William Byron has already placed his name on the Daytona 500 trophy twice, and he has done it in a row. Across the race’s 68-year timeline, only five drivers have managed that feat, and Byron stands as the most recent addition to that group.
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Although his path to those wins followed an uncommon script as he led fewer laps in those wins than any other driver who bagged back-to-back Daytona 500 wins, even so, NASCAR insider and former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte sees Byron as a real candidate to contend for three wins in a row at the famed event, something the sport has never seen.
During a recent episode of the Inside the Race podcast, Letarte laid out his view. “I think that he’s better every year. His experience makes him smarter. Both of them were done in a little bit different fashion. So, I think for William Byron, it’s all about managing. His goal needs to be in the picture with 50 miles to go. And if he does that, anything can happen. But can he do it? Absolutely. I don’t see why not.”
Former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty also added to Letarte’s reasoning and explained why Byron has been successful on drafting tracks. He said, “Most people come in in first grade. William Byron came in already in seventh or eighth grade. He had studied the tapes. He understood it.”
“He understood it when he came to the game. And his education and his intelligence has just gotten better and better. He’s never leveled off,” added Petty, referring to Byron competing with veteran drivers such as Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin, and taking away crucial learnings from their craft to make them his own.
Byron’s recent Daytona 500 wins have come through by being present at the end. In the 2024 race, he led the final four laps and crossed the finish line under caution ahead of teammate Alex Bowman. In the following run, last year, he led 10 laps and closed the deal in overtime.
Despite luck playing a helping hand in Byron’s case or not, Petty has full confidence in Byron, and he has some legitimate reasons. “He continues. So when you look at the raw talent of driving a race car, and you put that with the intelligence that he has, he puts himself in positions to take advantage of other people’s mistakes, and at the same time put himself in position to make his own moves.”
The 65-year-old tied that belief to how the sport has shifted in 2026. In earlier eras, only six or seven teams entered Daytona with real winning potential. Drivers unloaded knowing they would race for seventh or eighth because their cars sat at different levels.
The topography now looks different. Drivers like Byron step into cars built to win the Daytona 500, backed by teams that already know how to close the deal, along with a host of others who could claim P1 as a result of what happens late in the race.
With that in mind, the #24 HMS driver will again climb into his No. 24 equipment capable of winning the race. And if he navigates the disorder that rises near the end of superspeedway races, the same disorder he survived in his last two Daytona wins, the door remains open, and NASCAR experts back that up.
