For the second straight year William Byron of Charlotte, North Carolina has won the Daytona 500. The Hendrick Motorsports racer who drives a Chevrolet, qualified fifth on the starting grid as he was second in Duel 1, only behind Bubba Wallace of Mobile, Alabama.
Byron led only 10 laps. However he led the right lap, as he was able to not be impacted by a crash in the latter part of the race involving Cole Custer of Ladera Ranch, California, Denny Hamlin of Tampa, Florida and Austin Cidric of Columbus, Ohio. The post race comments by the racers were quite testy, as Hamlin blamed Custer for the late crash. If it was a clean finish, it was expected to be a battle to the finish line between Cidric and Hamlin. However, that was not the case, and as a result, Byron who was not impacted by the crash, was able to get to the finish line first unscathed.
Delayed by Weather
The race went 11 laps before being delayed three and a half hours by inclement weather. Initially, the race was to start at 2:30 PM ET, but began at 1:30 PM ET because of thunderstorms in the forecast. One must question why the race was only moved one hour earlier when there was so much rain expected in the area. NASCAR and the Daytona 500 officials obviously did not take golf’s lead, which starts their event when there is daylight when forecasts are not complimentary.
This was the second straight year there was a significant weather delay for the Daytona 500. Last year the race was actually delayed a full 24 hours and took place on a Monday.
Byron Makes Daytona 500 history
For only the fifth time ever, a driver won back-to-back Daytona 500 titles. Byron follows the legendary Richard Petty of Level Cross, North Carolina, who won in 1973 and 1974, Cale Yarborough of Timmonsville, South Carolina, who won in 1983 and 1984, Sterling Marlin of Columbia, Tennessee, who won in 1994 and 1995, and Hamlin who won in 2019 and 2020.
