500 Winner Byron Seeking A Rare Daytona Double

William Byron hopes to sweep both NASCAR Cup Series races at Daytona Int'l Speedway this year. (HHP/Jacy Norgaard photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR Cup Series phenom William Byron is looking to put his name in rarefied air in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Since the World Center of Racing first opened in 1959, five drivers in the history of the sport have managed to win both major dates at the historic 2.5-mile oval – the season-opening Daytona 500 and the track’s midsummer 400-miler, once called the Firecracker 400 when it was run on the Fourth of July.

Fireball Roberts (1962), Cale Yarborough (1968), LeeRoy Yarbrough (1969), Bobby Allison (1982) and Jimmie Johnson (2013) are the only men to have tamed the Daytona high banks twice in the same year, if one discounts the days when the Duel qualifying races paid points toward the Cup Series championship.

Looking at that list, however, the Daytona sweep has only happened twice in the modera era of NASCAR, which dates back to the 1972 season.

That’s twice in the past 52 years that the driver who hoisted the Harley J. Earl Trophy in February came back and added a second Daytona win to their trophy case in the heat of the summer. It’s a rare feat, indeed.

Byron, who won this year’s Daytona 500, hopes to add his name to the exclusive club and become the first driver since seven-time Cup Series champion and former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson to sweep a season at Daytona.

When asked how much his Daytona success this year has already meant to him, the 26-year-old expressed gratitude.

“There’s a lot of luck involved as we all know. I feel like I’ve been fortunate in some situations here to win twice. But also, I’ve been in a lot of crashes, and up until this year at the 500, I’ve been in crashes most of the time,” said Byron Friday during his media session at Daytona.

“It just is [about] trying to be a good drafter and try[ing] to make good decisions in the draft. I feel like I’ve learned a lot of things about side drafting, controlling the lanes, and I feel like that stuff has come fairly natural to me. I’m just trying to evolve and be better at it each time I come here.”

When he first began his Cup Series career at Daytona, Byron experienced a fluctuation in results on the 2.5-mile high banks. Going back to his rookie season, Byron only had two finishes inside the top 15 in his first 11 Daytona starts — a runner-up in July of 2019 and his first Cup Series win in August of 2020.

It wasn’t until last season that the Charlotte, N.C., native saw a string of consistent success at the Florida track. In the Coke Zero Sugar 400 last August he finished eighth, before becoming the 44th different winner of the Great American Race back in February.

As a driver who has experienced both the Gen 6 and NextGen eras of superspeedway racing, Byron believes the game has changed drastically since his Cup Series debut.

Specifically, Byron believes the current car body is too wide, affecting the ability for a third racing lane to develop unless teams are saving fuel.

“[Now it’s] Just trying to figure out how I can control my lane and not necessarily kind of move from each lane as much. It’s just a different style [of racing], and fuel-saving is a part of it now,” he said of his current approach to drafting.

“You have to know the strategy to save fuel. That’s what we did well in the 500. We were able to save fuel better than most, and I came out in the top three or four after every pit cycle and could race from there.”

The adjustment has shown, as Byron’s average finish in the NextGen era between Daytona and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway since 2022 is 14th.

Add in two Atlanta wins on the 1.5-mile quad-oval that was reconfigured into a drafting-style racetrack, and it’s clear that Byron has become among the Cup Series’ best at superspeedway racing.

He aims to further that success and break out of a summer slump in the process, as the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team has just five top 10s since the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

“We’re just up and down this summer. I think we still had some races that were pretty good. [Second place at] Iowa comes to mind. There were a couple of others,” Byron noted. “Just [the summer] tracks, I think, aren’t super strong for us. I don’t know if we just don’t put emphasis on it enough in the offseason or what, but we’ve been trying to get better at those tracks.

“We focus on the tracks that are in the playoffs and the start of the year. We try hard every week, but really, I think the tracks that suit us [come around] as we go through the playoffs,” Byron added. “That’s what our focus is, and I feel like we’re turning up the performance again and feel good about that.”

William Byron in Daytona 500 victory lane in February. (HHP/Harold Hinson photo)

Friday morning, Byron got to view his mark in history, seeing the glory of his place in Daytona’s “Walk of Fame,” which features both concrete imprints of his hands and shoes from the 66th Daytona 500 and his race-winning car.

Asked if he’s thought much of his career-making victory, Byron admitted he hasn’t reminisced much.

“It was really fun [at the time], but I really haven’t, during the season, given the Daytona 500 much thought. I think going there, seeing it in person, was definitely a chance to relive it though,” he said. “It was special. I always think about it when I see the trophy, but to see the car too was pretty cool.”

“Now it’s time to see if we can go out and repeat it.”

Coverage of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.