William Byron was the center of attention this week as the new Daytona 500 champion, which meant plenty of media time. Byron was sent to New York hours after his Monday night victory. Tuesday, the 26-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver, one of the …
William Byron was the center of attention this week as the new Daytona 500 champion, which meant plenty of media time.
Byron was sent to New York hours after his Monday night victory. Tuesday, the 26-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver, one of the sport’s most reserved, had stops scheduled at Fox and Friends, Live with Kelly and Mark, Forbes, Fox Sports, The Weather Channel, CNN World Sport, Barstool Sports, Jalopnik and Deadspin, the New York Post, NASDAQ and SiriusXM. The day started after 7 a.m. ET and ended after 5 p.m. ET.
“It’s been fun,” Byron said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I enjoyed all of the stuff that I got to do this week, especially because it was something unique and different and I felt like it was really interesting. A lot of interesting questions and just different outlets trying to learn about the sport. I tried my best to do a good job, and honestly I was running on adrenaline for two, three days, and we’re back to the racetrack now and ready to get to work.
“I enjoyed it. As much as I am quiet, I feel like most of my quiet time is spent at the racetrack when I’m trying to do my work and focusing on my job.”
The biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500, is an attraction for new and die-hard race fans alike, making Byron the face of the sport for the week, giving it more exposure in the mainstream media.
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“I think the best way to go around New York is in a car service going place to place,” Byron said. “We didn’t have to walk anywhere, so it was a unique situation, but it’s very cool and I’m just thankful to NASCAR that they put that together. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go getting on the plane Monday night, and I was a little nervous about it all, but I thought they managed it really well.
“It was super smooth. The Empire State Building was probably one of the coolest aspects, just being able to go up there and see the views.”
There is still more to come. Byron has media scheduled for next week, as well. There is also going to be a visit from Daytona International Speedway at the Hendrick Motorsports shop to present additional spoils for winning the race.
Because the race was postponed until Monday and Byron had to be in New York for a full Tuesday slate, there was no traditional Champion’s Breakfast the next day, where Byron would have been presented with his Daytona 500 champion jacket and Rolex watch while Rudy Fugle is presented the crew chief trophy and Rick Hendrick the Harley J. Earl trophy. All of that will occur with a celebratory lunch at the shop Monday.
First, Byron is glad to be back to work. He qualified his No. 24 Chevrolet 11th at Atlanta, where he’s the most recent winner.
“There’s just a lot of different aspects to it,” Byron said of what being the Daytona 500 champion will mean moving forward. “I feel like the big thing for us is being able to start the year like that with a lot of momentum for a lot of different reasons…I feel like for me, personally, it’s a huge relief and something I’m really excited to carry down the road.”
The slow race pace early in the Daytona 500 did not go unnoticed by NASCAR and the circumstances leading to that will be reviewed. In the race’s first stage, the field slowed the pace down dramatically when going into fuel-saving mode. Typically, a …
The slow race pace early in the Daytona 500 did not go unnoticed by NASCAR and the circumstances leading to that will be reviewed.
In the race’s first stage, the field slowed the pace down dramatically when going into fuel-saving mode. Typically, a full-speed lap around Daytona International Speedway in a pack would be in the 46- to 47-second bracket. But when the pace slowed Monday because the field was not full throttle, the lap times were over 50s.
“I think that’s something that just over time, 76 years of NASCAR racing, our race teams are just so good, and our teams are so good, and our drivers are so good, and the strategy and the preparation that goes into these events, they don’t leave any stones unturned,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Wednesday. “The Daytona 500, or superspeedway racing in general, has kind of come down to that, and basically what you’re trying to do is spend the least amount of time on pit road that you can. So, you’re getting through those stoppages, whether it be Stage 1 or 2, you’re getting the opportunity to gain some track position.
“It is something that we’re looking into. Ultimately, we want to drop the green flag on the race, and they’re racing as hard as they can until we drop the checkered flag. There’s some strategy in between there. We’ll definitely take a much deeper dive at this particular situation and the strategy that goes into it.”
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Martin Truex Jr. came over his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team radio at one point and said it felt like they were “crawling.” His teammate, Denny Hamlin, described it as a 175-mile-per-hour “pace lap” on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast.
