William Byron won his second consecutive Daytona 500, dodging a last-lap wreck that collected several contenders.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver became the first back-to-back winner of The Great American Race since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20 and the fifth driver in history to win consecutive Daytona 500s.

Austin Cindric was leading heading to the white flag, but he was collected in a crash that started when Cole Custer slammed into Hamlin, who was passing Cindric for the lead. The contact collected several cars running in the top 10, allowing Byron to scoot past into the lead, followed by runner-up Tyler Reddick, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Briscoe and John Hunter Nemechek.

Byron was running ninth entering the last lap, and he darted high in his No. 24 Chevrolet to avoid the massive wreck. It was a typically chaotic ending to a race that concluded under the lights at Daytona International Speedway shortly after 9:30 p.m. ET after a long rain delay.

“Yeah, obviously some good fortune, but I just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,” Byron told Fox Sports after his 14th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. “I felt like they were getting squirrelly on the bottom. Just obviously fortunate that it worked out in our favor. But just really proud of this team. Worked super hard all week and had an amazing car. Just had a really hard time with the fuel saving and kind of staying towards the front. Crazy. I can’t honestly believe that. But we’re here. So proud of it.”

Hamlin gently blamed Custer for the crash.

“I measured up (Cindric), and got a run on him. I stayed with him long enough where I could kind of control which side I wanted to pass him on, and then we had pulled away from the pack slightly so I knew a run was going to come,” Hamlin said. “(Custer) had a run, and I chose not to block him because these races, you have to live to make it off of Turn 4, and we just didn’t. I thought (Custer) came down. I’m pushing (Cindric) down as low as I can to give him all of the space, and not stopping his run, and I thought he, not hung a left, but steered left and was trying to crowd it

“I understand what he was trying to go for – he’s going for it – all of us are, but in those situations, you’ve got to do it off of (Turn) 4, but we never made it, and someone else won. I don’t even know where (Byron) was running.”

Said Custer: “Everybody was just pushing hard and side drafting hard. Everybody is going for it. This is the biggest race of our lives here in Daytona. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. I had a huge run on (Denny Hamlin). I wish I waited one more corner, but it was such a big run that I just felt like I had to take it. (Chase Briscoe) went with (Hamlin) and then we were kind of hung out and it just didn’t work out there at the end.”

Here is what drivers were talking about after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup season opener.

Cindric led 13 times for a race-high 59 of 202 laps but finished eighth.

“I’m clearly disappointed,” he said. “You take the white, and you’re in the lead. I wish we had a better chance to bring that home for everyone at Team Penske and Ford Performance. It was just an exceptional effort all the way through Speedweeks. There’s definitely a lot to review there, trying to figure out when I need to actually be leading, so just frustrating to be that close.

“Whoever was pushing Denny clearly wrecked him. There was just a ton of momentum with the field getting broken up. I didn’t really know what point of the lap I needed to actually be the leader, it’s just frustrating to be that close.”

The race went into overtime two laps past the scheduled distance because of a caution on Lap 197 for a multicar crash in which Ryan Preece’s No. 60 Ford flipped over, landed on its roof and then violently back on its wheels.

The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver was unhurt after the wreck late in the Daytona 500.

The 10-car crash brought out the third red flag of the race. The first two were for rain as the race started at 2:06 p.m. ET but was stopped after 11 laps and delayed by nearly four hours because of afternoon storms.

Preece, who went airborne in a terrifying wreck at Daytona in August 2023, was able to walk away. The incident began when Christopher Bell lost control after a push from Custer, and his No. 20 Toyota turned into the right side of Preece’s car, which went up in the air on its rear wheels for a few seconds before beginning to tumble.

Several contenders were eliminated by an eight-car crash on the backstretch on Lap 186 of a scheduled 200.

The incident started when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. attempted to block Joey Logano and made contact, causing spins that collected Joey Logano, Noah Gragson, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Todd Gilliland and Cole Custer.

The wreck eliminated Penske teammates Blaney (22 laps led) and Logano (43 laps led), who had won the first two stages.

Stage 1 winner: Joey Logano

Stage 2 winner: Ryan Blaney

Next: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 23, 3 p.m. ET, Fox