What drivers said after 2025 Daytona 500 won by William Byron

NBC Sports

17-02-2025

William Byron — winner: '"Yeah, obviously some good fortune, but I just trusted my instincts on the last lap there,' Byron said. '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.
'It's obviously really special. It's an amazing race, and obviously a lot of crazy racing out there tonight and just a lot of pushing and shoving. But just really proud of our team. I can't stress that enough. I'm just super thankful for this group and everything that they do in the offseason to get prepared. We plan on trying to win a lot of races this year, so we're not going to stop here. We're going to continue to push forward and try to get to (the championship race at) Phoenix.'
Tyler Reddick — Second: 'Yeah, with that restart with 15 to go, we kind of checked up in the middle and ended up further back than we wanted to be. We didn't really want to, we ducked out of it hoping for the caution. We got it. But we were still lined up 16th there on the green-white-checkered. When they started to spin on the dogleg, I kind of jumped out of line thinking that was going to be it, and we just kept going.
'I knew that me and (Byron) had a good run, and they were throwing big blocks, and when they started spinning on the inside and I had a run on (Byron), I thought, 'Man, if I can just make it through on (Denny Hamlin) and not scrub my speed, I would have had at least an opportunity to do something. All in all, I never really finished a race here unless it was 40 laps down, so I'll take second. We wanted to get a good start to the year, and we scored a lot of points today. So I'm really happy with everyone's effort on this 45 Toyota Camry.'
Jimmie Johnson — Third: 'This feels incredible. I have emotions that I didn't expect to have. I've never been in this position as an owner, and it's really opened up a different set of emotions. And the pride that I have in this result and the pride that I have in this company, now that we're trying to achieve and the journey we're on. I am so satisfied, so happy right now. Excited that we have two cars in the top five. I hope Shaq is watching. Thank you, buddy. We got your car in the top 3. It's been an interesting couple of years and to have our cars come out and be this strong, this Toyota was rocket ship fast. I'm just smiling inside and out.'
Martin Truex Jr. — 37th: 'It's always disappointing when you don't finish no matter what situation especially in a race like this when it's probably our only shot this year. Thanks to TRICON and everybody that helped us put this together. It was fun while it lasted, but unfortunately, we were just wrong place, wrong time there. A big stack up and by the time they got to me, it was really aggressive. Just no time to react and knocked the nose off of the thing. Just unfortunate for all of our guys. We had a fun week down here, making the race. We were hoping to have a lot more fun than that. We were just biding our time, and just in a bad place on the restart there. Don't know when or where or what (his next race is). We will see.'
Helio Castroneves — 39th: 'I tried stopping it and Martin Truex Jr. came really hard and hit me, but I don't think that was the issue. I think the issue was that I guess someone on the bottom hit me from the side and it broke the axle. Disappointed, of course. I was learning so much. It's incredible when you have more laps in it and how you understand the air flow and what the guys are doing, like saving fuel. There were some sketchy moments, but what a shame. I wish I was still out there because there's still more to understand and more to learn. I was starting to get a little more comfortable with the whole process, but it is what it is. I just have to thank NASCAR, as well, to be able to put together this type of a show. Now let's go for the Indianapolis 500! It's such a different show. You know, this has an incredible feeling and incredible energy. Both events are incredible. That's why I decided to do this, and that's why I want to do the Indianapolis 500, as well.'
Ross Chastain — 40th: 'If I would have made some better moves in our No. 1 Chevy like 30 laps earlier, I wouldn't have been back there in the first place. I thought the middle and the top would be a little more dominant and that I could save more fuel in that run and stay upfront. Slowly over the whole first stage, I worked my way from third all the way to basically the back of the field. I just made some bad decisions there and that put us back there with the accordion coming back. I didn't see the hit coming to the right-rear, and then of course, I take out my teammate (Helio Castroneves) on my way to the wall. I hate that for Helio and the No. 91 Chevy team. Our Chevy drove good. We made some progress on handling here this weekend. I'm excited for the future and we'll move onto Atlanta (Motor Speedway).'