William Bryon survives late wrecks to win 2nd straight Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla (AP) — William Byron raced to his second straight Daytona 500 victory, surviving a string of late-race wrecks that knocked out a chunk of contenders and sent the Hendrick Motorsports driver into victory lane Sunday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Ninth in the No. 24 Chevrolet with one lap left, Byron became the first back-to-back winner since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20.

Bryon took advantage of another wreck on the final lap — NASCAR did not drop the caution and let the field race to the finish — and took another, familiar burnout in Daytona International Speedway.

The 27-year-old Byron held on to win after two weather delays totaling more than 3 1/2 hours, and with President Donald Trump set to watch the rest of the race in Florida, after he earlier led drivers on two laps around the track in his heavily armored presidential limousine known in Washington as “The Beast.”

Hendrick Motorsports won its 10th Daytona 500 to break a tie with Petty Enterprises for the record.

“Just obviously fortunate it worked out in our favor,” Byron said. “Crazy? Yeah. I can’t honestly believe that but we’re here.”

It wouldn’t be Daytona without the ferocious late wrecks down the stretch that inevitably send the race into overtime.

With four laps left, Ryan Preece turned upside-down and essentially did a wheelie in his No. 60 Ford. His car flipped onto its roof and turned back onto its tires before hitting the outside wall. Preece dropped his safety net to signal to crews he was OK.

Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski all had their shots at victory lane spoiled, and the race was red-flagged, just 11 laps after another big one shuffled the field and knocked four former Cup Series champions out of contention.

Reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse started the multi-car melee when Logano moved to the middle and Stenhouse moved to block him. It stacked up Logano, and the accordion effect sent several cars — including ones belonging to former Cup champs Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott — sliding in every direction.

Busch’s car ended up on a wrecker, extending his skid to 0 for 20 in “The Great American Race.”

Tyler Reddick was second and two-time Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson was third.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing