The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series kicked off with the Daytona 500 saw a chaotic last lap and the race ending under caution. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who was ahead when the caution flag flew, was awarded the win while his teammate Alex Bowman secured the P2 and JGR’s Christopher Bell secured the P3.
The end of the race created a lot of controversies. Some fans wanted the race to enter under green and claimed NASCAR did the wrong thing by ending the race early. This was an invalid argument, considering Austin Cindric, who got spun out by Ross Chastain, was sliding back onto the track and was in a vulnerable position.
The second controversy was the fact that in-car camera footage from the No:48 Chevy Bowman showed he was ahead of Byron when the yell lights turned on before them. Unfortunately for him, the lights took time to turn on as yellow lights at the tower were already flashing. While talking about the whole scenario and the loss to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bowman admitted that it was a heartbreaking moment.
I knew I was in front of him [William Byron] when the yellow light on the track came on, but I don’t think that’s what they go by, right? They go by the yellow light in the tower or whatever. To be honest, I felt like they waited a long time to throw the yellow light, and I think that’s the reason I wasn’t more bummed about it than I was. To lose the Daytona 500 by six-thousandths of a second or whatever it was is definitely heartbreaking, but they could have thrown the caution a bit earlier and made that margin bigger. Bowman said via Dale Jr. Download reloaded.
This would’ve been a bigger controversy if William Byron wasn’t an HMS driver
One of the major reasons NASCAR resolved the controversies surrounding the 2024 Daytona 500 finish was that the drivers in question came from the same team. For Hendrick Motorsports, regardless of who won, it’s an impressive 1-2 finish day.
If the win were taken away from Bowman or Byron by Ross Chastain, for instance, there would’ve been more drama online, and NASCAR would’ve been forced to clarify more. At the end of the day, the driver has moved on from the incident and focussed on the next race.
2024 is an important year for Bowman as he is on a mission to prove himself after ending the 2023 season winless after a mid-season injury. He hopes to end the winless streak early and secure a spot in the playoffs.
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