By Kent Whitaker
William Byron started the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season with a DNF at the Daytona 500. Talk about what a difference a year makes when it comes to erasing a bad memory! The driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports returned to Daytona International Speedway and won the Great American Race! The win was the eleventh of his Cup Series career and it came on a big stage and an exciting race.
Byron started the Daytona 500 race weekend by setting a qualifying run in the sixth spot. He followed that up with a disappointing 8th-place run in Dual race number two. That pushed Byron to the 18th position on the starting grid to start the race. Byron moved his car forward during the first stage from the middle of the pack to the 6th-position. It was a sign of things to come as he finished the day as the winner of the Daytona 500.
“I’m just a kid (who went from) from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500,” said Byron following his victory.
Stage One Starts with Havoc!
Joey Logano won the pole and was the leader for the first lap as he battled Michael McDowell. The two drivers swapped positions during the opening laps, but havoc was about to hit. Brad Keselowski was pushing John Hunter Nemechek, but the cars did not line up correctly. Nemechek turned down the track and collected Harrison Burton who then hit Carson Hocevar sending their cars into the infield grass. Other drivers included in the mayhem were Ryan Preece, Kaz Grala, and Austin Dillon with Jimmie Johnson getting minor damage.
The day was over for Grala, Burton, and Hocevar but others used the caution flag to unveil their pit strategies. The race resumed on lap 12 with two drivers who did not pit in the lead. Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney raced each other for the front spot neck and neck for multiple laps before Blaney took the lead on lap 31. His time as the leader did not last long as Logano made a solid move to once again be the leader. Soon after, Logano and several other cars dove to pit row for scheduled stops.
This opened the door for McDowell and Chase Elliott to battle for the front spot along with drivers such as Josh Berry, Bubba Wallace, Noah Gragson, and David Ragan. More cars cycled through the pits and back through the pack with Kyle Busch out front with only a few laps left in stage one. That was all the time Elliott needed as he made a late pass for the front spot and won Stage One of the 2024 Daytona 500.
Stage Two equals White Knuckle Racing
Stage Two started with Kyle Larson winning the battle off pit row to grab the front position for the restart. Larson and Berry went side by side for a dozen laps! This was the start of a Stage filled with lots of high-speed close-quarters green-flag racing. The battle between Larson and Berry, while exciting, allowed a line of cars to form up a fast third row headed by Logano. He took the lead with Todd Gilliland close behind. Larson held off Gilliland until lap 95 before Gilliland completed the pass for the front spot. This kicked off a series of lead changes wrapped around scheduled pit stops!
Martin Truex Jr. ran for the front spot, but Gilliland held Truex off. This allowed Bubba Wallace to make up ground and he drove to the front on lap 109. But Kyle Busch also had the same momentum as Wallace, and he powered to the front before the lap had ended sending Wallace back. Enter Ryan Preece who used a clean line to the outside to grab the lead topping off a daring number of lead changes!
Preece then headed to the pits kicking off a wild chain of events that included Berry and Nemechek getting together on pit lane with Berry getting turned into his box. This slowed down several drivers exiting and entering the pits. Kyle Larson emerged as the leader with Austin Cindric and Kyle Busch fighting him for the front spot. This kicked off a four-way battle for the Stage Two checkered flag.
Larson was in the lead heading into lap 120 but Cindric used a well-timed bump and momentum to grab the number one spot moments later. Within seconds, Kyle Busch made a white-knuckle move to the side of Cindric as he could not pull off a block. Busch moved to the front but Cindric, almost pulling a short-track move, used Busch’s aero-draft to regain the front. All of this happened only from lap 120 to 123!
Larson, Busch, and Cindric dominated the final laps of Stage Two. However, a fourth driver had eyes for the front spot. As Busch and Cindric swapped the lead a few times they allowed Ryan Blaney to get a huge run coming down the backstretch. Blaney made his move, powered alongside the leaders, and dove to the bottom rounding turn four. Blaney grabbed the Stage Two win ending a throttle wide-open series of laps.
Stage Three and the Big One
The action for Stage Three started before the green flag waved. Kyle Busch seemed to have a fast pit stop but there was a problem as one of his wheels was loose. Busch had to circle the track, re-pit, and start the final stage near the back instead of upfront. Austin Cindric started in the front spot with Bubba Wallace to his side.
It looked like a repeat of exciting green flag racing as seen in Stage Two would continue as Wallace and Cindric swapped the lead with A. J. Allmendinger managed to break their stronghold on lap 140. This is when things heated up! A group of drivers, with Kyle Busch back towards the front of the pack battled for the lead. Busch was the leader with only fifty laps before Corey LaJoie and Denny Hamlin took their turns at the front with several drivers making hair-raising passes for the lead.
