Byron’s second straight Daytona 500 win kept NASCAR guessing
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Ryan McGee
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — There is one primary reason why the Daytona 500 continues to captivate the imaginations of hardcore NASCAR fans, but also the once-a-year racing passersby. One solitary element keeps Earth’s greatest stock car racers coming back year after year, even when the end result for all but one of them is that they end up hurt, embarrassed, frustrated or all three all at once.
It’s a trick that any good couples counselor will tell you is the key to keeping any relationship exciting, even after 67 years, and even if it’s between human beings and a 2.5-mile superspeedway.
Mystery. Keep them guessing. Right when they think that they have you all figured out, surprise them.
“You didn’t see that coming, did you?!” exclaimed William Byron, standing in Victory Lane on a cool, humid night at the World Center of Racing for the second consecutive year. “I’m being honest, at one point, neither did I.”
It’s cool, Byron. We are all in the same Daytona boat with you. Because everything we thought we knew about this sport’s biggest race, we did not. We never do. And his becoming only the fifth driver to win the 500 back to back is only a small part of a list as long as Sunday’s overtime race took to run.
Tyler Reddick, in a car co-owned by Michael Jordan and the man who was leading late, Denny Hamlin, a team currently suing NASCAR for antitrust, finishing second?
Jimmie Johnson, in his own car, in only one of his two races this year, in a paint scheme designed by Shaquille O’Neal, finishing third?
And Justin Allgaier, driving the first Cup Series car fielded by now-team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., finishing ninth?
“It’s why we run the races, right?” said a giddy Jeff Gordon, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who made Byron’s No. 24 famous and is now his boss as vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports.
So, Gordon, you miss wheeling that car into Daytona Victory Lane?
“Absolutely.”
Do you miss the other 500-plus miles of complete and total unpredictable chaos?
“Absolutely not.”
You thought the race was supposed to start at 2:30 p.m. ET? Wrong. The green flag was moved up to 1:30. So, you thought that was when the green was actually going to wave? Wrong again. Because President Donald Trump buzzed overhead in Air Force One, literally stealing the thunder from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, and then led the 41-car field around the speedway with the presidential limo known as “The Beast.”
You thought Chris Evans was Captain America and Tom Cruise was Jack Reacher? Nope. It was grand marshal Anthony Mackie sporting a custom leather Captain American/Great American Race jacket, and it was actor Alan Ritchson, who is roughly twice the size of your average race car driver — including Cole Trickle — who could barely fit his butt-kicking body behind the wheel as honorary pace car driver.
You bought it when they said that “thin band of rain showers coming in from the west” was going to mean a brief yellow flag and small timing hiccup midrace? Nah. It lasted more than four hours. And then there was another. It’s the sixth time in the past 14 years that the 500 has been delayed by rain.
And that was just the non-racing stuff. What happened on the racetrack was even more mind-bending.
See: Cars you thought were gone but were not, but then were gone again. Like Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who was in a big early crash, forced to whip his car off the high banks and onto the flat apron, with such force that it sent sparks from his Toyota. Yet, somehow, he was back in the top five with less than 10 laps remaining … only to end up wrecked again as the race ended and he had just been in the lead.
Also, Kyle Busch, still seeking his first Daytona 500 victory after two decades of trying, had an early pit penalty, which stuck him in the back of the pack and got him caught up in a wreck. Then, he too had unbelievably clawed his way into contention late.
Oh, and even though there had been multiple “Big One” crashes during the race’s first 190 laps, with 10 circuits remaining, 29 of the race’s 41 starters were still on the lead lap.
See: The race that spent its first six-and-half decades safely promising it would never become a fuel strategy event, unlike so many of the smaller, sweeping, flat ovals that NASCAR visits throughout the season. Yet, thanks to the still-new Gen 7 race car, even before the race started — and restarted and restarted again — crew chiefs were imploring their drivers to pit for fuel tank top-offs and were all hammering on their miles-per-gallon calculators again with less than 40 laps left.
And see: You thought the Ford Mustangs were unstoppable, right? Of course you did. They were. The Ford drivers were called to their mandatory race morning meeting with Ford Racing brass, including Edsel Ford II, great-grandson of Henry, with their annual message: “Work together. With two laps to go, whatever. But until then, work together.” That working-together worked until it didn’t. Penske Racing Fords — Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney — won the race’s first two stages and led a combined 65 laps, but both were caught up in the same crash with less than 15 laps to go.
Instead, it was Toyota — with 11 cars in the field, spent most of the night beneath an invisibility cloak — that had packed the top 10 when the race restarted with eight laps left. Three ganged up on the lone remaining Penske Ford, Austin Cindric.
Then came the part that we always see coming in the Daytona 500, but with an unforeseen twist. During a big crash with five laps left (the part we know) a 3,400-pound car popped a wheelie and then rolled its way upside down and into the wall (never seen that one before). Ryan Preece, who’d led at the race’s halfway point — in another Ford — walked away from the crash.
And yet, after all of that — all of those wrecks, all of those lap leaders, all of those Toyotas and Fords — there was Byron, whom we hadn’t really heard from since the handful of laps before the rain, and who pilots a Chevy.
“I was so under the radar all week, whenever people talked about favorites, but honestly, that just seems to be how my career has been,” Byron said, grinning, as he was about to pop a champagne cork and spray his team. “Maybe people will figure it out one day.”
Perhaps. But this is the Daytona 500, after all, where we have yet to figure out anything. And also why we keep coming back.
