William Byron claimed his first-career NASCAR Cup Series win at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night in the Coke Zero Sugar 400, the final race of the 26th-race 2020 regular season. So with the win, Byron cemented one of the final slots in the 16-driver, 10-race playoffs.
“Oh, yea, I had confidence in Chad [Knaus, crew chief] and the guys that we could get four tires and make the most of it,” Byron said. “So I’m just extremely blessed, and this is incredible. It’s been a hard couple of years in the Cup Series and trying to get my first win and gel with this team. These guys did an awesome job today and got us in the playoffs, and it’s amazing.”
As Byron celebrated a win and a playoff berth, one of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, seven-time champion and retiring driver Jimmie Johnson, was on the wrong side of the playoff cutoff for the second-consecutive season after being collected in the second of two late-race crashes.
“First and foremost, congratulations to my teammate getting his first Cup win like that,” Johnson said. “This setting and drama to go with it — that’s a big win for Chad Knaus and William Byron. I’m really happy for those guys. I really felt like we had a way to transfer, to win, or point our way in the way it went in he first to stages. Things just got ugly down in turn one. Unfortunate, but that’s plate racing.”
After the first 142 laps of the race, scheduled for 160 laps but extended to 164 by an overtime restart, ran incident free, the first yellow flag for an on-track incident came on lap 143 for a James Davison spin. Then, after lap 150, the yellow flag waved two more times, both for large, multi-car crashes that began at the front of the race field.
Both crashes also were followed by brief red flags for track cleanup.
Kyle Busch was the race leader on lap 152 when Cup Series rookie Tyler Reddick passed him for the lead and attempted to keep that lead with a block. Instead, Reddick forced Busch up the track and into the wall. At least seven other drivers were collected.
“Slide job gone bad,” Busch said. “I just hate it for these Interstate Battery guys. We had a good Camry all night long and made our way to the front multiple times, and we were leading a lot of laps, there. Just waiting for the end, for business to pick up, and I guess business was starting to pick up, but just not clear. I saw him coming and even checked up, and we still ran into each other.”
Then, Joey Logano took the lead on lap 158. But a lap later, he got stuck in the middle and was turned, collected several more cars, including Johnson’s #48. Logano had led a race-high 36 laps by that point.
Denny Hamlin was the race leader for the final restart, but when the race returned to green for the final two-lap sprint to the finish, Byron took the lead. Another of Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott, followed Byron to take runner-up honors and give HMS a one-two finish.
“This is probably the hardest track to points race,” Byron said. “We had a great stage two and kind of got back in the pack and got shuffled when everyone went single-file. I thought my hopes were up there. And we were racing around the #21 [Matt DiBenedetto] and the #48 [Johnson] in the final stage, and I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to really make something happen.’ Luckily, I was able to push the #43 [Darrell Wallace Jr.], and he and the #22 [Logano] made some contact and opened up a hole for me, and I wasn’t going to lift. It was awesome. Thanks to Liberty University, Chevrolet, and it’s amazing.”
Hamlin and one of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Martin Truex Jr., finished third and fourth, as Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. rounded out the top-five.
“Just disappointed,” Hamlin said. “I didn’t do a good job. Lack of focus or whatever it is. Not executing. If you have control of a green-white-checkered on a speedway, most of the time, the win is going to come from the front row, and you have to just make sure you make the right moves, and I just didn’t after I took the green. I don’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t have a push from the 21 [Matt DiBenedetto], and I was clear of the 24 [Byron] and just didn’t pull down. I don’t know what I was doing. Disappointing, but I guess we escaped some mayhem. Just a crazy race. Just everyone kind of out there for themselves and all the pushing and shoving and body-slamming and what not. Decent finish, but I hate having control and not finishing.”
Other drivers claiming remaining playoff slots Saturday night were Clint Bowyer and Matt DiBenedetto. Bowyer headed into the race a near playoff lock, and as a result, was locked in by the end of the first 50-lap stage. DiBenedetto claimed the remaining playoff berth by finishing 12th at Daytona.
Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Truex, Logano, Ryan Blaney, Elliott, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer headed into the Daytona race with their playoff berths already cemented.
RESEEDED CUP SERIES DRIVER POINTS AHEAD OF PLAYOFFS
Logano led a race-high 36 laps Saturday night and won both stages in the first 100 laps of the race.
Byron led 22 laps of the opening stage, first trading the lead back-and-forth with pole sitter Kevin Harvick and, then, taking command of the top spot on lap eight. Logano took the lead from Byron on lap 36 and ran up front the rest of the stage.
Toyota drivers including Christopher Bell, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch led laps early in the second stage before another Toyota driver, Daniel Suarez took the lead on lap 72 and ran up front for 19 laps. Logano took his second stage-winning lead on lap 91.
Truex led most of the early laps of the final stage before green-flag pit stops begin, mostly in manufacturer-specific groups, with the Chevrolets around lap 125. By the time the Fords made their stops on lap 131, Truex’s JGR teammates Busch and Hamlin were first and second in the running order. Busch was able to remain up front until his incident with Reddick.
Finishing sixth through 10th were Blaney, Bowman, Brendan Gaughan, Chris Buescher and Keselowski.
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