What could be more difficult than winning the Daytona 500 once? Why win it twice.
It took hours or an accident on the turn of the White Flag for William Byron to win his second Daytona 500 consecutive on Sunday. Byron was ninth in the last round in overtime when Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe contacted, which turned many cars. Byron remained standing near the wall and got into victory.
Tyler Reddick was second and in tribute to the past, Jimmie Johnson, finished third. Briscoe finished fourth and John Hunter Nemechek finished fifth. The five best cars were toyotas, except byron, which led a chevrolet.
With five laps to go, Christopher Bell put Hamlin for the head when he detached outside, hit the wall and then wreaked havoc with the cars at the back of him. It was the wreckage that forced the race for extensions.
Ryan Preece obtained the worst of this in the accident of nine cars as he spotted himself in the backstretch, partly upside down, before recovering and resting. Preece, and all the other wreck drivers, were not seriously injured and were released from the interior care center.
Some of the biggest names in sport have come out with 15 laps to do. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch were all collected in a wreck of 10 cars that destroyed all hope of winning the race. The accident started when Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were both going for the same space with neither of the two who wanted to go. What has been returned is their chance to win.
He also mixed the front of the peloton and Corey Lajoie took the lead, at least for a while.
It was particularly disappointing for Busch, which ran in its 20th Daytona 500, all without victory.
The already tight race was even closer when the debris on the round 1 caused a prudence flag with 38 laps to do. This changed a lot of strategy in Stop because most cars were waiting later in the race to get their last touch of fuel.
The first 32 laps of the third stage were races of three large exciting with Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Byron fighting for the head.
Ford certainly seemed to have a good day after the second stage. Blaney obtained a late thrust from Elliott to propel him by his teammate Austin Cindric to lead after 130 laps. Ford captured five of the first eight places to the point of 130 laps.
After Blaney and Cindric, other Ford drivers were Todd Gilliland (fifth), Chris Buescher (sixth) and Logano (eighth). Elliott finished third and Alex Bowman finished fourth.
The second step started with a multi-tower wreck in turn 70. Ross Chastain and Martin Truex Jr. took their cars to the garage for repairs in the hope of coming back. However, damage to the two cars put them out of the race.
“It’s always disappointing when you do not finish whatever the situation, especially in a race like this when it is probably our only blow this year,” said Truex. “It was fun while it lasted but, unfortunately, we were just bad, bad weather.”
Helio Castroneves also underwent damage that sent him. Busch was also collected in the accident. Busch started a penalty when his crew was above the wall too early between the stages. This put him at the back of the peloton, which, in a few laps, put it on the edge of the multi-carvitation accident.
“I did not see the blow arriving at the right back,” said Chastain. “Of course, I take out my teammate (Castroneves) on my way to the wall.”
Others involved were Riley Herbst and Johnson. The seven times champion Johnson was competitive in the last part of the race, but was blocked on Pit Road in the last stage. He had to go back to go out, cost him several places. But he has always rallied.
There was another Tour of Tour 1 Debris around the Tour 83. Most cars used caution to get in yellow on four laps. After things returned to Green, there were 34 cars on tours in the lead.
Logano had to face the first problems of his engine. He went to the stands and it was discovered that a piece of debris passed through the grill and in the area of the accelerator body. Things were quickly repaired and he was able to return to the head of the head – the caution flags helped.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