It’s 2025 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby day in Atlanta!
Some of the most dynamic home run hitters in baseball will be taking aim at the Truist Park stands on Monday (8 p.m. ET on ESPN) in one of the most anticipated events of the summer.
While the prospect of a back-to-back champion is out of the picture — 2024 winner Teoscar Hernandez is not a part of this year’s field — a number of exciting stars will be taking the field, including Atlanta’s own Matt Olson, who replaced Ronald Acuna Jr. just three days before the event. Will Olson make a run in front of his home crowd? Will Cal Raleigh show off the power that led to 38 home runs in the first half? Or will one of the younger participants take the title?
We have your one-stop shop for everything Derby related, from predictions to live updates once we get underway to analysis and takeaways at the night’s end.
MLB Home Run Derby field
Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners (38 home runs in 2025)
James Wood, Washington Nationals (24)
Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays (23)
Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins (21)
Brent Rooker, Athletics (20)
Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves (17)
Jazz Chisholm Jr., New York Yankees (17)
Oneil Cruz, Pittsburgh Pirates (16)
Live updates
Who is going to win the Derby and who will be the runner-up?
Jeff Passan: Raleigh. His swing is perfect for the Derby: He leads MLB this season in both pull percentage and fly ball percentage, so it’s not as if he needs to recalibrate it to succeed. He has also become a prolific hitter from the right side this season — 16 home runs in 102 at-bats — and his ability to switch between right- and left-handed pitching offers a potential advantage. No switch-hitter (or catcher for that matter) has won a Home Run Derby. The Big Dumper is primed to be the first, beating Buxton in the finals.
Alden Gonzalez: Cruz. He might be wildly inconsistent at this point in his career, but he is perfect for the Derby — young enough to possess the stamina required for a taxing event that could become exhausting in the Atlanta heat; left-handed, in a ballpark where the ball carries out better to right field; and, most importantly, capable of hitting balls at incomprehensible velocities. Raleigh will put on a good show from both sides of the plate but will come in second.
Buster Olney: Olson. He is effectively pinch-hitting for Acuna, and because he received word in the past 72 hours of his participation, he hasn’t had the practice rounds that the other competitors have been going through. But he’s the only person in this group who has done the Derby before, which means he has experienced the accelerated pace, adrenaline and push of the crowd.
His pitcher, Eddie Perez, knows something about performing in a full stadium in Atlanta. And, as Olson acknowledged in a conversation Sunday, the park generally favors left-handed hitters because of the larger distances that right-handed hitters must cover in left field.
Jesse Rogers: Olson. Home-field advantage will mean something this year as hitting in 90-plus degree heat and humidity will be an extra challenge in Atlanta. Olson understands that and can pace himself accordingly. Plus, he was a late addition. He has got nothing to lose. He’ll outlast the young bucks in the field. And I’m not putting Raleigh any lower than second — his first half screams that he’ll be in the finals against Olson.
Jorge Castillo: Wood. His mammoth power isn’t disputed — he can jack baseballs to all fields. But the slight defect in his power package is that he doesn’t hit the ball in the air nearly as often as a typical slugger. Wood ranks 126th out of 155 qualified hitters across the majors in fly ball percentage. And he still has swatted 24 home runs this season. So, in an event where he’s going to do everything he can to lift baseballs, hitting fly balls won’t be an issue, and Wood is going to show off that gigantic power en route to a victory over Cruz in the finals.
Who will hit the longest home run of the night — and how far?
Passan: Cruz hits the ball harder than anyone in baseball history. He’s the choice here, at 493 feet.
Gonzalez: If you exclude the Coors Field version, there have been just six Statcast-era Derby home runs that have traveled 497-plus feet. They were compiled by two men: Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. James Wood — all 6-foot-7, 234 pounds of him — will become the third.
Olney: James Wood has the easy Stanton- and Judge-type power, and he will clear the Chophouse with the longest homer. Let’s say 497 feet.
Rogers: Hopefully he doesn’t injure himself doing it, but Buxton will break out his massive strength and crush a ball at least 505 feet. I don’t see him advancing far in the event, but for one swing, he’ll own the night.
Castillo: Cruz hits baseballs hard and far. He’ll crush a few bombs, and one will reach an even 500 feet.
Who is the one slugger fans will know much better after the Derby?
Passan: Buxton capped his first half with a cycle on Saturday, and he’ll carry that into the Derby, where he will remind the world why he was baseball’s No. 1 prospect in 2015. Buxton’s talent has never been in question, just his health. And with his body feeling right, he has the opportunity to put on a show fans won’t soon forget.
Olney: Caminero isn’t a big name and wasn’t a high-end prospect like Wood was earlier in his career. Just 3½ years ago, Caminero was dealt to the Rays by the Cleveland Guardians in a relatively minor November trade for pitcher Tobias Myers. But since then, he has refined his ability to cover inside pitches and is blossoming this year into a player with ridiculous power. He won’t win the Derby, but he’ll open some eyes.
What’s the one moment we’ll all be talking about long after this Derby ends?
Gonzalez: The incredible distances and velocities that will be reached, particularly by Wood, Cruz, Caminero, Raleigh and Buxton. The hot, humid weather at Truist Park will only aid the mind-blowing power that will be on display Monday night.
Rogers: The exhaustion on the hitter’s faces, swinging for home run after home run in the heat and humidity of Hot-lanta!
Castillo: Cruz’s 500-foot blast and a bunch of other lasers he hits in the first two rounds before running out of gas in the finals.
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