William Byron started his racing career in iRacing – and now, the 26-year-old is a real-life Daytona 500 winner!
Image credit: NASCAR on X
Sim racers making the move to real racing is not a new concept anymore. James Baldwin did it, as did Jimmy Broadbent, Moritz Löhner and numerous others. William Byron did so at 15 years of age. The American had competed with great success in iRacing up until that point, and this success transfered to actual racing cars as well.
Several titles in lower-tier series later, Byron took the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series title – the series below the famous Cup Series. Moving up to the highest rung on the US stock car ladder in 2018, Byron races for Hendrick Motorsports since, complete with the legendary number 24 on his car that Jeff Gordon made famous in the 1990s and early 2000s.
His season results improved steadily. and in 2023, Byron finished third overall in the standings. At this point, the Charlotte native was a ten-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner already, having even driven to victory lane at Daytona before. Not for the 500, though – Byron won the 2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400 on the famous high banks. His best Daytona 500 result ahead of the 2024 season: 21st in 2019.
The 2024 edition of the 500 would be different, however. Although patience was needed, as the race was rained out on the weekend and had to start on Monday instead, with Byron having qualified sixth.
Byron took the restart next to Ross Chastain and managed to be just ahead of the latter starting the final lap – enough to secure the victory, as another full-course yellow was triggered by an incident involving Chastain, Austin Cindric and Corey LaJoie. As the yellow came out after the white flag signalling the final lap, no overtime was added, as NASCAR does otherwise – and Byron took the win.
William Byron, Daytona 500 Champion. “It sounds really damn good“, said the race winner after having climbed from his car. “We laid back and tried to save fuel for most of the race to get up there at the end and make some moves.” The strategy paid off, and Byron was overjoyed. “I’m just a kid [that went] from racing on computers [to] winning the Daytona 500. I can’t believe it!“
With Byron’s father not being at the Speedway, having stayed home after falling ill, the freshly-crowned Daytona 500 winner added: “This is for him. We’ve been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands here together and watched the races – this is so freaking cool!“
William Byron, 2024 Daytona 500 winner – what do you think about the iRacer’s biggest NASCAR victory? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
Image credit: NASCAR on X
Sim racers making the move to real racing is not a new concept anymore. James Baldwin did it, as did Jimmy Broadbent, Moritz Löhner and numerous others. William Byron did so at 15 years of age. The American had competed with great success in iRacing up until that point, and this success transfered to actual racing cars as well.
Several titles in lower-tier series later, Byron took the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series title – the series below the famous Cup Series. Moving up to the highest rung on the US stock car ladder in 2018, Byron races for Hendrick Motorsports since, complete with the legendary number 24 on his car that Jeff Gordon made famous in the 1990s and early 2000s.
His season results improved steadily. and in 2023, Byron finished third overall in the standings. At this point, the Charlotte native was a ten-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner already, having even driven to victory lane at Daytona before. Not for the 500, though – Byron won the 2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400 on the famous high banks. His best Daytona 500 result ahead of the 2024 season: 21st in 2019.
The 2024 edition of the 500 would be different, however. Although patience was needed, as the race was rained out on the weekend and had to start on Monday instead, with Byron having qualified sixth.
William Byron: Taking The Lead At The Right Time
An exciting, but relatively incident-free race then produced a spectacular finish. Byron got a slight bump by his teammate Alex Bowman, which caused him to spin around Brad Keselowski – in total, 18 cars were involved in “The Big One”. After a red flag period, four more laps were all that was left.Byron took the restart next to Ross Chastain and managed to be just ahead of the latter starting the final lap – enough to secure the victory, as another full-course yellow was triggered by an incident involving Chastain, Austin Cindric and Corey LaJoie. As the yellow came out after the white flag signalling the final lap, no overtime was added, as NASCAR does otherwise – and Byron took the win.
William Byron, Daytona 500 Champion. “It sounds really damn good“, said the race winner after having climbed from his car. “We laid back and tried to save fuel for most of the race to get up there at the end and make some moves.” The strategy paid off, and Byron was overjoyed. “I’m just a kid [that went] from racing on computers [to] winning the Daytona 500. I can’t believe it!“
With Byron’s father not being at the Speedway, having stayed home after falling ill, the freshly-crowned Daytona 500 winner added: “This is for him. We’ve been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands here together and watched the races – this is so freaking cool!“
William Byron, 2024 Daytona 500 winner – what do you think about the iRacer’s biggest NASCAR victory? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
