William Byron races for the lead late but comes up short in Daytona 500 threepeat bid

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — William Byron climbed out of his mangled Chevrolet on pit road, looked up at the nearby scoring pylon and shook his head.

For the first time in three years, Byron and his No. 24 weren’t on top at the Daytona 500.

But Byron was as surprised as anyone that he had a chance — even briefly running up front — in the waning laps Sunday.

Winning the NASCAR Cup Series opener for the third consecutive year would have taken even more luck than anything Byron enjoyed in 2024 and 2025 at Daytona International Speedway. His car wouldn’t even drive straight for most of the day. Yet there he was with a shot at history down the stretch.

Byron came up short in his bid to become the first driver to win three consecutive Daytona 500s. He was involved in three wrecks, including one in the opening 15 laps that left him thinking his day was done, but rallied to finish 12th. Tyler Reddick won and celebrated in victory lane — the place Byron had grown accustomed to visiting at Daytona.

“It was wild,” Byron said. “I just really couldn’t believe we had a shot there at the end. That was amazing.”

The 28-year-old Byron bent the right front suspension in his car when B.J. McLeod spun in front of him and forced him into the outside wall early in the race. He tangled with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman later and got caught up in another melee on the final lap.

All of them piled onto the team’s adversity-filled week. Byron crashed in a qualifying race Thursday night, had to switch to backup car and was forced to start the 500 from the rear of the field.

“The early crash, really, I thought was going to be the end of our competitive day,” he said. “We just did a good job patching it up.”

With three laps to go, he was racing for the lead.

“I thought I was in the catbird seat,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man, everyone’s going to continue to block and move up off the bottom.’ I thought this could be perfect. It just didn’t materialize that way.”

Byron won last year’s race in overtime after race leader Denny Hamlin got spun on the final lap, igniting a multicar crash. Byron ended up passing eight cars on the last lap to return to victory lane. He led just 10 laps the previous year and ended up in victory lane after taking advantage of late wrecks.

He nearly pulled it off again, being in the right place at the right time and missing all the carnage that took out several contenders, including Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell.

“Just kind of incredible that we were even in the race,” Byron said.

Byron was trying to accomplish something four others tried and failed to do in the 68 years of “The Great American Race.” Richard Petty in 1975, Cale Yarborough in 1985, Sterling Marlin in 1996 and Hamlin in 2021 all came up short in threepeat bids at NASCAR’s signature event. Now Byron joins them in proving just how difficult it is to win at the famed superspeedway.

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