William Byron is the 2024 Daytona 500 champion.
But did he actually win the race?
It was a wild finish in the rain-delayed season opener for the NASCAR Cup Series. After a major crash involving 22 cars with less than 10 laps to go, the Great American Race was set up for a shootout with Ross Chastain and William Byron leading their respective lines.
But coming to take the white flag, Chastain made an aggressive block in front of Austin Cindric, and ended up wrecking both cars as the leaders took the one lap to go signal.
The caution flew, and because the leaders had already taken the white flag, the NASCAR rule book states that the winner is whoever was ahead at the time the caution came out – which NASCAR says was William Byron.
But fans aren’t so sure…
According to some fans, it looked like Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman was actually leading at the time the caution lights came on, meaning that it was Bowman and not Byron who won the Daytona 500. (Remember, it doesn’t matter who crossed the finish line first to take the white flag: It’s who was ahead when the caution lights came on).
From that view it sure seemed like Bowman was ahead. But one of the problems is that Fox didn’t show a great camera angle that would show both the leaders and the time the caution lights came on.
Not a great look for NASCAR to start off their season – and their biggest race – with a controversial call to win the race.
