Axalta returned to Victory Lane in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16 as the primary sponsor on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1 driven by William Byron.
Byron, the defending winner of the 2024 Daytona 500, became only the fifth driver to win the Great American Race in back-to-back seasons, and, at 27, the youngest driver to ever win the event twice.
Byron took advantage of a late crash with timely maneuvering to capture the win. He was in ninth place on the backstretch of the last lap when leaders Denny Hamlin, Cole Custer and Austin Cindric got together. Byron found a hole on the outside, clearing the field and holding off Tyler Reddick to the finish line.
“Just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,” Byron said in a news release from Hendrick Motorsports. “I felt like they were getting squirrelly on the bottom, and I was honestly going to go third lane regardless because I was probably sixth coming down the back.
“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.”
The win was also team owner Rick Hendrick’s 10th Daytona 500 victory, breaking a tie with Petty Enterprises. Hendrick Motorsports now owns the most victories in all four NASCAR Cup Series “crown jewel” events, which also include the Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 and Brickyard 400.
“It was definitely on Rick's mind. He knows stats like that,” Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon said. “He knows numbers, not just in racing, in the automobile business, too. You just ask anybody. He was certainly well aware that he was at nine.”
