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William Byron wins at Daytona, picks up 1st career win (8-29-20)



Headline Photo Courtesy: NASCAR Twitter Page

By: Becca Cottingham-LegacyMaker Sports Network Head NASCAR Writer, Host of Monster Minutes

We are strapped in for the last race of the regular season. It is Daytona and it will be wild and crazy. The race opens with Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr battling it out. There are sparks flying everywhere in the corners as they are as low as they can be to the track. We are three wide and things are wild. Kevin Harvick makes a huge drop backwards after debris on the front of the car shot the car temperature up. We get the competition caution and William Byron and Alex Bowman are battling it out for positions. The Joe Gibbs teammates linked together and moved to the front. We have had multiple driver changes. After Jimmie Johnson made a bold move by himself and got to tuck back in. Tyler Reddick made the same move and Jimmie Johnson plus additional drivers have a made a run. They used side drafting to make such a great run. With a crazy last lap in stage one Joey Logano wins stage one.

Christopher Bell and Erik Jones lead us to the stage two green flag. Knowing that Clint Bowyer has officially clinched his spot in the playoffs. The Chevy’s and the Fords have come in for gas and go pit stops. Almost all of the cars leading the front of the pack are roughly three to four laps short and trying to save fuel. There are a lot of gambles being made. Daniel Suarez makes a move to try to lead, this will allow Kyle Busch to save a little fuel. The overall speed has dropped since Daniel has taken over. There are several drivers in Fords that should be breaking out because they want to go faster. They are worried that the Chevy’s that pitted will catch them with one to go in stage two. Several drivers break off for fuel, but the rest of the Fords have broken off. So that they have picked up speed. However, the fuel is a huge issue. We have three and four wide racing trying to make moves. As we come down to one to go the battles heat up. Joey Logano wins stage closely followed by multiple other drivers.

Right before stage three gets underway, Denny Hamlin and others got hit with pit road penalties. Martin Truex Jr has been gotten in the front and lead several laps. We seen multiple lanes and moves all over the track. The large group of Chevy’s came down to pit road, quickly followed by Toyota’s. The Ford’s stay out for several more laps before they get fuel. Kyle Busch took the lead of the Chevy’s and Toyota’s line. We get a caution just prior to fifteen to go for an accident. This caution will bring everyone back together and allow the choose rule to be in effect. We are three wide with multiple drivers trying to fight for the win. One wrong move is all it will take. Tyler Reddick got a huge push from Erik Jones and ended up making a bold block. That move got both Kyle Busch and Erik Jones gets loose and we get the big one. Ryan Newman was in that incident along with eight other drivers. There are huge pushes going around everywhere. There was no where for Jimmie Johnson to go and Matt Kenseth slams into him. We will head into overtime and it sure will be a wild ride. They were wrecking on the last lap and blocking was happening everywhere. William Byron makes a bold move and will unofficially become the winner.