Happy Anniversary Rick Hendrick. William Byron delivered Hendrick Motorsports a Daytona 500 win Monday 40 years to the day the winningest team in NASCAR ran their first race, the 1984 Daytona 400.
“I’m telling you; you couldn’t write the script any better, 24-24,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “When we thought about coming down here the first time, we didn’t think we should be here, felt so out of place.
“We win this on our 40th to the day, it’s just — and timed a record now, so that’s awesome.”
In a race postponed a day by rain, Byron led a one-two finish for the team beating his teammate Alex Bowman to the line by .006 of a second as the white flag came out, followed a split second later by the race’s fifth and final caution as chaos erupted behind them, and Byron was crowned Daytona 500 champion.
“It sounds really damn good,” Byron said. “Thanks to an awesome crowd for coming out. I have so many emotions.”
The race’s fourth caution came out for the infamous Big One with less than 10 laps to go. Brad Keselowski had just taken second from Joey Logano who had led a race high 45 laps to that point, on the bottom when Bowman in fifth came up and into Byron who was running fourth. Byron was sent down and into the back of Keselowski who turned up into Logano setting off an explosion of sheet metal that rippled through nearly the entire field and involved 22 cars.
After a red flag of just over 15 minutes, the survivors, 28 cars in all, lined up for a 4-lap shootout. Ross Chastain led the way, but Byron took the top spot on the next lap. From there Byron stretched his lead out at the head of a three-car line with Austin Cindric second.
Coming out of Turn 4 to the white flag, Byron moved up to try and block Bowman. Bowman shot down to try and take the lead but made contact with Cindric on the bottom sending Cindric spinning in front of Chastain as Byron crossed the line. Seeing another crash happening NASCAR through the caution ending the race and securing the victory for Byron. Bowman had to settle for second place.
“Proud of William (Byron) and his team – they deserved it there at the end,” Bowman said. “They did all the right things, and I feel like we did too there at the end. Had to go up and block the top lane and that just killed the middle for a bit. We got the middle back rolling and then they all started crashing. “
Christopher Bell was scored third, Corey LaJoie fourth, and Bubba Wallace was fifth.
“Got to give yourself a chance if you want more,” Wallace said. “We don’t give ourselves chances in the 500. We’re always trying to come from behind, whether that’s my doing or just not executing.
“Unfortunate, you know? We got lucky with that big caution as we were going to need to pit for an unscheduled stop. Luck was on our side, but that’s not something we needed because we lost all our track position there.”
Until the big crash at lap the only other crash came on lap 6 when Brad Keselowski checked up coming out of Turn 4 and got into John Hunter Nemechek sending Nemechek down and into Harrison Burton; Burton’s Ford was sent nose first towards the outside wall at the start-finish line and into Kaz Grala. Burton and Grala were done for the day. Jimmie Johnson, Carson Hocevar, and Austin Dillon were swept up in the aftermath. In addition to Burton, Grala, and Hocevar were done for the day. Johnson and Dillon both came in for repairs with Johnson able to continue, while Dillon took two laps then headed to the garage.
Chase Elliott won the first stage, Ryan Blaney the second. The rest of the 500 miles featured two and three wide racing for the lead which was swapped back and forth on several occasions. In all there were 41 lead changes among 20 drivers.
AJ Allmendinger was sixth followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson rounding out the top 10.
The last Daytona 500 win for Hendrick came 10 years prior, in 2014, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won. Jeff Gordon, now a Hendrick Motorsports executive, was fourth. In that race Gordon was racing the 24, Byron won with the 24 Monday.
“I wasn’t driving the car, but I feel like I was making every lap with him out there,” Gordon said. “It’s just crazy to watch these guys do what they do and do it so well, and to watch them from this side of it, it makes me so happy, so proud. We’re going to celebrate. This is an amazing win, huge win.”
The victory was the 11th of Byron’s career and the ninth Daytona 500 win for the team ties them atop the all-time Daytona 500-win list with Petty Motorsports.
“Obviously hate what happened on that backstretch,” Byron said. “I just got pushed and got sideways. But so proud of this team, whole AXALTA team, 40th anniversary to the day, on Monday.
“Just extremely blessed and thankful for all the opportunities, and we just want to keep it going. We have a lot to prove this year, and this is a good start, obviously.
“Daytona 500, it’s freaking awesome. Let’s go.”
DAYTONA 500 RACE RESULTS
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.