For the second straight year William Byron of Charlotte, North Carolina has won the Daytona 500. The Hendrick Motorsports racer who drives a Chevrolet, qualified fifth on the starting grid as he was second in Duel 1, only behind Bubba Wallace of Mobile, Alabama.
Byron led only 10 laps. However he led the right lap, as he was able to not be impacted by a crash in the latter part of the race involving Cole Custer of Ladera Ranch, California, Denny Hamlin of Tampa, Florida and Austin Cidric of Columbus, Ohio. The post race comments by the racers were quite testy, as Hamlin blamed Custer for the late crash. If it was a clean finish, it was expected to be a battle to the finish line between Cidric and Hamlin. However, that was not the case, and as a result, Byron who was not impacted by the crash, was able to get to the finish line first unscathed.
