After a prolonged rain delay that pressured Sunday’s 67th working of the Daytona 500 into the night time, it was Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron claiming his second consecutive win within the “Nice American Race.”
Listed below are 5 takeaways from the Daytona 500:
Byron repeats as Daytona 500 champion
Whereas he solely led 10 laps the whole race, Byron put himself in place late and averted the “Huge One” on the ultimate lap to carry off Tyler Reddick and win his second straight Daytona 500.
Byron’s win provides Chevrolet three in a row in NASCAR’s most prestigious race and strikes Hendrick Motorsports previous Petty Enterprises for essentially the most Daytona 500 wins (10) by a corporation. He joins Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (2016, 2019, 2020) as the one lively full-time drivers with a number of Daytona 500 wins.
NASCAR Corridor of Famer Jeff Gordon, who famously piloted the No. 24, had three Daytona 500 victories. At simply 27 years of age, Byron already has two with the vast majority of his profession nonetheless in entrance of him.
A number of ‘Huge Ones’ strike
Apart from the final lap carnage getting into flip three, there have been a number of situations of the ‘Huge One’ all through an action-packed Daytona 500.
On a Lap 71 restart, race chief Joey Logano, who was experiencing electrical issues, brought on the sphere to stack up and picked up a number of drivers within the course of.
With 15 laps to go, Logano was eradicated for good when he made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr, sending the 2023 Daytona 500 champion round and spoiling any hopes of a primary Daytona 500 triumph for Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott.
With 5 laps to go, Ryan Preece flipped the wrong way up and landed on all 4 tires, the second time the veteran driver has ended up on his roof at Daytona within the final three seasons.
Sunday proved as soon as once more that, whereas Daytona could be unpredictable, the ‘Huge One’ is all the time inevitable on the “World Heart of Racing.”
Crew Penske’s dominant day comes up brief
Chief of a race-high 59 laps, Austin Cindric regarded just like the automotive to beat for a number of parts of the race. Mixed with teammates Logano and Blaney, the three led a mixed 125 laps.
Whereas the storied workforce didn’t discover victory lane, the three drivers as soon as once more took management of a superspeedway race and appeared to have the race received till chaos erupted late.
Up-and-down race for noteworthy drivers
Battling via the late race chaos, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson – making one in every of two scheduled begins this season – got here residence third. Justin Allgaier — driving JR Motorsports’ first Cup Collection entry with Chris Stapleton’s Traveller Whiskey model as a sponsor — completed ninth.
For 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr. and four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves, their fortunes weren’t so good after getting caught up within the Lap 71 mess. Though they completed thirty eighth and thirty ninth, respectively, these 4 drivers and groups collectively garnered loads of consideration and offered followers with much more to observe together with.
Mom Nature makes one other look
For the second consecutive Daytona 500 and fourth time within the final six years, Mom Nature brought on some issues within the “Nice American Race.”
In contrast to final yr’s race, which didn’t run in any respect on Sunday and was held on Monday, the 2025 model was accomplished in its entirety with no postponement. Whereas it might have been delayed for over three hours and became a marathon of a day, Byron was the winner, forcing mom nature to accept second place.
