Daytona mayhem

The 2025 Daytona 500 had only its fifth back-to-back Daytona 500 winner and first since Denny Hamlin in 2019-2020. William Byron navigated his way through the carnage of a last-lap wreck among the leaders to take the checkered flag for the second consecutive year. In his post-race interview, Byron credited good fortune and being at the right place at the right time.

I had high hopes for this year’s Daytona 500. After two good dual races earlier in the week – though not without controversy – I was optimistic that the race would come down to a spectacular move off turn 4, and it almost did. But on the back stretch of the last lap, Cole Custer, while racing three-wide with Denny Hamlin and Austin Cindric, veered left and hooked Hamlin, sending him into the wall and taking out much of the remaining cars. Byron, who was running ninth at the time and had little hope of winning, narrowly avoided Hamlin’s spinning car.

The last-lap carnage came on the heels of another big wreck when Cole Custer got Christopher Bell out of shape and into the outside wall. Bell then spun down into the field which sent Ryan Preece into a nasty airborne roll. And only moments before the Custer Bell wreck, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Joey Logano got together, which took out numerous cars in the front of the field.

Sufficient to say, the last 20 laps of the race were a crash fest. In his Monday morning podcast, Denny Hamlin did not hold back in criticizing both NASCAR and his fellow drivers for the style of racing that has developed on drafting tracks such as Daytona and Talladega. Hamlin credits the cars with creating an environment for rough racing. With additional downforce, reduced horsepower, and low speeds, argues Hamlin, the cars are easier to drive. This leads to bigger and tighter backs of cars. Additionally, the increased downforce makes it more difficult for the cars to pass, which leads to more aggression from the drivers, which leads to mayhem at the end of the race.

I think Hamlin’s analysis is spot on. I recently watched the finish of the 2005 and 2006 Daytona 500 and was surprised just how different the racing was. The cars were more spread out, but the finishes were still excellent. Unlike what we have had the last few years, the race did not end in a last lap crash and the winner deserved to win the race. He made the moves on the last lap the secured the victory. The Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s Superbowl event. The biggest event of the season. It cannot continue to devolve into crash fest where the winner decided by pure luck. I expected NASCAR to have made more progress on the superspeedway racing package. It appears that they have not.

This week is Atlanta. It is a drafting track but much smaller than Daytona. The finish last year was one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history. I expect a great race. My pick is Austin Cindric. He was good at Daytona and has demonstrated his prowess on drafting tracks.

Zech Yoder is a local resident, an attorney at Adler Attorneys in Noblesville, and a lifelong race fan.