William Byron wins second consecutive Daytona 500

William Byron won his second consecutive Daytona 500, dodging a last-lap wreck that collected several contenders.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver became the first back-to-back winner of The Great American Race since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20 and the fifth driver in history to win consecutive Daytona 500s.

Austin Cindric was leading heading to the white flag, but he was collected in a crash that started when Cole Custer slammed into Hamlin, who was passing Cindric for the lead. The contact caused a chain reaction that also involved Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Corey LaJoie and pole-sitter Chase Briscoe.

Byron was running ninth entering the last lap, and he darted high in his No. 24 Chevrolet to avoid the massive wreck.

“Yeah, obviously some good fortune, but I just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,” Byron told Fox Sports after his 14th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. “I felt like they were getting squirrelly on the bottom. Just obviously fortunate that it worked out in our favor. But just really proud of this team. Worked super hard all week and had an amazing car. Just had a really hard time with the fuel saving and kind of staying towards the front. Crazy. I can’t honestly believe that. But we’re here. So proud of it.”

Byron, 27, became the youngest driver to win multiple Daytona 500s, breaking the record held by Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, who also drove the No. 24 Chevy.

“It’s obviously really special,” said Byron, who has two wins and six finishes of 21st or worse in his eight Daytona 500 starts. “It’s an amazing race, and obviously a lot of crazy racing out there tonight and just a lot of pushing and shoving. But just really proud of our team. I can’t stress that enough. I’m just super thankful for this group and everything that they do in the offseason to get prepared.

“We plan on trying to win a lot of races this year, so we’re not going to stop here. We’re going to continue to push forward and try to get to (the championship race at) Phoenix.”

Tyler Reddick finished second, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Briscoe and John Hunter Nemechek.

The race went into overtime three laps past the scheduled distance because of a caution on Lap 197 for a multicar crash in which Ryan Preece’s No. 60 Ford flipped over, landed on its roof and then violently back on its wheels.

Ryan Preece survives another airborne crash at Daytona: ‘I’m lucky to walk away’

The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver was unhurt after the wreck late in the Daytona 500.

The 10-car crash brought out the third red flag of the race (the first two were for rain).

Preece, who went airborne in a terrifying wreck at Daytona in August 2023, was able to walk away. The incident began when Bell lost control after a push from Custer, and his No. 20 Toyota turned into the right side of Preece’s car, which went up in the air on its rear wheels for a few seconds before beginning to tumble.

Several contenders were eliminated by an eight-car crash on the backstretch on Lap 186 of a scheduled 200.

The incident started when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. attempted to block Joey Logano and made contact, causing spins that collected Joey Logano, Noah Gragson, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Todd Gilliland and Cole Custer.

The wreck eliminated Penske teammates Blaney (22 laps led) and Logano (43 laps led), who had won the first two stages.

Stage 1 winner: Joey Logano

Stage 2 winner: Ryan Blaney

Next: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 23, 3 p.m. ET, Fox