DAYTONA 500: Byron uses instincts, luck to steer to improbable victory
William Byron celebrates Sunday's Daytona on Victory Lane
By Don Coble
DAYTONA BEACH – William Byron’s race-winning move started when the field stormed off the second turn on the final lap of the rain-delayed Daytona 500 Sunday night.
As
the leaders frantically jockeyed for position on the backstretch, the cars
on the inside lane seemed the most out of control. He went for broke by moving next
to the outside wall at the Daytona International Speedway.
“I
just trusted my instincts,” Byron said after becoming the first driver to win
consecutive 500s since Denny Hamlin won in 2019-20. “I was getting in the third
lane, regardless, because I was probably sixth coming out back.”
As
he expected, the inside turned into a high-speed game of bumper cars along the
backstretch. Although cars were crashing and sliding in every direction, his
Chevrolet darted through the carnage unscathed in an improbable rally that took
him from ninth place to Victory Lane on the final lap.
“I
was obviously fortunate that it worked out in our favor,” Byron said. “Just really
proud of this team. Worked super, growing all week. (We) had an amazing car.
Just had a really hard time with the fuel saving to kind of save towards the
front. So crazy. Yeah. I mean, I can't honestly believe that, but we're here.”
Tyler
Reddick also missed the mess to finish second, but was three car lengths behind
and wasn’t close enough to challenge Byron. Since the wreck happened in the
third turn, NASCAR didn’t lock the rundown with a caution flag because the cars
that escaped the accident had plenty of time to slow down.
Jimmie
Johnson, a two-time Daytona 500 champion who retired as a full-time NASCAR
driver after the 2020 season, made a selected start and finished third.
Chase
Briscoe wound up fourth, John Hunter Nemechek was fifth, Alex Bowman was
seventh, Austin Cindric was eighth, Justin Allgaier was ninth and Chris
Buescher was 10th.
The
crash on the final lap was one of three multi-car accidents in the final 15
laps. The first one started when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tried to protect his fourth-place
position. Joey Logano tried to squeeze his Ford between Stenhouse and Ryan Blaney when he moved toward the outside wall. Stenhouse swerved left to block
Logano’s advance, but Logano had too much momentum to avoid contact. The result
was a nine-car pileup that took out the leading contenders like Logano and
Blaney. It also knocked out cars driven by Kyle Busch, which makes him 0-for-20
in the Great American Race, and Brad Keselowski.
“He
kind of had a late block there, and then, at that point, he was kind of
indecisive,” Logano said. “I was trying to back out of it at this point; we couldn't stop getting shoved into it.”
Busch
was irate with Logano.
“This
one looks like the fastest car got in a hurry to the front,” he said. “Logano was, by far, the fastest car today. He's trying to go through the middle and
make a hole that isn't there, creating chaos.”
Another
wreck happened with eight laps remaining when Cole Custer tried to bump Christopher
Bell into the lead. Custer’s car wobbled left and right as he bumped Bell, turning Bell into the outside wall. His car then caromed into the front of
traffic to involve 10 cars.
A
Ford driven by Ryan Preece clipped Eric Jones’ Toyota, and Preece’s car’s front wheels lifted off the ground. The car eventually flipped, landed on its roof and
came to a rest in the third turn. Preece wasn’t injured.
Preece’s
car got airborne and flipped in 2023 when he drove for a different team.
“The
defuser (aerodynamic device under the car) makes these cars like a sheet of
plywood when you walk out on a windy day,’ he said. “Like, damn, it got real
quiet, and all I thought about was my daughter. I'm lucky to walk away, but we're
getting really close to somebody not being able to.”
The
race restarted with two laps of overtime. Three-time 500 winner Hamlin was out
front, followed by Austin Cindric, Custer, rookie Riley Herbst, Alex Bowman and
Corey LaJoie. Byron restarted ninth.
Traffic jumbled for a last-lap dash after they took the white flag. Cindric led Hamlin coming off the second turn when Custer made it three-wide. Custer knocked Hamlin out of control, and he bounced into Cindric. Byron remained committed to staying close to the outside wall and luckily avoided the crash.
“Obviously,
there was a lot of crazy racing out there tonight, a lot of pushing and shoving,”
Byron said. “We plan on trying to win a lot of races this year, so we’re not
going to stop here.”
The
race started an hour earlier than originally scheduled because of the threat of
inclement weather. It also started with President Donald J. Trump attending
pre-race ceremonies and leading the field of 41 around the track in the
Presidential limousine for two laps.
The threat of rain was real and came earlier than expected. The red flag was displayed for more than four hours during the first 22 laps as NASCAR waited for conditions to clear and the dry the massive 2.5-mile raceway for two showers.
William Byron's crew perform a perfect pit stop to keep their driver within striking distance at the end of the race.