“I couldn’t figure it out,” Hamlin said. “Fuel, yes, it’s always been somewhat of a big deal, but over the last few years of Next Gen racing on superspeedways, it’s been a dramatic deal. With the field all compressed into a one-and-a-half second group, you can save enough gas to be the last car in line and then jump to the first car in line after a pit cycle as long as you do a good job on entry of the pits, rolling down pit road, stopping, and then exiting pit road and then exiting with a group. You can flip-flop the field.”
Superspeedway pit stops have become less about tires and more about fuel-only. The tone for fuel being the big story was set early in Daytona during the one-stop Bluegreen Vacations Duel races. Hamlin admitted his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team played that strategy since he ran in the back for much of his Duel race but then jumped to the front after the pit cycle.
“Everyone is trying to do it and then I realized, holy (expletive), these guys are doing it on Lap 2,” he said of the Daytona 500. “I think I was on the top line and I’m trying to push the (expletive) out of whoever was in front of me, and I’m like, ‘What the hell? Why aren’t these guys going? Push the guy in front of you now.’ When I’m trying to push someone mid-race, early race, whatever, that is me whispering in the competitor’s ear in front of me, ‘Go hit the guy in front of you now. Go push him.’ I’m trying to keep that line moving.”
Hamlin wasn’t against saving fuel but would have preferred the field race some before doing so. If the field got single-file, saving fuel would have made more sense, but not when running side-by-side where Hamlin felt everyone was content not to pass and be conservative.
Said Hamlin, “The field just kept getting slower and slower and slower.”
It’s 10:41 p.m. ET Monday night and William Byron, on a golf kart heading to his motor home, is finally getting to look at his cellphone. “Holy (expletive),” he laughs. “Oh my God.” Byron had won the Daytona 500 nearly three hours earlier. It had …
It’s 10:41 p.m. ET Monday night and William Byron, on a golf kart heading to his motor home, is finally getting to look at his cellphone.
“Holy (expletive),” he laughs. “Oh my God.”
Byron had won the Daytona 500 nearly three hours earlier. It had been chaotic since then after his frontstretch celebration and interview gave way to the victory lane celebration and interview, plus numerous photos and media hits before even getting to the media center to speak to the print press. The 28-minute news conference ended at 10:18 p.m. ET before Byron was shuffled into another room to sit down for a NASCAR Productions interview and a scripted read that will be played at Daytona when tours come through the rest of the year.
“That’s a pretty awesome trophy,” Byron said when done, patting the Harley J. Earl Trophy on the stand before him. “So shiny.”
A trophy like no other… Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images
By the time Byron was done and headed for the golf kart, his champagne and beer-soaked firesuit felt more like an ice blanket. Byron was ready to change into something warmer before heading to the garage to see his team.
“How about that,” Byron said to his PR representative, Ashly Ennis, as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders before getting on the golf kart. Then came the glance at his cellphone, which now had nearly 150 messages.
Freshly clothed in all black sporting black, white and gold Jordans, Byron bid farewell to his mom, Dana, outside his motorhome before heading to the garage at 10:56 p.m. ET. After quickly popping into the empty hauler, Byron headed to the inspection area where his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet and the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, which finished second, were still going through the process.
The winning team for the Daytona 500 not only goes through complete post-race teardown (and put the car back together), but the inspection process takes longer than a usual race weekend as the engine is also removed and torn down. While tedious, considering its meaning, it’s one of the most enjoyable tech inspections of the year.
As the work continued, Byron and his team enjoyed adult beverages from nearby coolers. At one point, Byron stood with two other team members and watched the Xfinity Series race, postponed until after the Daytona 500, on a cellphone.
“There’s always a race on,” Byron quipped.
Byron spent quite a while talking with crew chief Rudy Fugle. Alex Bowman’s crew chief, Blake Harris, came over with a red solo cup for a fist bump and congratulations.
“It’s the best moment ever,” Byron told RACER while standing there. “To see my guys that’s what we do it for, is that tight knit group. It’s just cool to see the car. We were just talking about the paint scheme and how good it looks. Obviously, it looks good with confetti on it, but it really did look good under lights.
“It’s just a super special day. It’s not even set in yet. It’s going to take a long time to understand the magnitude of it, but it’s really cool.”
The hope was that Byron and Ennis would be able to stick around when word came the car had cleared inspection. Byron wanted to have a celebratory toast with the team (or at least those in attendance since his pit crew had returned to work, pitting the No. 8 car for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series race). Since the race was run Monday, it would be a quick turnaround for Byron, who was off to New York that same night for his Tuesday victory tour.
