William Byron is a two-time Daytona 500 champion.
And thankfully, according to certain drivers (I’m looking at you, Denny Hamlin!), Byron – and by extension, Hendrick Motorsports – had the star power it took to legitimize the race win.
As with any superspeedway race, and especially the Daytona 500, there were wrecks late in the race. On the last lap of the Daytona 500, every driver left in the field and on the lead lap echoes ARCA Menards series driver Andy Jankowiak, “I’m just gonna put my foot on the floor and I’m not lifting until I see God or a checkered flag!” This inevitably leads to cars getting tapped and taking a hard right or left turn and wrecking the field as the field races forward, everyone wanting to get the best finish they can.
And this, of course, inevitably leads to every driver (and by extension their fans) who thought they were on the verge of contending for the Daytona 500 and instead ended up in the wreck to criticize superspeedway racing, other competitors, NASCAR in general and even going so far as to knock the entire NASCAR fanbase (as if we don’t get enough criticism from outsiders).
“It doesn’t take skill. It’s just luck!”
“Anyone can win at Daytona and Talladega!”
I’m not going to touch the first sentiment. I’m just some fake-ass fan who has never driven a race car, so it’s one of those topics I’m probably not allowed to have an opinion on. I will say, however, that it sure seems like the same drivers (Hamlin among them but Miichael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and a few others) who always seem to run up front at the superspeedways.
As for the second sentiment, why do drivers, fans, and so-called experts keep repeating this mantra like it’s a bad thing? Instead of condemning superspeedway racing for giving everyone in the field a chance at a win, why are we not asking ourselves “Why do we go to so many tracks where it’s only a select few – drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing, Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports – who seem to have any shot at winning?”
Apparently, the answer, according to Denny Hamlin and his podcast, is because this ensures that the driver who wins the race has enough star power to legitimize the finish. In critiquing the finish, Hamlin said that Byron winning would keep many criticisms away but the same might not be said if John Hunter Nemechek had won the Daytona 500.
I can be honest. If I’m looking at the Top 10 finishers of this year’s Daytona 500, there were probably a couple of drivers (7-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and JR Motorsport’s Justin Allgaier) who I would have rather seen win the Daytona 500. However, a Nemechek win would have done wonders for the young man’s career, for Legacy Motor Club, and, by extension, for NASCAR.
Is John Hunter Nemechek on par with Jimmie Johnson or Denny Hamlin or, for that matter, eventual 500 winner William Byron, in terms of “star power”?
No. If you scroll down a little ways, you’ll see I’ve already opined that a Daytona 500 win doesn’t elevate you to among the elite in NASCAR. As I stated (spoiler alert!) that status only comes through a body of work. John Hunter Nemechek, to date, hasn’t accomplished that.
But while a Daytona 500 win wouldn’t immediately have elevated Nemechek to the level of a Jimmie Johnson or Denny Hamlin, it could have paid dividends for the 2025 season. He (or anyone else who found himself in that position) would have qualified for the playoffs and while a championship was probably a longshot for Nemechek, it would have helped legitimize his time in the Cup series and, as a Daytona 500 champion, helped with future sponsorship at a time when every sponsor dollar is hard-earned.
Every race and I don’t care if it’s Daytona, Dover or Darlington, should be a race where “if you’re in it, you can win it!” If someone can get enough sponsorship together to bring a car to the track, it should be up to the skill of the driver, the crew and the team to determine how well they finish.
NASCAR has long been of the mindset that “you must be this rich to compete.” The superspeedway racing has just as long been the one outlet where a smaller or a team with less funding can get the win they need to, at least temporarily, propel themselves up the proverbial ladder in NASCAR. Perhaps that’s why drivers and teams and fans and the media frown on this style of racing, decrying that it allows “backmarker teams” to make the playoffs.
This is part of what I love about superspeedway racing (the other being that there are constant battles for the lead, not one car driving away to a multi-second lead immediately after every restart) is that it levels the playing field and provides opportunities for everyone. Hey, isn’t inclusiveness supposed to be a thing nowadays?
(And no, it’s not the wrecks! While that’s a well-accepted stereotype that even NASCAR drivers and crew chiefs seem willing to advance, it’s not true in my case. Any time there’s a bad wreck, I’m less interested in seeing 20 different replays and more interested in ensuring that each driver drives away, gets out of the car or at least has the window net down.)
I’ve often wondered “why is NASCAR not doing more to make the intermediates more competitive?” Perhaps, the mile-and-a-halfs are run exactly the way these big teams want them to run. Maybe that’s the approved narrative that the big money teams wants: create an environment where only those three or four teams can be competitive and let the rest show up to log laps.
And if Denny Hamlin or Joey Logano or Kyle Larson is your driver or Joe Gibbs Racing is your team, you have no issue with that. If it’s not broke for you, don’t fix it for anybody else. The thought process is that fans will show up and keep watching and like what they’re told to like and if they don’t…well, all NASCAR fans do is complain anyways.
The problem is that, for the casual fans (who are just going to watch Cup races, and not bother with practices or qualifying or the Truck series or ARCA, etc.) whose favourite driver runs for Trackhouse or Richard Childress Racing or Front Row Motorsports, eventually they’re going to clue in on the fact that until NASCAR goes to Talladega or Daytona or possibly the road courses, their driver is not really going to be in contention to win on a consistent basis.
Another issue is that teams aren’t competitive forever, and teams don’t last forever. Look at RFK Racing. Yep, great to see that Brad Keselowski has helped the team find some speed and some more competitiveness, but it’s a long way from running with Gibbs or Hendrick. Look at where Roush Racing was two decades ago. Five cars and all were making the playoffs. As recently as five years ago, going to Roush-Fenway was basically a death sentence to one’s career. Look at Stewart-Haas Racing or Chip Ganassi Racing. Both were highly competitive teams that stumbled and then closed down. For that matter, look at all the “other” Toyota teams that started getting competitive and suddenly were forced to close up shop. Furniture Row Racing went from the best story in NASCAR to winning a championship…and then lost a major sponsor and closed up shop all within a year.
Now, I’m sure there are some stories behind some of those teams I just mentioned but the fact remains that NASCAR needs to do everything in its power to bring new drivers and new teams into the sport and giving them as much opportunity to win and succeed as possible. This is not to say that NASCAR should just leave teams of a certain calibre to their own devices or create rules to hinder those teams.
But…
Drivers retire. Teams fold. NASCAR could be left with a void. NASCAR needs to prepare for that.
And deciding that only drivers with enough star power should be celebrated is not the way to go. Instead, they need to put as many drivers in position to win races and championships as possible. Let the cream rise to the top. Let the drivers who can drive become successful, no matter which team they drive for. It will benefit those drivers, those teams, the fans, the sponsors and NASCAR as a whole in the long run.
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