Byron Escapes Last-Lap Chaos For Second Daytona 500 Win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In a stunning final half-lap, William Byron found a way through the eye of the storm to become a back-to-back Daytona 500 champion on Sunday night.

Byron led five times for a combined 10 laps in the 67th running of the Great American Race, but it was the last lap he was out front that stunned everyone in attendance at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Running ninth at the white flag, Byron thought his chances might be dashed when NASCAR Cup Series rookie contender Riley Herbst spun to the apron exiting the tri-oval, but no caution was called and the field was allowed to continue racing.

At that point, race-long dominator Austin Cindric was leading exiting turn two with a big push from three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who flared to the outside on the backstretch in an attempt to claim his fourth Harley J. Earl Trophy.

What Hamlin didn’t count on was Cole Custer coming up to the third lane with a full head of steam. By the time Hamlin tried to cover, Custer was alongside and coming back down into the door of the No. 11.

The three leading cars all crumpled together, sending Hamlin around sideways in front of the entire field and creating an absolute maelstrom of cars as sheet metal went skidding and sparking toward the third-turn banking.

But just before Hamlin’s car washed into the path of Custer and the rest of the outside lane, Byron slipped through – somehow – to lead the surviving few back to the checkered flag.

Carrying a flame-emblazoned paint scheme reminiscent of Jeff Gordon, the driver who made the No. 24 an icon in NASCAR, Byron beat Tyler Reddick to the checkered flag by .113 seconds to surpass Gordon as the youngest multi-time winner in Daytona 500 history.

After a smoky burnout underneath the flagstand, Byron leapt into the arms of his Hendrick Motorsports crew in celebration of his 14th career Cup Series victory and a repeat of the biggest moment in his stock car life.

“Obviously that took a lot of good fortune, but I just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,” explained Byron of his path to victory. “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[stretch].

“Somehow it worked out in our favor. I’m really proud of this team,” he continued. “We worked super hard all week and had an amazing car. Just had a really hard time with fuel saving and staying toward the front. Crazy. I can’t honestly believe that just happened. But we’re here.

“So proud of this.”

After a clinic by the three Team Penske Fords of Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney – who combined to lead 125 of 201 laps – the race turned on its head with 15 to go when Logano tried to take a run of momentum to the middle lane on the backstretch and was blocked by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

As those two came together, it created a four-wide scramble for space that ended in Logano spinning Stenhouse in the middle of the lead pack, creating an eight-car crash.

Eliminated at that point were both Logano and Kyle Busch, who was trying to win the Daytona 500 for the 20th time in his career and came up empty yet again.

Corey LaJoie was scored the leader over Cindric at the seventh caution of the race, but got quickly abandoned on the ensuing lap-193 restart, as Cindric used a push from Hamlin to shoot to driver’s right down the backstretch and reassume command briefly.

The problem? Three Toyotas were lined up behind Cindric, and two of them used Cindric’s move against him the next lap as Bell shoved Hamlin to the lead for the first time all night on lap 194.

But the chaos wasn’t finished yet. As Hamlin continued to lead inside of five to go, side by side and fending off Bell, the latter was turned off the nose of Custer’s Ford and into the outside wall.

Bell’s Toyota then bounced down into the side of Ryan Preece’s No. 60, causing it to catch air in a wheelie approaching the turn-three banking before going upside down and pounding the outside wall nose first.

Everyone involved was OK, including Preece, who ended up on his lid for the second time in 18 months at the World Center of Racing.

That melee required a six-minute red flag stoppage, the third of the day following two early reds for weather during stage one, before the wild overtime attempt that finished everything off.

Despite getting a shot from Hamlin’s front bumper into the left-side door of his car, Reddick managed to escape the last-lap crash and cross second, his career-best mark and first top 25 in seven Daytona 500 starts.

“On that restart with 15 to go, we kind of checked up in the middle and ended up further back than we wanted to be. We didn't really want to, but we ducked out of it hoping for a caution and we got it,” explained Reddick. “We were still lined up 16th there on the green-white-checkered though. When (Herbst) started to spin on the dogleg, I kind of jumped out of line thinking that was going to be it, and we just kept going.

“I knew that me and the 24 (Byron) had a good run and they were throwing big blocks, and when they started spinning on the inside and I had a run on the 24, I thought, ‘Man, if I can just make it through past the 11 (Hamlin) and not scrub speed, I’ll at least an opportunity to do something.’

“All in all, I never really finished a race here unless it was 40 laps down, so I’ll take second.”

Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was another surprise to sneak through the final accident, finishing third for his best Daytona 500 result since his second win in the event in 2013.

Polesitter Chase Briscoe and John Hunter Nemechek closed the top five, making it four Toyotas behind Byron’s race-winning Chevrolet.

Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman was sixth ahead of Blaney and Cindric, who were seventh and eighth, respectively, after leading the most (59) and third-most (23) laps on the night.

Justin Allgaier gave JR Motorsports a top 10 in its Cup Series debut in ninth, with Chris Buescher 10th.

But the night was all about a 27-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., who rose from the humblest of beginnings by learning to race on a computer and became a two-time winner on stock-car racing’s grandest stage.

“It’s obviously really special,” said Byron of winning another Daytona 500. “It’s an amazing race, and obviously [there was] a lot of crazy racing out there and just a lot of pushing and shoving.

“I’m really proud of our team. I can’t stress that enough,” he added. “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 [to race for a championship].”

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 23 for the Ambetter Health 400. Daniel Suarez was the winner of last year’s spring race at the 1.54-mile quad-oval.