By 11:29 p.m. ET, it was unlikely Byron would be able to stay to hear his victory was official. As he and the team huddled together with smiles, eating boxed food earlier brought into the garage, the confetti-covered car still sat torn apart.
Daytona 500 confetti has been in Byron’s dreams since childhood. Monday night, it was spraying over him for real. John Harrelson/Motorsport Images
Daytona 500 confetti is special to Byron. Long before he was a race car driver, the image of the Daytona 500 champion being showered in confetti in victory lane was seared into his memory. Being able to experience that for himself was an unreal feeling.
“I remember seeing Jimmie Johnson win the ’06 (Daytona) 500 and just that feeling in that moment for him,” Byron said of the race that took place when he was seven. “I feel like that’s what I remember the most. You obviously remember the frontstretch celebration, but I always feel like it’s a bit messy. There’s always a lot of uncoordinated celebration, which is how mine was. Mine was terrible. It’s after the fact, when you pull into victory lane, that is the real authentic moment that’s historic.”
There were moments leading into Monday’s race that gave Byron an indication it was going to be a good day. Amazingly, Byron wasn’t considering winning because he’d never finished better than 21st in the Daytona 500. He just wanted to end the day on the lead lap.
After being introduced at driver introductions, Byron took the obligatory ride down the frontstretch in front of the grandstands. When he got to the drop-off point at the entrance to pit road, Ennis asked if he wanted to meet grand marshal Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, as many of his fellow drivers were doing.
Byron declined and started walking toward the grid, quipping, “I’m ready to rock.”
“I did!” Byron laughed when reminded of what he said. “I was honestly not nervous today. I was confident; I don’t know what it was. I just was not nervous about the race at all. It probably took most of the race to find my rhythm because I haven’t raced since November/December and typically, I go down and do the races at New Smyrna (before the Daytona 500), but I felt really green this week. I guess that was a good thing; I felt fresh.
“Today, I felt like our group was confident. Rudy, for some reason, has been high on this race all offseason, obviously it being the first one, but I didn’t know how much this race meant to him until going through December and January and him talking about it a lot. So, it’s pretty special.”
Byron’s walk to his car was “peaceful,” allowing him to be with his thoughts. He enjoyed being around the team and his family, shutting off everything else.
“Nothing else matters at that point,” Byron said. “It’s just about you and the race car and your team and how you’re going to work through the day. It was a really calm day, I’d say. I tried to go to Jersey Mike’s earlier and that was not successful. There was a lot of traffic over there. But I was just really relaxed today.
“I’m relaxed usually after advancing through the playoffs or a win. I’ll race the next race really relaxed. But I felt like I showed up today and had that mindset. I need to carry that forward for sure.”
Byron’s time in the garage ended at 11:54 p.m. ET, already slightly behind schedule to be at the airport. It was wheels up at 12:45 a.m. ET (about 15 minutes before NASCAR officially announced inspection was clear), wheels down at 2:57 a.m. ET and finally, at 3:35 a.m. ET, arrival at the hotel in New York.
The fun kicked off with a hotel departure time of 7:20 a.m. ET. Byron was slated for appearances all day, including Fox & Friends, Live with Kelly and Mark, Forbes, the Weather Channel, CNN World Sport, SiriusXM, and photos at the Empire State Building. There might have also been a stop for New York-style pizza and NASCAR security grabbing dessert from a cupcake bakery. By this time, Byron’s unread messages had swelled to 207.
It’ll be some time before the spoils of winning the Daytona 500 slow down and fade away. Byron landed back in North Carolina at 8:28 p.m. ET Tuesday night, just about 24 hours after being presented the trophy in victory lane. There will be that toast with the team Wednesday and more media obligations, some after this weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
In the meantime, Byron continues to digest his accomplishment. And eventually, he might be able to explain what other drivers mean when they say winning the Daytona 500 changes your life.
“I don’t know yet,” Byron said of what that might mean. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot in the last 12 to 15 months about life in general, but I think this will be a whole different experience just going through this race. There’s just a lot of things still left to accomplish but this is definitely up there. It’s P1 for sure.”
What NASCAR looked at and how it determined when to throw the late caution, making William Byron the Daytona 500 winner.
No one wants a NASCAR race to finish under caution and definitely not the Daytona 500. But sometimes, it’s necessary, and that’s exactly what happened Monday night at the end of the rain-delayed 2024 Daytona 500 when William Byron took the checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway.
