William Byron earned his second consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series race, winning the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
Driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Byron won under caution, needing four laps past the scheduled 100. The final caution was due to a five-car wreck that occurred behind Byron as he passed the overtime line.
At 19, Byron becomes the youngest winner at Daytona. He also won last week at Iowa Speedway and finished second a week before that at Michigan.
“We’re extremely blessed to be here and just a lot of hard work from all these guys to get here,” Byron told NBCSN in victory lane. “As a team, we’re getting more and more confident. Coming into this week (after the win at Iowa), I could tell everyone was confident.
“I never thought I’d win one of these. It’s so hard to win it.”
MORE: Xfinity race results from Daytona
MORE: Elliott Sadler remains No. 1 in the Xfinity standings after Daytona race
Byron’s JR Motorsports teammate, Elliott Sadler, finished second, followed by Dakoda Armstrong, Jeb Burton and David Starr.
“Really happy for William, but man, I didn’t want to see that (last) caution come out,” Sadler said.
With eight laps left in regulation, Brennan Poole got loose, abruptly cut to his left near the front of the pack and collected Ty Dillon.
The race resumed with four laps to go. Joey Logano was in the lead with three laps left, got shuffled back and almost wrecked, but regained control even though he dropped back to 16th.
Then, with just over a lap to go, the first multi-car wreck occurred on the backstretch, bringing out a red flag and sending the event into overtime.
The race originally started Friday night, but was red-flagged after 11 laps due to rain.
It resumed Saturday shortly after Noon ET following a red flag delay of 16 hours, 15 minutes, 51 seconds.
Then, after running an additional 26 laps, the race was stopped again for rain for two hours, 29 minutes and 37 seconds.
STAGES: Blake Koch won Stage 1, while Elliott Sadler won Stage 2.
HOW BYRON WON: The JR Motorsports driver led 29 laps. When the final restart began with four laps to go, he kept pushing toward the front and got to the point with two laps left, holding on for his second straight Xfinity Series win.
WHO ELSE HAD A GOOD RACE: Elliott Sadler had a strong run throughout the race and appeared poised to win his first race of the season. But his JRM teammate was just a bit stronger, leaving Sadler to finish runner-up. Even so, Sadler remains No. 1 in the Xfinity standings.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Wrecks are synonymous with Daytona, and several drivers saw their days end early, including Daniel Suarez, Blake Koch, Ryan Sieg, Casey Mears, Michael Annett, Ryan Reed and Daniel Hemric.
NOTABLE: Dakoda Armstrong (third), Jeb Burton (fourth) and David Starr (fifth) each earned career-best Xfinity finishes.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’ve had a great last three weeks. I just can’t believe this. .. I never thought I’d win one of these.” – Race winner William Byron
WHAT’S NEXT: Alsco 300, Friday July 7, 8 p.m. ET, Kentucky Speedway.
