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Daytona Beach, Fla. – Denny Hamlin thought he was in the right place on the last round of Sunday’s Daytona 500. Cole Custer saw an opportunity. William Byron collected the checkered flag.
Byron went from the seventh to the first time on the back when he crashed with cars to win the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row.
Contact between Custer and Hamlin caused the incident that changed the outcome of the race.
“At the end of the day, you push just as hard as possible to win and push the Daytona 500,” Custer said after finishing 21st place.
‘… I wish I waited a few more angles (to take the lead), but I had such a big run from (Chase Briscoe), I decided to take it on the back. I just have to look closer to the repetition to see if I’m set too hard, or if I was beaten in the back a bit or whatever it was. Something was too much. “
Hamlin said he was using a run to make a pass Austin Cindric for Turn 2 lead, which at least put Hamlin in position for a moment to win his fourth Daytona 500.
“I had him in a vulnerable place where he couldn’t block,” Cindric said Hamlin. “I thought a lot,” Ok, the run comes from the high side, let me get up there and control it. ”
Custer followed Hamlin and then moved to the upper lane after a pressure from Briscoe.
“(Custer) came with such a big run,” said Hamlin, who was the 24th place. “… it would be good for one of us, but it didn’t do well either.”
Hamlin said he advised Custer after the race.
“I just told him, from the experience I had in this race, you have to get off (turn) 4, then you can turn left, do what you need to do, make contact,” Hamlin said. “I just thought a little too early, but not everyone was going to do it the way I would. This is not to say that I knew the right way. ‘
Custer, in the debut for Haas Factory Team, said he would be with “positive and negative negative factors.
“You got a shot at the Daytona 500, so you are definitely bitter about it,” he said. “It’s the biggest race in your life and you had a chance and didn’t win. At the end of the day, new team, new people and how much they had to work on this car and still had a chance to conquer, so I think there are some positive aspects for it too. “
Byron said on Monday after watching the last round, he had a better idea of how he went through it.
“When I got the chance to watch it, it made a lot more sense in my head of what happened and when the camera saw in the car,” he said. ‘… I made the move to go to the third lane and just expect to get a turn of (turn) 4 and to see the accident and be some kind against the wall and that by Get, was a good timing for sure. ‘
After cleaning the accident, Byron held quickly to beat Tyler Reddick for the win. Nascar did not throw the warning until Byron crossed the finish line. With the accident on the rear and emergency equipment in the area, Nascar allowed the race to end under green, knowing that the cars would delay after crossing the finish line.
“I think honestly if I looked (before the end), I think Reddick would have found me and probably succeeded,” Byron said.