Finishing a race under caution — when the yellow flag is out and yellow lights are flashing — is hardly ideal because drivers aren’t actually racing. They’re maintaining their track positions and driving at a slowed, set pace, which doesn’t produce thrilling finishes.
But fans may want to know how and why NASCAR reached the decision to throw the caution flag at the end of Monday’s Daytona 500.
Here’s what happened: With a little more than one lap to go in the 200-lap race, Byron was leading the field on the inside lane ahead of Austin Cindric with Ross Chastain leading the outside lane. When Byron moved up to the outside lane, Chastain and Cindric made contact, which sent them both sliding off the track.
Unscathed, Byron and teammate Alex Bowman continued in the outside lane and crossed the start-finish line as the white flag was waving, signaling the last lap. But because of the crash, NASCAR threw the caution.
And because the caution came out after the last-lap white flag, and because Byron was the leader at the time of the yellow flag, he would be declared the winner once he completed the final caution lap.
Though Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet edged out Bowman’s No. 48 at the time of the caution flag, it was close.
So how did NASCAR officials come to this decision? NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, explained what factors were taken into consideration. He said, via NASCAR.com:
“At the end of a race, we use all available resources. So we’ll use [the time the] caution comes out. We’ll use video, timestamps. At the time of caution, it was the 24 [car] over the 48 [car].
“Obviously, we would love to have left it green and let it finish naturally. But once the [No.] 2 car had spun and started back up the race track and was going to be into traffic and oncoming traffic there, there was no choice but to throw the caution at that time.”
As Sawyer noted, the race likely would have continued under green if not for Cindric in the No. 2 Ford sliding back up the track into oncoming traffic. Understandably, that situation was dangerous, and NASCAR had throw the yellow flag.
After taking the white flag, @WilliamByron was the leader at the time of the final caution.
William Byron won the 2024 Daytona 500 as cars around him wrecked.
The race started a day late and basically ended a lap early, but it all worked out pretty well for William Byron, who won Monday’s rain-delayed Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway’s iconic 2.5-mile track.
Because NASCAR officials determined Byron, the race leader, crossed the start-finish line to begin his final lap before the caution came out, the race was over, Byron was declared the winner and the No. 24 Chevrolet was back in Victory Lane at the Daytona 500. Bowman finished second, Christopher Bell third, Corey LaJoie fourth and Bubba Wallace fifth.
The season-opening win is the 11th career checkered flag of Byron’s career, as he begins his seventh full-time Cup Series season. And it comes on the heels of a standout career-best six-win 2023 season.
Here are 12 of the best photos from the end of the race and Byron and his team celebrating their 2024 Daytona 500 win.
Rick Hendrick would not let himself believe his organization had won the Daytona 500 until one of his cars crossed under the checkered flag and NASCAR confirmed it. William Byron was declared the winner of Monday night’s 66th running of the Daytona …
Rick Hendrick would not let himself believe his organization had won the Daytona 500 until one of his cars crossed under the checkered flag and NASCAR confirmed it.
William Byron was declared the winner of Monday night’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 with teammate Alex Bowman finishing second. NASCAR determined the winner using the timestamp of when the caution came out, along with video and photo footage.
But even more than the finish needing a review, Hendrick had been disappointed so many times in the last decade that he wouldn’t celebrate early. Byron’s victory was the first for Hendrick Motorsports in the Daytona 500 since 2014.
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“I guess it’s been a drought winning this race – we’ve led a lot of laps, and I just refused to get excited,” Hendrick said. “I was standing there when it was over wondering, ‘Did we win it? Was it one more lap? Did a caution catch us?’ When we were lined up, I thought we had a great shot.”
Byron chose the inside of the front row for the final restart alongside race leader Ross Chastain with four laps to go. Bowman was fourth, second in the outside lane. A third Hendrick Motorsports driver, Chase Elliott, restarted sixth.
With two laps to go, Byron led Austin Cindric and Corey LaJoie in a single-file line. Chastain began a charge in Turns 3 and 4 that brought him to Byron’s back bumper in the short chute leading to the trioval, but when Byron pulled up to block, Chastain went low and bounced off Austin Cindric, starting a multi-car crash. Byron was clear in the lead as Bowman charged to his outside but ran out of time when NASCAR called the caution.
The victory came 40 years to the day Rick Hendrick’s team, then called All-Star Racing, debuted in NASCAR. Geoff Bodine drove the No. 5 car to an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500 on February 19, 1984.
