DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — William Byron will attempt to become the first driver to win three consecutive Daytona 500s on Sunday at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
But he’ll be doing it in a backup car after his primary machine received serious damage in a crash during Thursday night’s Duel qualifying race.
Interestingly, Byron won his first Daytona 500 in 2024 driving a backup Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron will start 39th in the 41-car field.
“I told my guys it felt just like the primary car,” Byron said of the backup in an interview with FOX Sports. “The guys back at Hendrick Motorsports in the shop worked extremely hard overnight on Thursday night into Friday morning, and it feels identical, honestly.
“So big credit to them, and I couldn’t really tell any differences. We worked on a couple of things yesterday to try to get handling off of both ends of the corners, and I think it’s going to be good.”
Other drivers in backup cars include RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain.
“I have a tremendous amount of confidence in this team and they’ve buckled down and hustled to clean this backup Ford Mustang Dark Horse with the No. 17 Body Guard colors and we’re rockin’ and rolling,” Buescher said after Saturday practice. “We know we were able to in the Duels, and I think we’ve got a good handle on it. We’ve got plenty of laps, so I’m ready for the 500 now. We get to watch this thing unfold at least for the drop of the green and work hard to go up there and be a part of it.”
Meanwhile, other cars had to be rebuilt following Thursday crashes, including the No. 66 MBM Motorsports Ford wheeled by dark horse Casey Mears, who will start 17th.
“The key parts and pieces of the car, I know it was a big job to get it to where it is now, but the undertray and the heights and all that kind of stuff is the same, so we didn’t really bend much suspension,” Mears said Saturday. “It was really slight, so I feel pretty good that the guys got it pretty close.”
