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Daytona 500: William Byron wins wild NASCAR Cup opener as Ross Chastain wrecks

Byron, who had never finished better than 21st in the NASCAR Cup season opener, grabbed the lead from Ross Chastain on a restart with four of 200 laps remaining.

Byron had just taken the white flag – signaling the start of the final lap – when a multi-car wreck erupted behind him which forced NASCAR to immediately throw a caution, which froze the field.

That locked Byron, 26, into the victory in Monday’s rain-delayed “Great American Race” – the 302nd Cup win for HMS.

The win Byron’s 11th of his career and comes on the heels of his first appearance last season in the Championship 4 competing for a series title.

"It sounds really damn good.," Byron said when asked how it feels to be called a Daytona 500 champion. "Thanks to an awesome crowd for coming out. I have so many emotions.

"Obviously hate what happened on that backstretch (earlier). I just got pushed and got sideways. But so proud of this 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!"

Byron credited his No. 24 team's strategy throughout the race in getting him in position for the win. 

"We obviously laid back and tried to save fuel for most of the race, and we would get up there at the end of the stages and make some moves, but yeah, just thankful for great power under the hood, all of our partners, Chevrolet, everybody that allows us to do this." he said. 

"I'm just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500, I can't believe it. I wish my dad was here. He's sick, but this is for him, man. We've been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands together and watched the race. This is so freaking cool."

Chastain was behind Byron on the outside coming down the frontstretch when he attempted to cut to his inside for the lead but instead made contact with Austin Cindric, which triggered the final caution.

Byron’s Hendrick teammate, Alex Bowman ended up second, Christopher Bell was third, Corey LaJoie fourth and Bubba Wallace rallied from a late pit stop for fuel to finish fifth.

Completing the top-10 were A.J. Allmendinger, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson and Chase Briscoe.

Stage 1

Following some late green flag stops for fuel, Chase Elliott passed Kyle Busch on the last of 65 laps and claimed the Stage 1 win. Kyle Larson was second, Chastain third, Bowman fourth and Byron fifth as Chevrolets took the top six spots.

A lap 5 wreck collected seven cars and knocked Harrison Burton, Carson Hocevar and Kaz Grala out of the race early.

Stage 2

Ryan Blaney shoved Cindric to the lead, then passed him on the last lap and held on to take the Stage 2 win by 0.117 seconds.

Daniel Suarez was third, Busch – who led entering the last lap – was fourth and Reddick rounded out the top five. Busch rallied from a safety violation on his green flag pit stop to get back in contention for the stage victory.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all the lead lap cars elected to pit with Cindric first off pit road. Suarez was penalized by NASCAR for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.

During the break, Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet dropped to the apron of the track and appeared to be trailing smoke. He made it to pit road when it was discovered he was missing the lug nut on his left-front wheel.

The final stage went green on lap 137 and Cindric out front.

With 50 laps remaining, LaJoie and Busch battled side by side for the lead and two laps later Hamlin moved out front for the first time in the race.

A group of Fords led by Joey Logano used the inside line to power to the front with 36 laps to go.

Hemrick led a group of five cars from the back of the field to kick off the final round of green flag pit stops with 22 laps remaining. Most of the Toyota drivers followed a lap later.

Once the cycle of stops was completed, Suarez cycled to the lead with 14 laps remaining. He was followed by Byron and Elliott. 

On Lap 192, Byron hooked Brad Keselowski entering Turn 3 which sent Keselowski up the track and into Logano and triggered a huge wreck that ended up collecting 23 cars.

NASCAR red flagged the race for nearly 16 minutes to clean the track of debris. Several cars elected to pit but Chastain remained on the track and in the lead.

On the restart with four laps remaining, Chastain led the way followed by Byron, Bowman and Cindric. Byron quickly powered to the lead after the restart.

