Diez: Byron looks set to continue No. 24 legacy

The Fords were strong in qualifying for this year’s Daytona and the Toyotas won both Duel races. But in the rain-delayed 500 on Monday, it was the Hendrick Chevrolets of William Byron and Alex Bowman finishing 1-2 as half the field wrecked behind them. Except for a relatively minor crash early in the race, it was a pretty clean day until eight laps from the end, when eventual winner Byron helped trigger the “big one” involving some 18 cars. The next wreck came as Byron took the white flag just inches ahead of his teammate Bowman. Bowman had a run on Byron, but the caution waved, ending the race with Byron declared the 2024 Daytona 500 champion. After rain canceled the Saturday Xfinity race and the entire Sunday program, the United Rentals 300 ran after the 500 with Austin Hill taking the checkered flag for the third year in a row.

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Byron scored six wins in 2023 and is poised to become the second driver to reach superstar status in the No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet. So far, Byron has scored 11 career wins compared to Jeff Gordon’s 93. But Byron is only 24, so he has maybe 15 years or more in the sport. And looking into the future, he’s sure to score more wins in hybrid or electric race cars than Gordon ever will.

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This weekend, all three NASCAR touring series are back in action at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It’s a 1.5-mile oval that races like Daytona or Talladega since the 2021 repaving. Byron has won twice there — last year’s July race and the March race in 2022. In addition to Byron, six other drivers have visited victory lane at Atlanta. Brad Keselowski has won there twice, and one-time winners are Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin. Chevrolets have won seven of the last 15 races there and Fords six. The last Toyota victories were Busch in 2013 and Hamlin in 2012.

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Will we see a repeat of Daytona this weekend? Opening odds favor Hamlin and Logano, both at 10-1 with Blaney, Keselowski, and Christopher Bell at 11-1. Hendrick teammates Byron and Elliott are 12-1 with Larson and Busch at 14-1. Martin Truex Jr. is 16-1, Bubba Wallace 18-1, and Tyler Reddick 20-1. All of today’s action will air on FS1 beginning with Cup qualifying at 8:30 a.m. followed by the FR8 208 Craftsman Truck race at 11 a.m. and the RAPTOR King of Tough 250 Xfinity race at 2 p.m. Sunday, Fox will broadcast the Ambetter 400 at noon.

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Formula 1 took to the track in Bahrain this week for the series’ three-day season testing session preparation for next weekend’s season opener at the same track. Red Bull unveiled their new RB20 with a number of interesting innovations. Max Verstappen immediately dashed the hopes of the grid for a more competitive season by lapping at 1:31.344, 1.1-second faster than anyone else and 1.5-second faster than his best lap in last year's test. After the first day, Red Bull declared that they got all the answers they needed to. In the race for second place, both Aston Martin and Ferrari showed promising gains, McLaren was miles ahead of where they were a year ago, and both Mercedes drivers declared the new W15 much nicer to drive than last season’s evil-handling and inconsistent W14. Carlos Sainz raised the bar in his Ferrari on Day 2, lapping at 1:29.921, more than 1.5 seconds better than Verstappen’s first-day time. But the Ferrari driver opined that Red Bull is still the benchmark everyone else is chasing. Day 3 results were not available at press time.