Hendrick Motorsports is the winningest workforce in Daytona 500 historical past with ten victories. William Byron, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet, received the occasion in each 2024 and 2025, and each races resulted in dramatic crashes amongst the race leaders. Now, he’ll try and win the five hundred for a 3rd consecutive 12 months, and it is a feat that has by no means been completed earlier than.
In 2024, Byron positioned himself out entrance, however Ross Chastain was charging quick on the surface as the sphere raced in direction of the white flag. Byron moved as much as defend, and Chastain tried to shoot the hole up the center between Byron and Austin Cindric. Effectively, Cindric and Chastain collided, sending each automobiles spinning as Byron escaped, taking the white flag with teammate Alex Bowman quickly approaching alongside his proper aspect. However simply earlier than Bowman accomplished the cross, the warning flew, the race was over, and Byron was a Daytona 500 victor.
One 12 months later, Byron’s hopes of going back-to-back was wanting inconceivable as he was fourth in line on the surface. However because the leaders started to jostle for place down the backstretch with solely half-a-lap to go, they turned entangled. A large crash broke out, accumulating each driver inside the highest 5. Byron narrowly skated via the melee on the far exterior, beating Tyler Reddick to the road and changing into simply the fifth driver in historical past to win back-to-back Daytona 500s. He was additionally simply the second driver to take action on this century because the race has turn into extra chaotic than ever earlier than, becoming a member of Hamlin in that small membership.
William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photograph by: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Photographs
Now, he eyes an much more unique membership – one with zero members, for the second. This race has existed since 1959, however by no means has a driver efficiently received it three years consecutively.
The chances are towards Byron, who begins thirty ninth in a backup automobile for this 12 months’s 500, however hey, the chances weren’t actually in his favor forward of his 2025 triumph both. The opposite 4 back-to-back Daytona 500 winners all failed of their try on the three-peat, and right here’s how every of them got here up brief:
Denny Hamlin – Completed fifth after successful back-to-back in 2019/2020
Denny Hamlin pits through the 2021 Daytona 500
Photograph by: David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs
Hamlin is among the finest superspeedway racers in trendy NASCAR, and was main the race once they all crashed in entrance of Byron on the ultimate lap of the 2025 Daytona 500. However even earlier than that, he was already a three-time winner of the crown jewel occasion, together with back-to-back wins in 2019 and 2020. Of each driver on this listing, he was the closest to carrying out the three-peat. Nobody else has positioned greater than fifth because the back-to-back defending winner.
In 2021, Hamlin began twenty fifth, however he had a rocket ship. He went on to steer 98 of 200 laps – nearly half the race. With 28 laps to go, he pitted from the race lead with a number of Toyota allies in tow. However via the pit cease cycle, that group bought shuffled to the again of a single-file line, and making ahead progress at that time turned a tough activity. He was as much as ninth on the ultimate lap, and narrowly averted a race-ending crash that eradicated the race leaders. The warning flag waved as fireplace engulfed a number of wrecking automobiles, and Hamlin was scored in fifth place.
Sterling Marlin – Completed fortieth after successful back-to-back in 1994/1995
Marlin practising forward of the 1996 Daytona 500
Photograph by: Getty Photographs
Marlin was near-unstoppable at superspeedways within the mid-90s, driving that iconic yellow Kodak No. 4 Larry McClure entry. He began third in his quest for the three-peat, and remained close to the entrance for the primary stint of the race. On Lap 77, he led the race for the primary time, and led the subsequent three laps till the unthinkable occurred. Whereas main the race, the engine blew on his No. 4 machine, and he rapidly fell via the sphere earlier than limping again to the pits, in the end retiring from the race in fortieth place.
Cale Yarborough – Completed thirty sixth after successful back-to-back in 1983/1984
Yarborough on the tempo laps of the 1985 Daytona 500
Photograph by: John Iacono /Sports activities Illustrated by way of Getty Photographs
Yarborough had already made historical past with one other three-peat at this level in his profession, as he was the primary driver to ever win three consecutive NASCAR Cup Sequence championships. In 1985, he began the five hundred from the entrance row, and he led 32 of the primary 60 laps. He was wanting extremely robust in his efforts to win three in-a-row. The race noticed a slew of engine points within the early operating, and similar to Marlin a decade later, mechanical gremlins have been about to derail Yarborough’s pursuit of the three-peat. He fell again to second behind Invoice Elliott, however all of a sudden started to gradual on the frontstretch. He shook the automobile back-and-forth, made it again to the pits, however the workforce was unable to re-fire the automobile. He accomplished simply 62 laps, ending thirty sixth.
Richard Petty – Completed seventh after successful back-to-back in 1973/1974
Petty en path to his 1974 Daytona 500 triumph
Photograph by: ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Name Group by way of Getty Photographs
‘The King’ has extra wins than any driver in NASCAR Cup Sequence historical past at 200, and way more Daytona 500 trophies too with seven. However even NASCAR’s most profitable driver by no means pulled off a three-peat within the sport’s crown jewel occasion. Beginning fourth within the 1975 version of the race, the legendary STP No. 43 was unsurprisingly quick as soon as once more. He led 51 laps, however all that occurred within the first half of the race. Identical to Marlin and Yarborough, mechanical gremlins plagued his run. The engine was overheating, and the workforce really ran a backyard hose on it in an try to chill it down. He needed to make a number of stops as a result of overheating situation, which hindered his efforts all the day and took him out of competition. Petty went on to complete seventh, he was eight full laps behind on the checkered flag, however gave race winner Benny Parsons a useful draft throughout the end line, and confirmed the world how briskly he was when the automobile didn’t fail him.
Whereas mechanical mishaps derailed three of Byron’s fellow back-to-back Daytona 500 winners, whereas a pit cease cycle hindered the opposite, it’s way more seemingly in a contemporary Daytona 500 to get wrecked earlier than one may even take into consideration hoisting that Harley J. Earl trophy. Byron himself is an instance of that. Earlier than successful back-to-back 500s, the driving force of the No. 24 really failed to complete inside the highest 20 in his first six begins – largely attributable to incidents. He recorded DNFs in 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023 attributable to incidents, whereas ending the race with injury and a number of other laps down in 2018 and 2021.
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