A warning of things to come from having so much action at the front occurred during one of the moves for the front. After losing momentum and catching some dirty air, Busch made a hard rub against the outside wall. Busch quickly gathered his car in and slid back into the draft. Green-flag pit stops began as Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano became the leaders.
With only thirty laps to go the front spot became a busy place. Hamlin, Logano, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suárez, and 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would lead the race. This type of racing would continue until lap 9 when a huge wreck, often called the “Big One” at tracks such as Talladega and Daytona, occurred. Alex Bowman and William Byron connected at the wrong spot during a push sending Byron down the track and clipping Brad Keselowski. This kicked off a massive wreck of twenty-three cars in the pack and a red flag stoppage that lasted over fifteen minutes. When the race restarted with four laps to go there were only twenty-two cars still on the lead lap. Many of them had suffered at least minor damage.
Chastain started the final run as the leader with Byron close by. Byron used speed down the back stretch to gather energy and took the lead from Chastain with only two laps left in the 2024 Daytona 500. Chastain was not done as he sprinted back for another shot at the lead but during his pass, he contacted Austin Cindric sending both cars careening into the tri-oval. This left Byron and William Bowman nose to nose as the caution came out, but the leaders had already taken the white flag which meant the race was over.
NASCAR officials scored William Byron as the leader when the yellow flag flew making him the winner of the 2024 Daytona 500 with teammate Alex Bowman finishing second. Christopher Bell, Corey LaJoie, and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five positions.
“I can’t believe it. I wish my dad was here. He’s sick, but this is for him, man,” Byron said. “We’ve been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands together and watched the race (when Byron was younger). This is so freaking cool.”
Beating the Oddsmakers
Here are the opening odds that were available just before the race started.
Denny Hamlin +900
Joey Logano +1200
Ryan Blaney +1200
Kyle Busch +1200
Brad Keselowski +1300
Chase Elliott +1500
Kyle Larson +1600
Christopher Bell +1800
Martin Truex Jr. +1800
William Byron +2000
Bubba Wallace +2000
Stage One Winners
- Chase Elliott
- Kyle Larson
- Ross Chastain
- Alex Bowman
- William Byron
- Kyle Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Bubba Wallace
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Daniel Suárez
Stage Two Winners - Ryan Blaney
- Austin Cindric
- Daniel Suárez
- Kyle Busch
- Tyler Reddick
- William Byron
- Bubba Wallace
- A. J. Allmendinger
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chris Buescher
Official Finishing Order 2024 Daytona 500 - William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet, lap 200, Running
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota, 200, Running
- Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota, 200, Running
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota, 200, Running
- Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota, 200, Running
- Noah Gragson, No. 10 Ford, 200, Running
- Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Ford, 200, Running
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Zane Smith, No. 71 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Toyota, 200, Running
- Daniel Hemric, No. 31 Chevrolet, 200, Running
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota, 200, Running
- Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford, 200, Running
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, 200, Running
- David Ragan, No. 60 Ford, 200, Running
- Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet, 199, Running
- Austin Cindric, No. 2 Ford, 199, Running
- Ryan Preece, No. 41 Ford, 199, Running
- Riley Herbst, No. 15 Ford, 199, Running
- Josh Berry, No. 4 Ford, 199, Running
- Justin Haley, No. 51 Ford, 199, Running
- Anthony Alfredo, No. 62 Chevrolet, 198, Running
- Jimmie Johnson, No. 84 Toyota, 196, Running
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota, 192, Accident
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford, 192, Accident
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Chevrolet, 192, Accident
- Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, 191, Accident
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford, 191, Accident
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet, 191, Accident
- Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Ford, 191, Accident
- Michael McDowell, No. 34 Ford, 176, Running
- Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, 146, Running
- Kaz Grala, No. 36 Ford, 5, Accident
- Harrison Burton, No. 21 Ford, 5, Accident
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet, 5, Accident
2024 Daytona 500 Stats via NASCAR Stats
In all, only thirty of the 40 cars that started the 20243 Daytona 500 finished the race. A total of nineteen drivers crossed the finish line on the lead lap. Ten cars were behind the wall at the finish of the race.
Time of race: 3:10:52
Average speed: 157.178 mph
Pole speed: 181.947 mph
Cautions: five for 20 laps
Lead changes: 41.
Most Laps as the Leader: Joey Logano/45
Green flag passes: 11,922 (66.2 per green flag lap)
NASCAR
“Kent Whitaker, often called ‘the Deck Chef’ is a sportswriter, culinary writer, and cookbook author with fourteen titles. He covers NASCAR, racing in general, Football, barbecue, grilling, and tailgating. You can visit him at www.thedeckchef.com .”