William Byron claimed his second consecutive win at the Daytona 500, managing to navigate through a series of crashes in the final stages of the race on Sunday evening.
At Daytona Beach, Florida, William Byron secured his second straight victory at the Daytona 500, skillfully maneuvering through several late-race accidents that eliminated many top contenders. With this impressive performance, the driver from Hendrick Motorsports celebrated in victory lane at the Daytona International Speedway on Sunday night.
Starting the final lap in ninth place in his No. 24 Chevrolet, Byron strategically positioned himself near the outer wall during overtime, allowing him to secure the win and become the first driver since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20 to achieve back-to-back victories.
Bryon took advantage of another wreck on the final lap — NASCAR did not drop the caution and let the field race to the finish — and took another, familiar burnout in Daytona International Speedway.
“It’s obviously really special,” Byron said. “It’s an amazing race, and obviously a lot of crazy racing out there tonight and just a lot of pushing and shoving”.
The 27-year-old Byron held on to win after two weather delays totaling more than 3 1/2 hours, and with President Donald Trump set to watch the rest of the race in Florida, after he earlier led drivers on two laps around the track in his heavily armored presidential limousine known in Washington as “The Beast.”
Hendrick Motorsports won its 10th Daytona 500 to break a tie with Petty Enterprises for the record.
“Just obviously fortunate it worked out in our favor,” Byron said. “Crazy? Yeah. I can’t honestly believe that but we’re here.”
Byron won for the 14th time in his Cup career, and already set his sights on the championship race in Phoenix after finishing third in the standings in each of the last two years.
“We plan on trying to win a lot of races this year, so we’re not going to stop here,” Byron said. “We’re going to continue to push forward and try to get to Phoenix.”
It wouldn’t be Daytona without the ferocious late wrecks down the stretch that inevitably send the race into overtime.
With four laps left, Ryan Preece turned upside-down and essentially did a wheelie in his No. 60 Ford. His car flipped onto its roof and turned back onto its tires before hitting the outside wall. Preece dropped his safety net to signal to crews he was ok.
Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski all had their shots at victory lane spoiled, and the race was red-flagged, just 11 laps after another big one shuffled the field and knocked four former Cup Series champions out of contention.
Reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse started the multi-car melee when Logano moved to the middle and Stenhouse moved to block him. It stacked up Logano, and the accordion effect sent several cars — including ones belonging to former Cup champs Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott — sliding in every direction.
Busch’s car ended up on a wrecker, extending his skid to 0 for 20 in “The Great American Race.”
Tyler Reddick was second and two-time Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson was third. Chase Briscoe was fourth and John Hunter Nemechek fifth.
