William Byron is now a two-time race winner in the NASCAR XFINITY Series after surviving two late Big One’s in the day-late Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
Restarting in overtime, Byron led the field onto the backstretch when Spencer Gallagher was turned into the wall, triggering a multi-car pileup on the final lap. While the wreck itself started prior to the overtime line, the caution wasn’t thrown until after race leader Byron crossed the line, ending the race.
“It’s just a credit to all these guys,” Byron said in victory lane. “We’re extremely blessed to be here and it’s just a lot of hard work from these guys to be here.”
It’s his second XFINITY Series win in 15 starts.
Teammate Elliott Sadler brought his car home second while Dakoda Armstrong rounded out the podium.
Jeb Burton and David Starr rounded out the top-five. Brennan Poole, Joey Logano, Joey Gase, Brendan Vaughan and BJ McLeod rounded out the top-10.
Poole led the field to the green flag last night at 7:49 p.m. He and Ben Kennedy battled for the lead the first three laps, with Kennedy taking control on the fourth. Blake Koch powered by Kennedy on the high side, dropped down in front and took the lead on the fifth lap.
Caution flew for the first time on the eighth lap for rain, and the race was eventually pushed back to Saturday at noon.
After another short delay, we returned to green the following day on Lap 14.
Koch swapped the lead with Daniel Suarez for a lap, on Lap 17, before taking it back on Lap 18 and winning the first stage.
Justin Allgaier opted not to pit and assumed the race lead, which he lost to Poole on the ensuing restart.
Lightning brought out the third caution on lap 37, halting the race for roughly two and a half hours.
Resuming racing on Lap 41, the lead turned into a frenzy, with it going from Kennedy to Ty Dillon and Poole.
Caution flew on lap 50 for a six-car wreck on the frontstretch.
Elliott Sadler took the lead under the caution when the leaders pitted and drove on to win the stage.
The lead went to Byron, who decided not to pit under the stage break.
The action in the third stage was briefly toned down, with the outside line vanishing for three laps. But Dillon, who got shuffled out of the bottom from third, pulled the outside line back toward the front and reclaimed the lead with 16 laps to go.
A two-car wreck in the tri-oval brought out the sixth caution with 14 to go.
The race returned to green for two laps with 10 to go before a two-car wreck in the tri-oval, this time collecting race leader Dillon and Poole, and brought out the seventh caution.
With Logano leading the way, the race resumed with four to go. Racing down the backstretch with three to go, he was bumped out of line and traveled over the grass (but didn’t damage the splitter).
Caution flew for the eighth time with two to go for a 16-car wreck on the backstretch, setting up the run to the finish.
The race lasted two hours, 13 minutes and 56 seconds at an average speed of 116.476 mph. There were 18 lead changes among 19 different drivers and nine cautions for 35 laps.
Sadler leaves with a 59-point lead over Byron.
Firecracker 250 results Daytona 7-1-17 N1715_UNOFFRES
