By Aaron Bearden

Takeaways from Monday’s rain-delayed Daytona 500, the season-opening race for the NASCAR Cup Series. 

Main Takeaway

It’s tricky to be a star driver for Hendrick Motorsports. Yes, you’ve got some of the best equipment in the garage. But the expectations are as immense as the talent of your teammates. 

That’s why William Byron has been overshadowed for much of his young Cup career. The 26-year-old arrived at the organization in 2018, when Jimmie Johnson was still around and Chase Elliott was finally breaking out. He improved during his early years, but did so as Elliott won the 2020 title, Kyle Larson arrived in all-time dominant fashion in 2021 and Alex Bowman notched a four-win season of his own in the same year. 

Byron has since arguably pulled clear of Bowman. But Elliott remains NASCAR’s most popular driver and Larson perhaps America’s top racing star. 

So Byron has remained a quiet force for Hendrick, even as he notched a series-best six wins and made the Championship 4 in 2023. “The other guy,” as he called himself during a post-race media availability. 

But on Monday, as the caution flag waved for an accident directly behind him, Byron achieved something no one else in the active Hendrick squad has. He became a champion of NASCAR’s biggest race, the Daytona 500. 

It was a dream result for a driver that started racing on the computer and honed his craft on short tracks in his early teenage years—later than most that make it to the Cup level. 

He kicked off Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary season by becoming the team’s first winner of the ‘Great American Race’ since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2014. The result helped Hendrick tie Petty Enterprises for the most 500 wins (nine) in NASCAR history. 

In fitting fashion, Byron had to wait to confirm he’d actually won the race. One of his teammates, Bowman, was alongside him as the caution flag waved. He kept asking repeatedly if he’d won. 

“No one told me,” Byron said. “(Crew chief Rudy Fugle) was crying on the radio, and I was like, dude — I hope he’s crying for a good reason. But I guess he was. He was a ball of emotion there.

“I was still like, did we actually win or not, and then I think Branden (Lines, spotter) came on the radio and said that we were first. It still hasn’t sunk in yet, so I feel like it’s just kind of a blur, and I feel like there’s just so many things that have to go your way to win a race like this.

“It’s special. This is the biggest race. Stuff happens so fast.”

With the victory comes a chance for Byron to keep building on his own fanbase. Claiming the Daytona 500 is a result that sticks with a competitor for the rest of their lives. Does so right after a breakout season leaves Byron poised to become one of NASCAR’s great modern drivers. 

“It is 2024, and the 24 is always going to be very, very special to me,” Jeff Gordon said after Byron’s win. “But what I loved the most is seeing him make it his number and building that fan base not only — 24 fans have been around for a long time, but his own fans.

“A win like this, my gosh, this is going to elevate that up to the next level and bring a whole lot more new fans to the sport and for William. That’s what I get excited and look forward to.” 

As the year goes on, Byron’s teammates will surely make headlines. Larson is running the Indianapolis 500. Elliott and Bowman are looking to return to form after an injury-plagued 2023 season. Any of the three could be title contenders. 

But for one beautiful Monday evening in Daytona Beach, the spotlight was all Byron’s. 

Finally. 

Good, Bad and Ugly

Bad: Mother Nature wins the weekend

 It takes a lot to feel sorry for a sanctioning body or those that make a living in sports. But it’s hard not to show some sympathy for NASCAR at the start of 2024. 

Fresh off the “NASCAR: FULL SPEED” series on Netflix, NASCAR has seen two of the drivers showcased on that show — Denny Hamlin and Byron — win the year’s first Cup races. 

There’s just been one problem – they’ve not been held at the times expected for people to see them because of weather. 

First NASCAR had to shift its Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum up an entire day to dodge flood-level rain in California, shifting the race down to cable (FS1) and drastically altering the race format. Two week’s later the sport’s biggest race weekend was a wash, pushed to Monday by continual storms in Florida. 

There isn’t much more the sanctioning body could have done in either case. It’s just unfortunate for a series looking to capitalize on the Netflix show and build early momentum. 

Good: Fans still show

While rain sullied most of race weekend in Daytona, credit is due for the fans that managed to stick around. There was still a solid contingent of supporters watching from the front stretch grandstands on Monday. 

 

Bad: Contenders out early

One of the joys of superspeedway races for fans is their unpredictability. Not just that anyone with pace could conceivably win, but that a mistake, blown tire or errant push could bring an end to someone’s day at any moment. 

For a small group of contenders on Monday, that end came just six laps into the race.

The field was running three-wide early to conserve fuel when a push on the high lane from Brad Keselowski sent Legacy Motor Club newcomer John Hunter Nemechek sliding down the track. He quickly collided with Harrison Burton, setting off a crash that also included rookie Carson Hocevar, Kaz Grala, Austin Dillon and Jimmie Johnson. 

Hocevar, Burton and Grala were knocked out of the race. Dillon and Johnson continued on, but were severely hampered by their damage. Only Nemechek emerged relatively unscathed, salvaging a seventh-place run at race’s end. 

Ugly: Poor finishes all around

That same unpredictable nature of superspeedway races means you never know when the event’s going to end after the white flag is taken. A poor move could cause a race-ending crash at any second, leaving competitors unsure of whether they should lead at the start of the lap or try to save a move for the end. 

But in recent years, chaos has been the predicted outcome. Such was the case all weekend in Daytona. 

