DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — William Byron raced to his second straight Daytona 500 victory, surviving a string of late-race wrecks that knocked out a piece of contenders and despatched the Hendrick Motorsports driver into victory lane Sunday night time at Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
Ninth within the No. 24 Chevrolet with one lap left, Byron grew to become the primary back-to-back winner since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20.
Bryon took benefit of one other wreck on the ultimate lap — NASCAR didn’t drop the warning and let the sphere race to the end — and took one other, acquainted burnout in Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
The 27-year-old Byron held on to win after two climate delays totaling greater than 3 1/2 hours, and with President Donald Trump set to look at the remainder of the race in Florida, after he earlier led drivers on two laps across the observe in his closely armored presidential limousine recognized in Washington as “The Beast.”
Hendrick Motorsports gained its tenth Daytona 500 to interrupt a tie with Petty Enterprises for the document.
“Just obviously fortunate it worked out in our favor,” Byron stated. “Crazy? Yeah. I can’t honestly believe that but we’re here.”
It wouldn’t be Daytona with out the ferocious late wrecks down the stretch that inevitably ship the race into extra time.
With 4 laps left, Ryan Preece turned upside-down and primarily did a wheelie in his No. 60 Ford. His automobile flipped onto its roof and turned again onto its tires earlier than hitting the surface wall. Preece dropped his security internet to sign to crews he was OK.
Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski all had their pictures at victory lane spoiled, and the race was red-flagged, simply 11 laps after one other huge one shuffled the sphere and knocked 4 former Cup Sequence champions out of competition.
Reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse began the multi-car melee when Logano moved to the center and Stenhouse moved to dam him. It stacked up Logano, and the accordion impact despatched a number of vehicles — together with ones belonging to former Cup champs Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott — sliding in each course.
Busch’s automobile 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.
By Dan Gelston