“When I think back 40 years and coming down here and feeling like I didn’t belong, seeing Junior Johnson and the Pettys and Wood Brothers and man, here we were with five full-time people and no sponsor and finished in the top 10,” Hendrick recalled. “But to win this race – I guess since it’s been 10 years – I forgot how thrilling it really is because the disappointment of coming off of (Turn) 4, leading, and getting crashed.
“It’s hard to put into words how I feel about NASCAR the sport and being able to participate in it, and now tying the all-time record for wins here in the (Daytona) 500. I think it’s going to sink in next week a little bit more.
“I’m in awe of how hard it is to win this race. I’m just so happy for William and Rudy [Fugle] and the whole organization. And to see Alex finish second that was great.”
Hendrick Motorsports tied Petty Enterprises for the most Daytona 500 wins by an organization at nine. A Hendrick driver won the race in 1986 (Bodine), 1989 (Darrell Waltrip), 1997, 1999, 2005 (Jeff Gordon), 2006, 2013 (Jimmie Johnson), 2014 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.), and 2024 (Byron).
William Byron escaped a massive accident at the end of the Daytona 500 and went on to win.
Hendrick Motorsports returned to victory lane in the Daytona 500 on Monday night, as William Byron finished ahead of teammate Alex Bowman at the line in a chaotic ending to the race.
The race for the win changed drastically inside of the final 10 laps, when a series of pushes from Bowman to Byron caused a massive accident that affected more than half of the field.
Byron was unable to keep his car straight and veered into the side of Brad Keselowski at the front of the pack. Keselowski shot up the track into Joey Logano, creating a huge pileup as cars had nowhere to go.
Crucially for Byron, he drove through unscathed, as did his teammate Bowman. Byron controlled the inside line coming to the white flag – but just as they were about to cross the line, a collision between Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric brought out a race-ending caution. As Byron had crossed the line to start the final lap before the caution began, he sealed his first Daytona 500 victory.
The Daytona 500 is the biggest NASCAR race on the schedule, and drivers would do anything to win it.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2022 and has been updated.
The Daytona 500 is one of the NASCAR Cup Series’ crown-jewel races. It’s the crown jewel of crown jewels and a race casually referred to as the Super Bowl of NASCAR. It is, by far, the biggest race of the NASCAR schedule, and it opens the season every year.
Drivers would do just about anything to take NASCAR’s most coveted checkered flag, and it has and continues to elude many of the sport’s best competitors.
Winning the Daytona 500 can be a career- and life-changing moment, securing a driver’s permanent place in NASCAR history and hoisting the massive Harley J. Earl Trophy. So here’s a look back at all the Daytona 500 winners since 2000.
See the full starting lineup for Sunday’s Daytona 500, with broadcast info and green flag time.
A new NASCAR Cup Series season will begin on Monday afternoon with the sport’s biggest race: the Daytona 500.
Although the weather forecast could wreak havoc on festivities at Daytona International Speedway, the green flag is scheduled to fly at 4:30 p.m. ET on Fox.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will give the command to start engines, and DJ Khaled will wave the green flag.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano won the pole position in qualifying, and will be joined on the front row by former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell.
Here’s the full lineup of 40 drivers for Sunday’s race. Follow along with Motorsports Wire for full coverage of NASCAR’s opening weekend.
The 66th running of the Daytona 500 has been postponed until Monday afternoon, due to rain. NASCAR Cup Series drivers will take to the track at 4pm ET. The race will follow the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, which was postponed from Saturday to 11am ET …
The 66th running of the Daytona 500 has been postponed until Monday afternoon, due to rain. NASCAR Cup Series drivers will take to the track at 4pm ET. The race will follow the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, which was postponed from Saturday to 11am ET on Monday.
The broadcast slate remains unchanged. The Daytona 500 will be carried live on Fox with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
This is the third time in its history the Daytona 500 will be run on a Monday. In 2012 and 2020, the race started on Sunday but rain forced its conclusion to be pushed to Monday.
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Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 champion, will lead the field to the green flag. Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 champion, joins Logano on the front row.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending race winner. Stenhouse starts 35th.
There are seven former Daytona 500 champions in the field: Logano, McDowell, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, and Stenhouse.
Forty drivers will take the green flag. Ford will have the most representation in the field with 16 drivers. Chevrolet has 15 drivers competing for the win and Toyota has nine.
