Hendrick Motorsports’ driver William Byron earned his first career
victory on Saturday at the Daytona International Speedway. With this win, he booked
his berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The other playoff berth was sealed
by Matt DiBenedetto, who earned the 16th and final Playoff position with a 12th
place effort. Seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson finished 17. Johnson,
who is retiring from full-time, congratulated the winners.

“First and foremost, congratulations to my teammate for getting his first
Cup win like that,” NASCAR quoted Johnson as saying.

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“This setting and the drama that goes into it, that’s a big win for [crew
chief] Chad Knaus and William Byron, really happy for those guys,” Johnson
continued.

“I really feel like we had a way to transfer to win or point our way in
the way it went the first two stages and things just got ugly in Turn 1.
Unfortunate, but that’s plate racing,” Johnson said.

“We had a really good car and last couple months we’ve been really
getting our act together and running well. Really disappointed to not be in the
Playoffs. That was the number one goal to start the year,” Johnson further
added.

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According to a report in NASCAR, Byron took the lead from Denny Hamlin on
an overtime restart with two laps to go. With cars spinning out behind him, he
was ultimately able to hold off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott
by a blink-of-the-eye .119-second.

Hamlin finished third, followed by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin
Truex Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports’ driver Bubba Wallace turned in a
season-best fifth-place finish. Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Brendan Gaughan,
Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-10.

“I’m just extremely blessed and this is incredible,” said Byron.

“It’s been a hard couple of years in the Cup Series and trying to get my
first win and gel with this team. These guys did an awesome job today and got
us in the Playoffs and it’s amazing. This is probably the hardest track to
points-race,” said Byron who only had a four-point advantage over Johnson for
the final playoff transfer position entering the race.

The 10-race NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin next Sunday.