No driver had won the Daytona 500 in back-to-back years since Denny Hamlin in 2019-2020, until Sunday night. William Byron escaped the carnage to come out of nowhere and win the 67th edition of the Great American Race, putting himself and crew chief Rudy Fugle back in victory lane for another year.
The festivities started early with a pre-race concert from Pitbull, as well as an appearance and press conference with Anthony Mackie, also known as “Captain America”.
President Donald Trump arrived to the racetrack just as pre-race ceremonies were beginning. He was greeted by team owners Richard Petty, Roger Penske, Richard Childress, and Jack Roush. Drivers Noah Gragson, Zane Smith, Chase Briscoe, and others joined him on the grid to meet. Trump took a few laps in “The Beast” as well.
The race began and was underway for 11 laps, until rain hit and the event was under a red flag for over three hours. After a few attempts, the race was finally back underway.
The opening stage was absolutely hectic and stayed clean for the most part, until a few laps to go. Zane Smith was involved in a stack-up, that sent him into the No. 21 of Josh Berry.
After regrouping, the field restarted for the second stage where absolute chaos ensued.
Ross Chastain was turned into the field, taking himself out of the race, as well as Helio Castroneves and Martin Truex Jr. Truex does not get to complete his cinderella story of winning his first Daytona 500 with TRICON, and Castroneves’ NASCAR journey comes to an end (for now).
With 15 laps to go Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Joey Logano came together, spinning out into the field and collecting other frontrunners such as Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney. Logano, as well as his Penske teammates, had led majority of the race up to that point.
After the clean-up from that wreck finished up, another one on the same back-straightaway happened. And it was a HUGE one.
Ryan Preece was sent flying for the second time in three years, this time taking a shot on the right side and deploying into the air like an airplane. The driver of the No. 60 was able to walk to the ambulance under his own power, and was checked and released from the infield care center.
Once the red flag for this incident was lifted, the field set up for an overtime restart. Denny Hamlin and Austin Cindric were dueling for the victory until Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer seemingly came together behind them.
Hamlin was turned into the field and that red No. 24 car was able to soar on by for the victory.
Tyler Reddick came in second for 23XI Racing, a quiet day for him and his team, but a very strong finish.
Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson was able to grab himself a third place finish after the seas parted for him to not be involved in the final lap crash.
NASCAR heads to Atlanta for the next race, another super-speedway-like racetrack. The race takes place Sunday, February 23rd, at 3:00PM ET on FOX.