   
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Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Pits Points Retirement
1 United States W. Byron Hendrick Motorsports 24 Chevrolet 200

3:10'52.259

  10 51  
2 United States A. Bowman Hendrick Motorsports 48 Chevrolet 200

+0.006

3:10'52.265

0.006 13 42  
3 United States C. Bell Joe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 200

+1.390

3:10'53.649

1.384 11 34  
4 United States C. Lajoie Spire Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 200

+2.511

3:10'54.770

1.121 13 33  
5 United States B. Wallace 23XI Racing 23 Toyota 200

+2.614

3:10'54.873

0.103 14 39  
6 United States A. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 200

+2.615

3:10'54.874

0.001 12    
7 United States J. Nemechek Legacy Motor Club 42 Toyota 200

+3.416

3:10'55.675

0.801 13 30  
8 United States E. Jones Legacy Motor Club 43 Toyota 200

+4.478

3:10'56.737

1.062 11 29  
9 United States N. Gragson Stewart-Haas Racing 10 Ford 200

+4.711

3:10'56.970

0.233 12 28  
10 United States C. Briscoe Stewart-Haas Racing 14 Ford 200

+4.712

3:10'56.971

0.001 10 27  
11 United States K. Larson Hendrick Motorsports 5 Chevrolet 200

+5.300

3:10'57.559

0.588 11 35  
12 United States K. Busch Richard Childress Racing 8 Chevrolet 200

+6.501

3:10'58.760

1.201 11 37  
13
Z. Smith Spire Motorsports
71 Chevrolet 200

+7.174

3:10'59.433

0.673 11 24  
14 United States C. Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 200

+8.103

3:11'00.362

0.929 11 33  
15 United States M. Truex Jr Joe Gibbs Racing 19 Toyota 200

+11.562

3:11'03.821

3.459 11 24  
16 United States D. Hemric Kaulig Racing 31 Chevrolet 200

+12.121

3:11'04.380

0.559 12 21  
17
T. Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing
54 Toyota 200

+12.435

3:11'04.694

0.314 11 20  
18 United States C. Buescher RFK Racing 17 Ford 200

+25.745

3:11'18.004

13.310 13 20  
19 United States D. Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 11 Toyota 200

+27.333

3:11'19.592

1.588 14 22  
20 United States D. Ragan RFK Racing 60 Ford 200

+1'48.172

3:12'40.431

1'20.839 18 17  
21 United States R. Chastain TrackHouse Racing 1 Chevrolet 199

+1 Lap

3:09'43.990

1 Lap 9 24  
22 United States A. Cindric Team Penske 2 Ford 199

+1 Lap

3:09'44.239

0.249 9 24  
23 United States R. Preece Stewart-Haas Racing 41 Ford 199

+1 Lap

3:10'55.423

1'11.184 15 14  
24 United States R. Herbst Rick Ware Racing 15 Ford 199

+1 Lap

3:10'58.004

2.581 12    
25 J. Berry Stewart-Haas Racing 4 Ford 199

+1 Lap

3:11'00.755

2.751 10 12  
26 United States J. Haley Rick Ware Racing 51 Ford 199

+1 Lap

3:11'03.108

2.353 11 11  
27
A. Alfredo Beard Motorsports
62 Chevrolet 198

+2 Laps

3:11'18.305

1 Lap 11    
28 United States J. Johnson Legacy Motor Club 84 Toyota 196

+4 Laps

3:11'06.000

2 Laps 12 9  
29 United States T. Reddick 23XI Racing 45 Toyota 192

+8 Laps

2:56'37.956

4 Laps 15 14 Accident
30 United States R. Blaney Team Penske 12 Ford 192

+8 Laps

2:56'39.348

1.392 8 17 Accident
31 United States R. Stenhouse Jr JTG Daugherty Racing 47 Chevrolet 192

+8 Laps

2:56'59.552

20.204 17 9 Accident
32 United States J. Logano Team Penske 22 Ford 191

+9 Laps

2:55'01.089

1 Lap 8 5 Accident
33 United States B. Keselowski RFK Racing 6 Ford 191

+9 Laps

2:55'01.199

0.110 8 4 Accident
34 Mexico D. Suarez TrackHouse Racing 99 Chevrolet 191

+9 Laps

2:55'01.460

0.261 9 12 Accident
35 United States T. Gilliland Front Row Motorsports 38 Ford 191

+9 Laps

2:55'01.469

0.009 9 2 Accident
36 United States M. McDowell Front Row Motorsports 34 Ford 176

+24 Laps

3:12'10.503

15 Laps 14 1  
37 United States A. Dillon Richard Childress Racing 3 Chevrolet 146

+54 Laps

3:11'32.411

30 Laps 12 1  
38 United States K. Grala Front Row Motorsports 36 Ford 5

+195 Laps

4'06.110

141 Laps 3 1 Accident
39 United States H. Burton Wood Brothers Racing 21 Ford 5

+195 Laps

4'06.158

0.048 3 1 Accident
40
C. Hocevar Spire Motorsports
77 Chevrolet 5

+195 Laps

4'07.075

0.917 5 1 Accident
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