William Byron wins Daytona 500
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — William Byron gave team owner Rick Hendrick something extra to celebrate in the 40th anniversary year of Hendrick Motorsports.
In a frantic scramble after a restart on Lap 197 of 200 in the DAYTONA 500, Byron reached the finish line and took the white flag moments before NASCAR called the fifth caution of the evening as Ross Chastain slid wildly through the infield grass off the bumper of Austin Cindric’s Ford.
Alex Bowman was a close second to his teammate at the moment of caution, giving Hendrick a 1-2 finish and the organization’s first victory in the Great American Race since Jimmie Johnson beat teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the stripe in 2014.
The victory was Hendrick’s ninth in the DAYTONA 500, tying the company with Petty Enterprises for most in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series most prestigious event. The race was postponed from Sunday to Monday because of heavy rains during the weekend.
“I’m just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500,” said the 26-year-old Byron, who picked up the 11th victory of his career and his second at Daytona, the first coming in the 2020 summer race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
“I can’t believe it. I wish my dad was here. He’s sick, but this is for him, man. We’ve been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands together and watched the race (when Byron was younger). This is so freaking cool.”
Hendrick could barely contain his elation in Victory Lane.
“I’m telling you, you couldn’t write the script any better,” he said. “When we thought about coming down here the first time, we didn’t think we should be here, felt so out of place.
“We win this on our 40th to the day, it’s just… and tied a record now, so that’s awesome.”
Before the final restart, Chastain was racing at the front of the field on Lap 192 when a bump from Alex Bowman got Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron out of shape and knocked Byron into the right rear of Brad Keselowski’s Ford.
Keselowski turned up the track into the Ford of Joey Logano, who had led a race-high 45 laps to that point. Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney’s Ford was among the 23 cars involved in the accident that left string of mangled vehicles strewn along the backstretch.
The wreck knocked Blaney, Keselowski and Logano out of the race, along with Tyler Reddick, defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez and Todd Gilliland. NASCAR red-flagged the race for 15 minutes 27 seconds for track clean-up.
“Speedway racing again,” Logano said ruefully. “It’s a lot of fun until this happens. It was pretty interesting with a lot of pushing and shoving there at the end. Our car was able to take it. Our Mustang was so fast. It could lead a line really well. I kind of thought I had the cars I wanted around me. I had at least one I wanted around me, but just couldn’t make it work.”
“Obviously, hate what happened on that backstretch,” Byron said of the accident. “I just got pushed and got sideways. But so proud of this team, whole AXALTA team, 40th anniversary to the day, on Monday.
“Just extremely blessed and thankful for all the opportunities, and we just want to keep it going. We have a lot to prove this year, and this is a good start, obviously.”
How much Byron has yet to prove is debatable. He won a series-best six races last year, qualified for the Championship 4 and finished third in the final standings.
The race was not quite five laps old when an eight-car accident off Turn 4 started the inevitable attrition. Contact from Keselowski’s Ford in a tightly bunched line of the outside knocked the Toyota of John Hunter Nemechek into the center lane and into the side of Harrison Burton’s Ford.
Burton slid toward the infield, collecting the Chevrolet of Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar. Burton’s No. 21 Mustang shot up the track and slammed into the Ford of Kaz Grala and the Chevrolet of Austin Dillon. Behind Dillon, Hocevar careened into the path of seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, who couldn’t avoid the collision.
The wreck eliminated the cars of Burton, Hocevar and Grala. Dillon took his No. 3 Chevy to the garage for extensive repairs, and Johnson lost two laps on pit road as his Legacy Motor Club crew worked frantically to repair his Camry.
“I don’t remember exactly who it was on my outside,” Burton said after a trip to the infield care center. “It just looked like they either got a bad push or got loose and just hit me in the right side and sent me across.
“The grass was so wet that once I got in the grass, I thought I’d be OK, but the car just kept going and going… so really sad that our day is over as quick as it was. We had a really fast Ford. It’s just a bummer. There’s nothing we can do but just move on and try to win next week.”
It took 187 more laps of racing before the colossal wreck that dwarfed the earlier incident thinned the field and set up the fight to the finish among the cars that survived.
