William Byron Wins the 2024 Daytona 500 by Outlasting The Finish Line Action (NASCAR)

 DADENA BEACH, Florida: For Hendrick Motorsports' 40th anniversary, team owner Rick Hendrick had even more reason to rejoice thanks to William Byron.

Lap 197 of the Daytona 500 saw a chaotic restart, and just minutes before Ross Chastain spun crazily through the infield grass off Austin Cindric's Ford's bumper, NASCAR called the fifth caution of the race. Byron arrived at the start/finish line and took the white flag.

In the period of caution, Alex Bowman finished just behind his teammate, giving Hendrick a 1-2 finish and the organization's first win in the "Great American Race" since Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s victory in 2014. In the "Great American Race," it was the first Hendrick 1-2 since Jimmie Johnson defeated Earnhardt to the finish line in 2013.

With this victory, Hendrick tied Petty Enterprises for the most in the history of the most prestigious race in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was also Hendrick's eighth Daytona 500 triumph. The weekend's intense rains forced a postponement of the race from Sunday to Monday.



The 26-year-old Byron declared, "I'm just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500." This was his second victory at Daytona, having won the 2.5-mile superspeedway in the summer of 2020. This was his 11th Cup Series victory overall.

It's unbelievable. My dad would be here, I wish. I know he's sick, but dude, this is for him. We watched the race together from the grandstands when Byron was smaller, and we've been through so much together. This is very really awesome.

In Victory Lane, Hendrick could hardly contain his excitement.

He declared, "I'm telling you, you couldn't write the script any better." "We felt so out of place and didn't think we should be here when we initially thought about going down here.

William Byron outlasts late-race action to win 2024 Daytona 500

We recently tied a record and won on our 40th anniversary, so that's fantastic.

Prior to the ultimate restart, Chastain was leading the field on Lap 192 when William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports was taken out of position by a bump from Alex Bowman, which caused Byron to crash into the right rear of Brad Keselowski's Ford.

Joey Logano, who had led a race-high 45 laps up to that moment, was in the Ford that Keselowski turned up the track into. The crash that left a line of damaged cars scattered along the backstretch included 23 cars, including the Ford of reigning series champion Ryan Blaney.

Along with Blaney, Keselowski, and Logano, the collision also eliminated Tyler Reddick, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suárez, and the race's reigning winner, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. For track maintenance, NASCAR red-flagged the race for 15 minutes and 27 seconds.
"Speedway racing once more," Logano remarked wistfully. It's a lot of fun up until it takes this turn. There was a lot of pushing and shoving in the end, but overall it was very interesting. It was manageable for our automobile. Our Mustang moved quite quickly. It could extremely effectively lead a line. I kind of felt like I was surrounded by the automobiles I desired. At least one was around that I desired, but we were unable to make it happen.




Byron expressed his hatred for the incident that occurred on the backstretch. "I was shoved, and I went sideways. However, I'm really proud of the entire Axalta team, as they celebrated their 40th anniversary on Monday.
We just want to keep it rolling. We feel incredibly fortunate and grateful for all the opportunities. We obviously have a lot of work ahead of us this year, but this is a wonderful start.

It's arguable how much Byron still needs to prove. Last year, he qualified for the Championship 4, won a series-high six races, and placed third in the overall standings.
Not even five circuits had passed when an eight-car collision near Turn 4 sparked the unavoidable attrition. John Hunter Nemechek's Toyota was knocked into the middle lane and into the side of Harrison Burton's Ford by contact with Keselowski's Ford, which was in a closely packed line on the outside.

Burton slid into the infield, grabbing Carson Hocevar, the rookie for Sunoco, and his Chevrolet. Burton's No. 21 Mustang raced up the track and collided with Austin Dillon's Chevrolet and Kaz Grala's Ford. Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time series winner, was unable to avoid Hocevar's reckless crash behind Dillon.
Burton, Hocevar, and Grala's cars were destroyed in the collision. While his Legacy Motor Club team labored feverishly to fix his Camry, Johnson lost two laps in pit road while Dillon drove his No. 3 Chevy to the garage for substantial repairs.

Burton claimed, "I don't remember exactly who it was on my outside," following a visit to the infield care facility. It appeared as though they gave me a hard shove or became unsecured, striking me on the right side and knocking me over.
"I thought I would be fine once I was in the grass because it was so wet, but the car just kept going and going. really sad that our day ended so quickly. Our Ford was quite swift. It's just unfortunate. We have no choice except to move on and strive to win the following week.

