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AUSTIN, Texas — William Byron won the Daytona 500 with an agonizing final lap under a caution flag. He took the checkered flag on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas at full throttle.
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Bryon started from pole position and delivered a dominant drive in NASCAR’s first road course race of the season. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 42 of 68 laps and built the big lead he needed to hold off a hard-charging run from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell over the final two laps.
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“Everyone is too good, and that car (was) too close,” Byron said.
A self-taught racer who used computer equipment to hone his skills, Byron earned career win No. 12 and his second on a road course.
The Circuit of the Americas, a track built for Formula One, has been the first road course for NASCAR each of the last four seasons. And unlike the crash-filled triple-overtime race of 2023, Sunday’s race was mostly incident free as Byron made easy work of the field.
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Byron led 23 laps of the first two stages, but found himself quickly dropped to third at the start of the final stage as Ross Chastain, who won at COTA in 2022, jumped to the front.
Byron fought back to pass him with 25 laps to go and both cars pitted on the same lap. Chastain then got hung up in traffic on the re-entry and fell several cars behind.
That gave Byron the chance to open the gap he needed to keep Bell behind him at the end. Ty Gibbs, the 21-year-old grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, finished third after getting passed by Bell with three laps to go.
“Another lap I would have gotten there for sure,” Bell said. “Passing (Byron) would have been difficult. I needed him to make a mistake and he didn’t make a mistake.”
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