There was more to William Byron’s second straight Daytona 500 victory on Sunday night than just luck. There was a fast car and hard racing, of course. But there was also something providential about the way his number 24 Chevrolet took the checkered flag—almost like someone was running supernatural interference for him. Twice in the race’s final laps, Byron was nearly taken out by the types of catastrophic wrecks that have made the Great American Race such a captivating crapshoot. And twice he avoided disaster by the narrowest of margins. When he found himself in the lead after the second, he was as surprised as anyone.
“Crazy,” he said in the moments after his victory. “I can’t honestly believe that.”
