Rain. Postponements. A massive 23-car pileup that looked like a scene from an action movie. If you're asking about the winner of the 2024 Daytona 500, you're looking for one name: William Byron.
He took the checkered flag in his No. 24 Chevrolet, but honestly, the way it went down was anything but simple. It was messy. It was controversial for about five minutes. It was also a massive deal for Hendrick Motorsports because the win landed exactly 40 years to the day after the team’s very first Cup Series start back in 1984.
Byron didn't just win a race; he survived a Monday afternoon marathon that saw the lead change 41 times.
The Chaotic Final Laps and That Last-Second Caution
So, how did he actually do it?
With four laps to go, Byron was battling at the front of a thinned-out pack. Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric were breathing down his neck. On the very last lap—literally as the leaders were crossing the start/finish line to take the white flag—chaos erupted behind them.
Chastain tried to make a move to the inside of Byron. Cindric was right there too. Contact happened. Chastain’s car went sliding wildly through the infield grass, kicking up dirt and smoke.
Why the finish was confusing
For a second, nobody knew if the race was over.
NASCAR has a specific rule: if the leader has already taken the white flag when the caution comes out, the race is effectively finished. The field is "frozen" at the exact moment the yellow light flashes. Because Byron had just barely crossed the line to start that final lap before the caution was called, he was declared the winner.
His teammate, Alex Bowman, finished second. It was a 1-2 sweep for Hendrick, but Bowman was actually closing in fast. If the caution had come out a fraction of a second later, or if they’d raced to the finish, the result might have been different.
Who Won the 2024 Daytona 500? The Full Top 10
While Byron got the trophy, a few other drivers had career-defining days. Corey LaJoie snagged a fourth-place finish, which is huge for a smaller team like Spire Motorsports.
Here is how the top of the field shook out:
- 1st: William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports)
- 2nd: Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports)
- 3rd: Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing)
- 4th: Corey LaJoie (Spire Motorsports)
- 5th: Bubba Wallace (23XI Racing)
- 6th: AJ Allmendinger (Kaulig Racing)
- 7th: John Hunter Nemechek (Legacy Motor Club)
- 8th: Erik Jones (Legacy Motor Club)
- 9th: Noah Gragson (Stewart-Haas Racing)
- 10th: Chase Briscoe (Stewart-Haas Racing)
The "Big One" That Changed Everything
You can't talk about this race without mentioning the carnage on lap 192.
Before that, Joey Logano had been dominating. He led a race-high 45 laps and looked like the man to beat. But at Daytona, "looking like the winner" usually lasts about three seconds.
Alex Bowman gave Byron a push, which sent Byron into the back of Brad Keselowski. That small bump triggered a chain reaction that swallowed 23 cars. Defending champ Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Brad Keselowski were all knocked out in an instant.
It turned the end of the race into a survival of the fittest. Byron was one of the few front-runners who escaped with a relatively clean car.
A Win for the "Computer Kid"
There’s a cool narrative here that the TV crews love to talk about. William Byron didn't grow up on dirt tracks like most NASCAR drivers. He started on iRacing—a high-end racing simulator.
Winning the "Great American Race" essentially validated that whole "sim-to-reality" pipeline. For a kid who learned to drive on a PC to win the biggest race in the world on the 40th anniversary of his team's founding?
You really couldn't write a better script.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the stats or catch the highlights of that wild finish, here are the best ways to follow up:
- Watch the "Inside the Race" breakdown: NASCAR usually releases a frame-by-frame video showing exactly where the cars were when the final caution light flashed. It’s the best way to see how close Alex Bowman actually was to Byron.
- Check the 2024 points standings: Since this was the season opener, you can see how this win set the tone for Byron’s championship run.
- Look up the 1984 Daytona 500: Compare the 2024 race to Hendrick Motorsports' debut 40 years ago to see how much the sport has changed.
The 2024 Daytona 500 will be remembered as the race that wouldn't start (thanks to the rain) and a race that ended just a few seconds "too early" for some. But for William Byron, it was the perfect start to the year.