Against all odds, young driver William Byron raced to a consecutive victory on Sunday night at Daytona 500 International Speedway.
Just before the final lap, Byron and his supporters had given up hope as the young rider sat pretty in ninth position with one lap to go and overtime finish.
When one more driver crashed, the defending Daytona champion moved to eight with one clear final lap to go. By now, he had also given up on getting the first three positions. However, things started looking up for the young driver soon enough.
While racing near the outside wall in the final lap, Byron was able to avoid a late crash that affected most of the drivers in the final lap and just like that, William clinched his second straight victory at the Daytona.
He is the first consecutive winner since Denny Hamlin back in 2019-20 and the youngest to take the crown.
“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.”
A lot of fans wondered if William was just lucky to avoid every crash that took place. “It’s not all luck to win twice in a row,” Byron had that to say after the race. He was good and that was it.
Hendricks Motorsports, Byron’s race franchise also won its 10th Daytona 500, with the 27-year-old driver as a representative.
Jeff Gordon, Racing Hall of Famer and vice chairman of Hendricks Motorsports, who once held the record for the youngest driver to win multiple Daytona 500s, was proud of Byron.
“I hope he breaks them all,” Gordon said. “I’m in full support of that.”
This would be Byron’s 14th win in his Cup Career and of course, he is set out for more trophies.
“We plan on trying to win a lot of races this year, so we’re not going to stop here,” William said. “We’re going to continue to push forward and try to get to Phoenix.
