found a hole just wide enough for his No. 24 Chevrolet to take a second-straight Daytona 500 triumph. The pack flying apart around him allowed the seas to part for Byron, taking another spot on racing’s ultimate trophy. The Charlotte native is now the fifth man with consecutive wins in The Great American Race.
Team Penske was the dominant force across the majority of this year’s 500. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney split both Stage wins. Combined with 2022 Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric, The Captain’s trio led 125 circuits.
The opening lap of Stage 2 saw the first large accident of the day, when a stack up caused Ross Chastain to be turned into teammate Helio Castroneves. Martin Truex Jr. was also a casualty of this incident, ending all of their Daytona 500 bids.
More carnage unfolded with the hungry pack bearing towards the finish at a frenetic pace. Lap 186 saw Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. make contact in the midst of a three-wide gauntlet. This sent the No. 22 into the paths of Kyle Busch and many others.
Not long after, Christopher Bell was turned from second-place, triggering an airborne accident with Ryan Preece. For the second time in three years, the Connecticut driver went for a hellacious tumble into turn three, but miraculously walked away unscathed.
Following a brief red flag, the field was doubled up for an overtime dash. The two up front were Cindric and Denny Hamlin, chasing Daytona 500 history with a fourth win in sight. On the last lap, Cole Custer took it three-wide but was turned into the pack. This field-clearing carnage just allowed Byron to scoot by on the outside and cruise unopposed to Daytona 500 glory again.
“Yeah, obviously some good fortune, but just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,” Byron said. “I felt like they were getting squirrelly on the bottom and I was honestly going to go to the third lane regardless because I was probably sixth coming down the back.”
“Just obviously fortunate that it worked out in our favor. Just really proud of this No. 24 Axalta Chevy team. They worked super hard all week and we had an amazing car. Just had a really hard time with the fuel saving and kind of staying towards the front.”
“Crazy. I can’t honestly believe that. But we’re here. So proud of it. it’s obviously really special. It’s an amazing race, and obviously a lot of crazy racing out there tonight. Just a lot of pushing and shoving.”
“But just really proud of our team. I can’t stress that enough. I’m just super thankful for this group and everything that they do in the off-season to get prepared. We plan on trying to win a lot of races this year, so we’re not going to stop here. We’re going to continue to push forward and try to get to Phoenix.”
Behind Byron at the finish were 2024 Championship 4 competitor Tyler Reddick and his past mentor Jimmie Johnson. Polesitter Chase Briscoe and Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top five. Other top finishers were: Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Justin Allgaier, and Chris Buescher. Hear from a few of these drivers below.
Byron will be on the short list of favorites next week as well, with NASCAR heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway. Across six races on the shrunk superspeedway, the Hendrick 24 has two wins. The Ambetter Health 400 (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is another chance for drafting masters to shine a week after NASCAR’s biggest day.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