After 187 more circuits of racing, the massive collision that dwarfed the previous event reduced the field and set up a sprint to the finish for the remaining cars.
Christopher Bell finished third in a race that saw twenty drivers exchange leads forty-one times. Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace, and AJ Allmendinger were next. On the penultimate lap, Chastain tried to go inside Cindric but didn't quite have enough space. Nevertheless, he finished 21st, one position ahead of Cindric.

Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time Cup winner, ended in 28th place after being initially caught under the first yellow of the day on Lap 6. The 2024 Bluegreen Vacations Duel 1 winner, Reddick, came in 29th place.
After being a part of the 23-car pileup, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney ended in 30th place.

Next up for the Cup Series is the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).



NOTE: Byron was declared the winner of the race after a trouble-free post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage at Daytona. The No. 7 Chevrolet driven by Corey LaJoie and the No. 23 Toyota driven by Bubba Wallace will be returned to the R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for additional examination.
Florida's Daytonia Beach — Before the Daytona 500 on Monday began, Ross Chastain was nearly ready to go when he heard some final words of encouragement above the noise of the pre-race activities. When Trackhouse Racing founder Justin Marks caught sight of Chastain, he had wriggled most of the way into the cockpit of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

"What will I be consuming in approximately three hours?" Marks shouted across the hood.


"It's true," smiled Chastain, gesturing to his new Busch Light endorsement.

After Chastain made a daring maneuver to potentially win the race, the same hood was pointed into the infield grass at Daytona International Speedway, nearly three hours and 199 of 200 laps later in Monday's rain-delayed crown prize. Any celebratory sudsy product cans from his sponsor were kept refrigerated. Although Chastain began and finished in midpack 21st place, his challenge to eventual Daytona 500 winner William Byron was one of the strongest of the unpredictable day.

"I don't apologize for taking the gap," Chastain declared. "Knowing that I won the Daytona 500 by taking the white flag, I can sleep easy tonight." It was with eight laps remaining or something like that four years ago. I'm down to only one lap left. Yes, it gets too harsh when you don't complete.

With ten laps remaining, Chastain stayed clear of the race's corners and he was leading when a huge crash occurred not far behind him. When the race got in position for the final restart with four laps to go, he was still atop the scoring pylon.
For the first two laps of the last green-flag run, Chastain's No. 1 car and Byron's No. 24 Chevy were running door-to-door. However, Byron managed to squeeze by with a strong push from Austin Cindric and other drivers in the bottom groove. As Chastain's lane reformed as it raced toward the white flag, he noticed a gap.

Chastain moved closer to Byron, but Byron resisted. He collided with Cindric's No. 2 Ford as he was doing it, sending both vehicles plummeting.

At first, Chastain accepted some of the blame, claiming that he turned left too sharply and picked up Cindric. However, as the two drivers conversed outside the infield care center about their incident, Cindric appeared to clear Chastain, blaming the push and pressure from Corey LaJoie just before to the start-finish line. Cindric commented, "Corey finished fourth, so congrats." "I mean, he just kept pushing through my left rear until I crashed, trying to fit a car where there wasn't one."

Though Chastain, a 31-year-old native of Florida, was largely encouraged to have a chance at winning the "Great American Race," coming so close to victory had the potential to sting him somewhat. On the other hand, the result brought him and Marks serenity.

Marks told NASCAR.com, "I mean, I love Ross Chastain and he's got a lot of fight." "The Busch Light folks are ecstatic to see their car lead the race, and we had a really fast race car here." In this sport, we have a long history ahead of us and much work ahead of us. I'm just incredibly happy of the work that he and the crew put in, so I'm not feeling too down on myself just yet. You know, I want a guy who goes for it ten times out of ten.

"We still had a shot, though, so yeah, I really do feel content," Chastain remarked. We performed flawlessly, even though it feels strange to say that.

The post-race toast in Daytona's Victory Lane will have to wait for Chastain and Marks. Chastain had a "why not us?" attitude going into his sixth Daytona 500 start, and the team almost profited from it.

After the two met in the No. 1 team's hauler, Marks said, "I just gave him a hug and told him I'm proud of him and said that you know, we're gonna be doing a lot of these Daytona 500s together." "There will be numerous chances for us to win this race. All of us at Trackhouse, I believe, do a very good job of controlling our expectations and realizing that, in the end, these races are always a game of millimeters, and you have to make your shot. You must take it on. I'm happy he took action. He's got a great attitude. Most likely already considering Atlanta.