William Byron Captures the 66th Running Of The Daytona 500

Daytona FL, (February 19th, 2024)

The 66^th edition of the Daytona 500 dubbed the great American race was set to take the green flag on January 18^th but the four letter word that every NASCAR driver and team refuses to utter was front and center that weekend, rain. The forecast was one that played no favorites among any team, driver or even series and caused the NASCAR officials to juggle the schedule. On Sunday, race day, all eyes were on the radar and the scheduled start time was pushed back, unfortunately mother nature refused to cooperate, and the race was now set to run Monday.

Finally on Monday the weather broke, and the track crews diligently went to work drying the track for the kickoff so the 2024 NASCAR race season could get underway. Finally, everything was set and honorary grand marshal Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave the command to the field of drivers led by pole sitter Joey Logano to start their engines.

The first few laps saw the field bunched up and racing as one. As everyone was expecting things to settle down, as the pack rounded turn four to start the fifth lap of the race, an eight car accident happened. Brad Keselowski’s Ford made contact with John Hunter Nemechek’s Toyota into the center lane of traffic and right into Harrison Burton’s Ford.

Burton was sliding toward the infield and made contact with the Chevrolet of Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar. Burton’s No. 21 Mustang then ricocheted up the track and hit the Ford of Kaz Grala and the Chevrolet of Austin Dillon. While this was happening, Hocevar went into the path of seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, who couldn’t avoid the collision.

The attrition had started claiming Burton, Hocevar, and Grala as its first victims. Meanwhile, on pit road Johnson lost two laps as his crew worked hard to repair his stricken Camry. At the same time Dillon and his Chevrolet went back to the garage to attempt repairs on their car.

Burton would go to say “I don’t remember exactly who it was on my outside, 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.”

After this wreck, the field settled down and the racing began. There were plenty of lead changes and action among twenty drivers. With the race getting close to the end 2015 winner and pole sitter Joey Logano seemed to take control of the race. No matter who challenged him for the lead he and his Mustang seemed to have the right answer and led some forty five laps of the race.

With eight laps left in the race, the inevitable happened the big wreck that super speedways are known for. Alex Bowman bumped into his teammate William Byron who got out of shape and made contact with Brad Keselowski’s Ford. This knocked Keselowski up the track and right into race leader Joey Logano. In all some twenty three cars were caught up in this wreck.

The crash took out race leader Logano and many other favorites including Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez, and Todd Gilliland. So big was the crash that NASCAR red-flagged the race for 15 minutes 27 seconds so the track could be cleaned up.

Afterwards Logano would say “Speedway racing again. 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.”

When the carnage was finally cleared and the race restarted, the final three lap sprint to the end of the race was about to start. As the reshaped field was getting ready to take the white flag Austin Cindric’s Ford bumped Ros Chastain causing Chastain to slide through the infield. As all this was happening William Byron nipped teammate Alex Bowman to the finish line just as the yellow flag came out.

As Byron also took the white flag at that moment, there would be no playoff and the race would end under the caution flag allowing Byron to safely cruise the last lap and take the checkered flag for his first win of the great American race and teammate Bowman nabbed second place. With this win, it gave Hendrick Motorsports its ninth win at the Daytona 500.

After the race Byron told everyone “I’m just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500. I can’t believe it. I wish my dad were 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. This is so freaking cool.” Team owner Rick Hendrick Hendrick excitedly said “I’m telling you; you couldn’t write the script any better. 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.”