William Byron generally distances himself from social media or the scattered conversations within the state of NASCAR but those concerning his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory and the role that luck played into it got into his ear.
“It just makes me chuckle,” said Byron during his Saturday press conference.
Byron took the final restart from 10th and was running seventh in Turn 2 on the final lap when those ahead of him were all collected in a crash. Byron stayed up against the wall and beat Tyler Reddick to the line to win consecutive Great American Races.
Denny Hamlin was the loudest critic of what the Daytona 500 has become, suggesting on his Actions Detrimental podcast that the biggest race of the year is now annually decided by luck and surviving the big crashes at the end of the race.
He said this race no longer rewards greatness.
Hamlin was the last driver to win the Daytona 500 in consecutive seasons from 2019 to 2020. There have been late cautions that sent the race into overtime for five consecutive years.
“When I started superspeedway racing, I treated it as luck and strategy didn’t really work out very well,” Byron said. “I go into it and try to control the things I can control. Obviously I was fortunate in that situation, but I made moves leading up to that [which] put me in that position, and I sensed that it was coming and just tried to position myself.
“I don’t really read too much into stuff outside my circle of people. Obviously I’m proud of the win, I’m not going to apologize for it, and I’m excited for my team.”
