William Byron doesn’t think he’s the best driver in the NASCAR Cup Series garage at drafting on superspeedways.
That said, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has been good enough to win consecutive DAYTONA 500s. He’ll try for an unprecedent third straight victory in the Great American Race on Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Byron has five career victories at drafting tracks—two at Atlanta Motor Speedway and three at Daytona International Speedway, including a win in the 2020 summer race. At Talladega Superspeedway, Byron has posted five top-five results in 16 starts.
“I don’t know if I’ve figured it out,” Byron said of his past success on superspeedways. “I feel like we’ve had some things go our way, and then we’ve been good at the speedways. Really, it started at Talladega. I think we were better at Talladega for a while.
“We weren’t finishing at Daytona, and once we figured out a way to finish the races at Daytona, it seemed like it started to go the other way. You just try to do the best job you can, learning the little nuances of the draft. I don’t think I’m the best at drafting at the moment. I think there’s still more to learn.”
Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle is acutely aware of what’s on the line in Sunday’s race.
“Everybody understands how cool it would be, how historic it would be to win three in a row,” Fugle said. “We know a lot of that’s out of our control, but you’re still putting forth that amazing effort in every corner of the shop.”
Byron isn’t the only competitor driven by numbers. Veteran Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin is trying to win his fourth DAYTONA 500, a feat that would tie him with Cale Yarborough for the second-most all-time victories in NASCAR’s biggest race.
Only seven-time winner Richard Petty has more.
“Every win that you get here puts you in a certain list,” Hamlin said. “The list is so small at that four number, it certainly was on my mind on the last lap last year when we were leading, that we are going to get another one.
“I’ve just been really lucky to have the opportunities I’ve had to win these races, but also been very unfortunate in the NextGen era (starting in 2022) to not have won more. I feel as though the opportunity will be there, and hopefully we can put ourselves in position to move ourselves up that Daytona 500 winners board.”
Kyle Busch, who won the pole position for Sunday’s race in Wednesday night’s qualifying session, will have to overcome a couple of statistical challenges to claim his first Harley J. Earl trophy.
Busch is racing in his 21st DAYTONA 500. No driver has ever won the race for the first time in more than 20 attempts, the number it took the late Dale Earnhardt to add that elusive victory to his resume (1998).
“Yeah, it’s a box we’ve got to check,” said Busch, who ran second to Hamlin in 2019. “Here we are. This is an opportunity to be able to do that. I’ve come down here a lot of years. I think I finished in about every position possible. It would be nice to close out 2026 with a victory here in the Daytona 500.”
No driver has won the DAYTONA 500 from a front-row starting position since Dale Jarrett won from the pole in 2000.
— NASCAR News Wire —