In a race that featured 41 lead changes among 20 drivers, Christopher Bell ran third, followed by Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace and AJ Allmendinger. Chastain, who didn’t have quite enough room when he dived to the inside of Cindric on the penultimate lap, finished 21st, one spot ahead of Cindric.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 1
Race Results for the DAYTONA 500 - Sunday, February 18, 2024
Daytona International Speedway - Daytona Beach, FL - 2.5 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 200 Laps - 500. Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Monday, 2/19/2024 @ 08:31 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 18 24 William Byron Axalta Chevrolet 200 5 6 51 Running 1 4 5
2 7 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 200 4 42 Running
3 4 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT/Interstate Batteries Toyota 200 34 Running 1 22
4 29 7 Corey LaJoie Chili's Catch-a-Rita Chevrolet 200 33 Running 1 1
5 24 23 Bubba Wallace McDonald's Toyota 200 8 7 39 Running 3 3
6 28 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) Celsius Chevrolet 200 9 0 Running 1 9
7 10 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 200 30 Running
8 11 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 200 29 Running
9 38 10 Noah Gragson Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Ford 200 28 Running 1 5
10 20 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 200 27 Running
11 17 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 200 2 35 Running 2 7
12 34 8 Kyle Busch Zone Chevrolet 200 6 4 37 Running 6 12
13 14 71 Zane Smith # WeatherTech Chevrolet 200 24 Running
14 5 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 200 1 33 Running 2 13 1
15 27 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 200 9 24 Running
16 37 31 Daniel Hemric Cirkul Chevrolet 200 21 Running
17 15 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 200 20 Running
18 19 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 200 10 20 Running
19 8 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Toyota 200 7 22 Running 2 10
20 40 60 * David Ragan BuildSubmarines.com Ford 200 17 Running 1 2
21 21 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Chevrolet 199 3 24 Running 2 14
22 6 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 199 2 24 Running 4 13
23 25 41 Ryan Preece HaasTooling.com Ford 199 14 Running
24 36 15 Riley Herbst(i) Monster Energy Ford 199 0 Running
25 30 4 Josh Berry # SunnyD Ford 199 12 Running 1 1
26 22 51 Justin Haley TreeTop Apple Juice/Jacob Ford 199 11 Running
27 39 62 * Anthony Alfredo(i) Death Wish Coffee Chevrolet 198 0 Running
28 23 84 * Jimmie Johnson Carvana Toyota 196 9 Running
29 3 45 Tyler Reddick Nasty Beast Toyota 192 5 14 Accident
30 32 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/PEAK Ford 192 1 17 Accident 2 12 1
31 35 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Boost by Kroger.Cottonelle Chevrolet 192 8 9 Accident
32 1 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 191 5 Accident 5 45
33 16 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Edge Ford 191 4 Accident 2 3
34 13 99 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 191 10 3 12 Accident 1 2
35 31 38 Todd Gilliland gener8tor Ford 191 2 Accident 1 16
36 2 34 Michael McDowell Love's Travel Stops Ford 176 1 Running 3 6
37 33 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 146 1 Running
38 26 36 * Kaz Grala # Ruedebusch Ford 5 1 Accident
39 12 21 Harrison Burton Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford 5 1 Accident
40 9 77 Carson Hocevar # Gainbridge/Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 5 1 Accident
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 10 Mins, 52 Secs. Average Speed: 157.178 MPH Margin of Victory: Under Caution
Stage 1 Top 10: 9, 5, 1, 48, 24, 8, 11, 23, 19, 99
Stage 2 Top 10: 12, 2, 99, 8, 45, 24, 23, 47, 16, 17
Race Comments: William Byron has won the DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway, his 11th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reason(s) indicated: Nos. 8, 10, 12, 24, 31 (back up car) adn No. 36 (engine change).
Failed to Qualify: (2) 78 BJ McLeod(i), 44 JJ Yeley(i).
Caution Flags: 5 for 20 laps; Laps: 6-11 (#3, 21, 36, 41, 42, 77, 84 Incident Frontstretch [None]); 67-70 (Stage 1 Conclusion [16]); 132-136 (Stage 2 Conclusion [54]); 193-196 (#2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 31, 38, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48, 54, 62, 99, Incident Backstretch [Red Flag: 00:15:27] [None]); 200-200 (#1, 2 Incident Frontstretch [None]).
Lead Changes: 41 among 20 drivers; J. Logano 1; M. McDowell 2; J. Logano 3; M. McDowell 4; J. Logano 5-8; C. Bell 9-30; R. Blaney 31-39; M. McDowell 40-43; J. Berry # 44; C. Elliott 45-54; B. Wallace 55; N. Gragson 56-60; *. Ragan 61-62; K. Busch 63-64; C. Elliott 65-67; B. Keselowski 68; K. Larson 69-71; J. Logano 72-92; T. Gilliland 93-108; K. Busch 109-113; K. Larson 114-117; A. Cindric 118-122; K. Busch 123; A. Cindric 124-128; K. Busch 129; R. Blaney 130-132; B. Keselowski 133-134; A. Cindric 135-136; B. Wallace 137; A. Cindric 138; B. Wallace 139; A. Allmendinger(i) 140-148; K. Busch 149-150; C. LaJoie 151; D. Hamlin 152; K. Busch 153; D. Hamlin 154-162; J. Logano 163-180; R. Chastain 181-185; D. Suarez 186-187; R. Chastain 188-196; W. Byron 197-200.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: February 25, 2024 - Atlanta Motor Speedway
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