The odds for a repeat Daytona 500 win in 2025 for William Byron are incredibly slim. Only four drivers in the 67-year history of the 500 have ever won it back-to-back: Richard Petty did it first in 1973-1974, followed by Cale Yarborough in 1983-1984, Sterling Marlin in 1994-1995, and most recently Denny Hamlin in 2019-2020.
The defending Daytona 500 champion could become the fifth driver to join that list, but he knows that history isn't quite on his side. In a week where he announced a new partnership with Celsius Energy Drink, a product he's used for years, Byron took some time to speak exclusively with Motorsport.com about the challenge ahead of him.
"It's really tough," said Byron. "There's a lot that goes into this race and it's difficult to make it to the end, much less to win. I think the goal has to be to have a really good week leading up (to the 500) and being able to kind of manage it from there. I know why it's been so difficult but I don't know why it hasn't happened more often. I just think it's the nature of the race and how crazy it gets towards the end of the race."
Byron has a lot of experience with how volatile this race can be, having failed to finish four of his seven Daytona 500s -- crashing out of the race more than half the time. Before his 2024 triumph, his best finish in the season-opener was only 21st.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet also shared that it feels different returning as a Daytona 500 champion, noting that "I feel like I'm fresher and a little bit more excited to be down here in Daytona and just experience everything. The week is off to a good start ... it just feels nice to be down at Daytona and I feel optimistic about the week."
He has good reason to feel that way. Even though this interview took place before any on-track action at Speedweek, Byron was in contention for the win in his Duel qualifying race, finishing second in a result that puts him fifth on the 500 grid. Winning in 2025 for Byron means "just as much if not more" this time around, despite already collecting the first Harley J. Earl trophy. Luckily, he's already ahead of where he was one year ago, as he crashed out of the 2024 Duel and was forced into a backup car and to the back of the grid that Sunday.
Nowhere to hide?
In recent history, drivers that have led the most laps at Daytona have struggled to avoid crashing out, let alone win the race. Last year, Byron never led the 500 until just four laps to go. Despite the fact that the average number of laps led by the last four winners is just nine, the HMS driver still wants to be as far up the field as much as possible.
"The goal is to be at the front, but it just works to where there's a lot of shuffling and cycling," he told Motorsport.com. "If you could be at the front and control the race, you're gonna have a great opportunity to win, and also it just gives you confidence if you're leading 50+ laps on Sunday. So I would say the goal is to lead a bunch of laps." Byron believes the most dangerous position to be in with this package is in the 10th - 15th spot range.
However, leading laps has some drawbacks at Daytona, and it's not just the constant threat of being taken out by an awkward push. Fuel-saving has been an integral part of the modern Daytona 500 and Byron expects that to be no different this year. "(Leading) burns the most fuel and that's not good with that car because it's all about track position," he noted. "Everyone is getting smarter with the fuel-saving and it's getting a lot harder to be further back and leapfrog. You're gonna have fuel-saving, but it's kind of naturally built into the strategy now and not as much of a surprise."
As the race gets closer to that final lap — awaiting that wave of the white flag, being towards the front could work best in a driver's favor. Last year, controlling the race worked well for Byron as a crash right at the white flag ended the race. The defining moment came when he moved up to take the run from a surging outside lane, led by Ross Chastain. The aggressive Trackhouse driver sent it up the middle in a daring pass that ended with him spinning and Byron celebrating.
Reflecting on that pivotal moment, the Celsius-backed driver said: "I didn't feel like I made an aggressive block. I just made a block that I would have made 100 times so it's what I thought was the highest percentage move. I knew (that) even if I got passed, I was going to be repositioned in a different line and maybe the line I wanted to be in by the time the energy kind of cycled back around to the front-straightaway. For me, it was kind of the obvious move, seeing him [Chastain] coming with a run and I was too far out from my help so I was gonna go backwards (if he stayed in line). I wasn't going to have any help to be able to stay out front."
It turned out to be the right move for 2024, but every race at Daytona is different. The lead is often a good place to be, but we've also seen leaders get turned before, and the drivers from third or even further back go on to win this race. Heck, there was once an Xfinity race where every single car inside the top-ten piled up in a crash exiting off Turn 4, allowing the driver in 11th to squeak by and claim victory.
Drivers plan and Daytona simply laughs. And although the odds are against Byron in his pursuit for a rare repeat this weekend, the odds are always evolving in the ever-unpredictable Daytona 500.
