Byron, 12th in Daytona: Dreamed of the Triple, Reddick is Crowned

In Daytona Beach, Florida, William Byron got out of his wrecked Chevrolet in the pit lane, looked at the scoreboard, and shook his head. For the first time in three years, Byron and his number 24 did not lead in the Daytona 500. However, Byron was as surprised as anyone to have a chance, even briefly running at the front, in the final laps on Sunday.

Winning the NASCAR Cup Series opening race for a third consecutive year would have required even more luck than anything Byron enjoyed in 2024 and 2025 at Daytona International Speedway. Four other NASCAR drivers, Richard Petty (1975), Cale Yarborough (1985), Sterling Marlin (1996), and Denny Hamlin (2021), have won the Daytona 500 in consecutive years, only to fall short in the attempt to achieve a “3-peat”.

Byron could have been the first, and his car wasn’t even going straight for most of the day, but there he was with a chance to make history on the final stretch. Byron was involved in three crashes, including one in the first 15 laps that made him think his day was over, but he recovered to finish in 12th place. Tyler Reddick won and celebrated in Victory Lane, the place that Byron had gotten used to visiting in Daytona.

“It was wild,” Byron said. “I really couldn’t believe we had a chance at the end. That was incredible.”

William Byron

Byron, 28, bent the front right suspension of his car when B.J. McLeod spun out in front of him and forced him to hit the outside wall early in the race. He later tangled with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, and was involved in another scuffle on the final lap. Everything added up to the team’s week full of adversity. Byron crashed in a qualifying race on Thursday night, had to switch to a backup car, and was forced to start the 500 from the back of the grid.

“The early contact, really, I thought it was going to be the end of our competitive day,” Byron said. “We just did a good job patching it up.”

William Byron

With three laps to go, I was fighting for the lead.

“I thought I was in the catbird seat,” Byron said. “I was like, ‘Man, everyone’s just going to keep blocking and moving up from the bottom.’ I thought this could be perfect. It just didn’t materialize that way.”

William Byron

Byron won last year’s race in overtime after Hamlin went wide on the last lap, which caused a multi-car crash. Byron ended up passing eight cars on the last lap to return to Victory Lane. He led only 10 laps the previous year and ended up winning after taking advantage of late crashes. He almost did it again, being in the right place at the right time and missing all the carnage that eliminated several contenders, including Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, and Michael McDowell.

“Simply incredible that we were even in the race,” Byron said.

William Byron