DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — What’s more difficult than winning the Daytona 500 once? Why winning it twice.
It took overtime and a crash on the white-flag lap for William Byron to win his second straight Daytona 500 on Sunday. Byron was ninth going into the final lap in overtime when Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe made contact causing many cars to spin out. Byron stayed up near the wall and snuck through for the victory.
Tyler Reddick was second and in a tribute to the past, Jimmie Johnson, finished third. Briscoe was fourth and John Hunter Nemechek was fifth. All top five cars were Toyotas, except for Byron, who was driving a Chevrolet.
With five laps to go, Christopher Bell was challenging Hamlin for the lead when he got loose on the outside, hit the wall and then created havoc with the cars in back of him. It was the wreck that forced the race into overtime.
Ryan Preece got the worst of it in the nine-car accident as he pinwheeled down the backstretch, partly upside down, before righting itself and coming to rest. Preece, and all other drivers in the wreck, were not seriously injured and were released from the infield care center.
Some of the bigger names in the sport went out with 15 laps to go. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch were all collected in a 10-car wreck that dashed any hope of winning the race. The accident started when Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were both going for the same space with neither one wanting to surrender. What was surrendered was their chances to win.
It also shuffled the front of the pack and Corey Lajoie took the lead, at least for a little while.
It was especially disappointing for Busch, who was running in his 20th Daytona 500, all without a win.
The already tight race got even tighter when debris on Turn 1 caused a caution flag with 38 laps to go. It changed a lot of pit stop strategy as most cars were waiting until later in the race to get their final splash of fuel.
The first 32 laps of the third stage was exciting three-wide racing with Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Byron all battling for the lead.
Ford certainly seemed to be having a good day after the second stage. Blaney got a late push from Elliott to propel him past teammate Austin Cindric to lead after 130 laps. Ford captured five of the top eight spots at the 130-lap point.
After Blaney and Cindric, other Ford drivers were Todd Gilliland (fifth), Chris Buescher (sixth) and Logano (eighth). Elliott was third and Alex Bowman was fourth.
The second stage started with a multi-car wreck on Lap 70. Ross Chastain and Martin Truex Jr. took their cars to the garage for repairs with hopes of returning. However, the damage to both cars put them out of the race.
“It’s always disappointing when you don’t finish no matter what the situation, especially in a race like this when it’s probably our only shot this year,” Truex said. “It was fun while it lasted but, unfortunately, we were just wrong place, wrong time.”
Helio Castroneves also sustained damage that sent him out. Busch was also collected in the accident. Busch incurred a penalty when his crew was over the wall too early between stages. It put him at the back of the pack, which in a few laps put him on the edge of the multi-car accident.
“I didn’t see the hit coming to the right rear,” Chastain said. “Of course, I take out my teammate (Castroneves) on my way to the wall.”
Others involved were Riley Herbst and Johnson. The seven-time champion Johnson was competitive in the later part of the race but got blocked in on pit road in the final stage. He had to back up to get out, costing him several spots. But he still rallied.
There was another Turn 1 debris caution around Lap 83. Most of the cars used the caution to pit during the four-lap yellow. After things went back to green there were 34 cars on the lead lap.
Logano had to deal with early issues to his engine. He went to the pits and it was discovered that a piece of debris went through the grill and into the throttle body area. Things were quickly repaired and he was able to get back on the lead lap — the caution flags helped.
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