Byron Eludes Chaos, Repeats as Daytona 500 Champion

William Byron, driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2025 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Ultimately, Sunday’s Daytona 500 came down to survival, with many potentially winning cars and drivers being eliminated in multi-car crashes in the final laps of NASCAR’s Cup Series season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway.

Running in seventh place on the white flag lap of overtime, William Byron avoided the race’s final pileup to win his second consecutive Daytona 500.

“Yeah, obviously some good fortune, but just trusted my instincts on the last lap there. I felt like they were getting squirrelly on the bottom and I was honestly going to go third lane regardless because I was probably sixth coming down the back(stretch).

“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.”

For the second year in a row, Byron put himself in position to win and took advantage of circumstances and crashes when they occurred. Byron could have just as easily been involved in any of the wrecks in the last fifty miles, but once again, luck was on his side.

“Well, I think you can’t underestimate the amount of preparation and teamwork that we had throughout the week,” Byron countered. “We had an awesome car today. We just didn’t have the track position to show it, and the way the fuel savings and strategy worked out.

“Last year was kind of the opposite. We were always up front, and this year just wasn’t that way. I felt like for us we were trying to stay positive, and I felt like each restart there at the end we were still optimistic about our chances to get forward.

“Obviously it worked out in a fortunate way for us, but it’s not all luck to win twice in a row. It’s a lot of teamwork and a lot of talking with my spotter and us three working together and making the most of it.

“Definitely fortunate but definitely a lot of teamwork."

William Byron, driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

All during the week leading up to Sunday’s race, the 27-year-old Byron appeared to have a certain confidence about himself having won it last year.

“Well, I thought it was going to help. I don’t think it really helped me throughout the race, honestly, looking at the way it unfolded. But I think towards the end of the race I knew how to get the best finish. I knew what situations I wanted to put myself in. I was kind of confident in where I was going to choose on the restarts and things like that.

“I think that comes — anytime you win, that’s what happens. When you face adversity you’ve kind of been there and experienced it.

“That honestly was it, really. I think it didn’t really change a lot on the racetrack besides that and just kind of throughout the week probably our conversations and being confident in what I needed.”

That’s not to say that Byron felt he was very much in the race as all the craziness was unfolding around him as the final laps of the race clicked off.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I just feel like our team, we have a really good process. If you look at our results at the end of last year, I just feel like this team is really experienced and capable of overcoming adversity. The way we ended last year and the consistency and just — I never feel like we’re out of it.

“So it’s just — all week I felt like we were doing everything we needed to do to get to this point. The race didn’t go like that, so I was kind of steaming inside the helmet.

“But I think that our team is plenty capable of just putting races like this together, and we’re never out of it. That’s what I want our team to be like is experienced and tough, and I feel like there’s no race that we can’t kind of overcome adversity.”

William Byron, driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet, Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards/Peak Ford and Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald's Toyota race during the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Bryon’s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports, Rudy Fugle, has been with him going back to their days in NASCAR’s truck series. According to Fugle, the success the two have achieved together has a lot to do with the trust they have in each other.

“Yeah, I think this is our 20th win together, so that’s pretty amazing if you count them all together.”

“It’s special just because of our relationship and our trust in each other and how we respect each other and grow. We don’t get stale. We’re not afraid to talk to each other and get through things. That is just a mutual respect to be mature and get through things.

“Then personally, last year that win brought me to tears. And then this win, it brought me to laughter is what I said just because — I looked up and we’re getting ready to win, and it was just amazing. Here we were. Two totally different emotions.

“If we build a good enough team, things like this happen more times than not, and that’s what we’ve been working on. It’ll hopefully just become easier and easier as we go.”

William Byron, driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Jeff Gordon, now vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, won three Daytona 500s. With his win, Sunday, Byron is creating his own legacy in the No. 24 car and has broken Gordon’s record as the youngest winner with two Daytona 500 victories back-to-back.

“I hope he breaks them all. I’m (in) full support of that,” said Gordon, who believes with the synergy that Byron and Fugle have, good things will continue to happen.

“We talk all the time about how quickly he’s risen through the ranks and won races and championships and continues to do it at the elite level in Cup. I mean, (Fugle) I think has a lot to do with it.

“Rudy is just such an amazing crew chief. And when you get that combination of great talent like William’s talent, like Rudy’s, and then put the team together with it, the resources that we have, magical things happen. You couldn’t ask for it to happen to better people, too.

“William is just a great guy and cares a lot about the sport and the team, and so you wish good things for them.

“I was telling them, you must be living right because the seas parted today.”

While some might question whether Byron really earned his win Sunday, he refused to think of it as a fluke.

“Everyone in this series is so incredibly good that there is never a fluke in this series.

“When you get around this long enough, you respect everyone that you race against and what it takes. But I didn’t know how to feel after we took the checkered. Last year was a little bit — it was definitely easier to understand the emotions. But this year was different. I just didn’t know how to feel when we took the checkered.

“But as it sets in, you can’t take the win away. It is what it is, and we’re going to enjoy it as a team because there’s so much hard work that goes into it.

“That’s how I feel about it.”