By Luke Essig, Staff Writer

The Daytona 500, one of the most NASCAR famous races on the planet, went down in dramatic fashion on Sunday. 

After the opening 11 laps, the race was red-flagged after a downpour started. Five hours later, the race finally picked back up. Denny Hamlin, who was in eighth place on the starting grid, was forced off the track after a collision on lap 63 of Stage 1, which ended in a Joey Logano win.

Logano’s teammate, Ryan Blaney, started beside him in stage two. While Logano started off slow, all hell broke loose behind him in the spirit of the Daytona 500. A huge crash involving the driver who started first position, Chase Briscoe, and NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson left more than eight cars damaged. 

This collision caused a stoppage in the race, which restarted with Blaney and Chris Buescher on the front row. Again, in stage two, a stoppage was warranted for debris on the track, which gave drivers the opportunity to fuel up. Blaney finished in first for stage two, even though Austin Cindric had led for most of the race.

With less than 60 laps remaining, the Daytona 500 was led by Bubba Wallace, Blaney and Kyle Busch, all of whom likely to be some of the first to finish. Racing was paused because of more debris, giving drivers one last chance to pit before the home stretch. Cindric, who won the Daytona 500 three years ago, led the drivers out of the pit.

Lap 186, 93% of the way done with the race, marked the beginning of the end for this race. Logano was battling out with Rickey Stenhouse Jr. for a top position when they collided and caused a major, race-changing crash that knocked out both of them, along with Chase Elliott and Logano’s teammate, Blaney, out.

With four laps to go, Toyota driver Christopher Bell skimmed the wall, which caused him to lose control and collide with the back of Ryan Preece. Preece’s Ford went fully airborne, flipping over and causing damage to four other cars in the process. Neither driver was seriously injured in the collision that sent the race into overtime, the sixth time in the last eight years this has happened.

It was looking positive for Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who was in a three-man race for first place in overtime with Cindric and Cole Custer, when they collided and pushed the three of them out of winning contention.

This crash opened up a perfect avenue for William Byron, the Chevrolet driver who took advantage of this opportunity to win the Daytona 500 for himself for the second year in a row. Tyler Reddick finished second with his personal best and Jimmie Johnson finished third. Pole holder Chase Briscoe finished fourth. Kyle Busch, still going for his first Daytona 500 win after being the betting favorite at +900, finished 34th.