William Byron races to second straight Daytona 500 victory - ESPN

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — William Byron raced to his second straight Daytona 500 win, dodging 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 was in the right place by racing near the outside wall in overtime to became the first back-to-back winner since Denny Hamlin in 2019 and 2020.

Byron 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.

«It's obviously really special,» Byron said. «It's an amazing race, and obviously a lot of crazy racing out there tonight and just a lot of pushing and shoving.»

The 27-year-old Byron held on to win after two weather delays totaling more than 3½ 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.»

Austin Cindric held the lead headed to the white flag when he was wiped out in crash that took out a slew of drivers including Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Alex Bowman. It was sixth time in the past eight Daytona 500s that the race spilled into overtime, setting up Byron to become the fifth driver to win it in consecutive years.

Byron won for the 14th time in his Cup career then set his