Byron’s race-winning moments were emblematic of the messiness of modern superspeedway racing. Before they ever got to the white flag, eventual 1-2 finishers Byron and Bowman played a key role in a 22-car melee that decimated the field with nine to go. 

Byron was making a three-wide move between Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski when a push from Bowman kicked him slightly sideways. He turned Keselowski up into Logano and set off the ‘Big One,’ quickly shortening the field of contenders. 

“I feel really bad about that,” Byron said. “Things were getting really intense with our pushes, and I felt like it was getting to the point where I couldn’t handle all the pushes and you just try to get through those moments.”

Still in contention to win, Byron quickly shook off the wreck and surged to the front in the final laps. He was leading a charging Ross Chastain coming to the white flag when Chastain dove low. But Austin Cindric was under Chastain and a push from Corey LaJoie sent him into the Trackhouse Racing star. 

With a quick trigger finger, NASCAR could have thrown a caution and sent the race to overtime. But it let the crash play out, hoping both drivers would stay in the grass. When Cindric slid back up the track moments later, it forced the sanctioning body to display the caution. 

Because he’d already taken the white flag and still narrowly led Bowman, Byron was declared the winner. 

That was the biggest deflating finish of the weekend, but far from the only one. 

The ensuing Xfinity Series race was hampered by a big crash, though NASCAR elected to leave the race green while Austin Hill cruised to the win. 

Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race was ended by another massive crash, kicked off by contact in the battle for second. Nick Sanchez earned his first win under caution.

Even the ARCA Menards Series race was ended early, called in Turn 3 after a fiery shunt. 

Given four chances to reach the checkered flag, stock car racing’s best only made it once—and that one arguably should have been called off beforehand, too. Such is the state of modern superspeedway racing. 

Good: Honor among competitors

For those that listen to NASCAR on the radio, there are two key groups broadcasting each race. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) handles coverage for races at NASCAR’s tracks, while the Performance Racing Network (PRN) broadcasts races at venues owned by Speedway Motorsports, LLC. 

For longtime members of either group, that means there are some tracks or races they rarely, if ever, get a chance to cover. That made what happened Monday in Daytona special. 

PRN stalwart Doug Rice has done much during his decades-long tenure in NASCAR, but he’d never been able to call the Daytona 500. But heading into his final season in the broadcast booth, MRN decided to fix that. 

Rice was brought in to call a portion of Monday’s race, checking the event off his racing bucket list. 

Notes

  • Byron is a former winner at Daytona, but this is his first time finding any luck in the 500. His best finish in the Great American Race before Monday was 21st. 
  • Monday marked Bubba Wallace’s third top-five in seven Daytona 500 starts. 
  • Both Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman have finished in the top-five of the 500 in back-to-back years. Bell finished third both times, while Bowman finished fifth in 2023 and second on Monday. 
  • Corey LaJoie’s fourth-place finish tied his career-best result. All four of his Cup top-fives have come in drafting races. 
  • Legacy Motor Club quietly salvaged a good day in Daytona. Team co-owner Jimmie Johnson was knocked out of contention early, but both Nemechek and Erik Jones earned top-10s. 
  • Nemechek and fellow top-10 finisher AJ Allmendinger also completed the full Xfinity Series race, running 800 miles on Monday afternoon. 
  • Noah Gragson finished ninth in his Stewart-Haas Racing debut. It was just his second top-10 in 40 Cup starts. Both have come at Daytona—the first was a fifth-place run in the summer 2022 race for Beard Motorsports. 
  • Monday’s race had just five cautions, including stage breaks. That’s the fewest in a Daytona 500 since Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2004 win. 

Race Results

  1. William Byron
  2. Alex Bowman
  3. Christopher Bell
  4. Corey LaJoie
  5. Bubba Wallace
  6. AJ Allmendinger
  7. John Hunter Nemechek
  8. Erik Jones
  9. Noah Gragson
  10. Chase Briscoe
  11. Kyle Larson
  12. Kyle Busch
  13. Zane Smith
  14. Chase Elliott
  15. Martin Truex Jr.
  16. Daniel Hemric
  17. Ty Gibbs
  18. Chris Buescher
  19. Denny Hamlin
  20. David Ragan
  21. Ross Chastain
  22. Austin Cindric
  23. Ryan Preece
  24. Riley Herbst
  25. Josh Berry
  26. Justin Haley
  27. Anthony Alfredo
  28. Jimmie Johnson
  29. Tyler Reddick
  30. Ryan Blaney
  31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  32. Joey Logano
  33. Brad Keselowski
  34. Daniel Suarez
  35. Todd Gilliland
  36. Michael McDowell
  37. Austin Dillon
  38. Kaz Grala
  39. Harrison Burton
  40. Carson Hocevar

Stage 1

  1. Chase Elliott
  2. Kyle Larson
  3. Ross Chastain
  4. Alex Bowman
  5. William Byron
  6. Kyle Busch
  7. Denny Hamlin
  8. Bubba Wallace
  9. Martin Truex Jr.
  10. Daniel Suarez

Stage 2

  1. Ryan Blaney
  2. Austin Cindric
  3. Daniel Suarez
  4. Kyle Busch
  5. Tyler Reddick
  6. William Byron
  7. Bubba Wallace
  8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  9. AJ Allmendinger
  10. Chris Buescher

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Daytona 500 2024 William Byron