Eyes On Byron: Byron Crashes Out Early At Daytona, Finishes 38th

William Byron’s day turned sour early with a 38th place finish after a lap 62 crash in the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway Feb. 20.

Despite posting the third fastest time in qualifying on Wednesday, Byron struggled in his Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona race the next night, finishing 12th. That put him 23rd on the starting grid for Sunday’s main event. 

Despite this, Byron showed speed throughout the early potion of the first stage. Byron moved his way up into the lead briefly on lap 58. 

However, on lap 62 with Byron sitting in third place on the inside lane, the No. 21 car of Harrison Burton spun into Byron’s nose. This shot the No. 24 car into a four-wheel slide head-on into the inside wall on the Daytona Superstretch. 

“The bottom lane was pushing really well, nice and balanced and controlled, and then the outside lane was getting a little squirrelly,” Byron said to FOX Sports’ Jamie Little. “But there is not much you can really do.” 

Byron and the NASCAR Cup Series rolls back into California this Sunday for the Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, at 3:30 p.m. on FOX. Byron has not had much success in California with an average finish of 24.0. However, the Cup Series has not raced there since March 2020. 

Auto Club Speedway was built in 1997, originally being designed by famed car owner Roger Penske. Penske designed it very similar to his original two-mile track Michigan International Speedway with Auto Club being the same size and shape with slightly less banking.

Plans have been revealed to potentially reconfigure the two mile, D-shaped oval into a short track, but no formal announcement as to when or if that will start has been made. Sunday may be one of the last times that NASCAR will race on the two-mile speedway. 

Lipowski is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter