DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Daytona 500 pole sitter William Byron looked like he would be a factor to win Sunday’s season opening race at the Daytona International Speedway. The 21 year old second year driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, led 45 laps around the 2.5-mile track on sun filled Sunday afternoon in front of a capacity crowd of 101,000. Only Matt DiBenedetto (49) had led more laps than the Liberty University student.

Byron, reinherited the lead on Lap 122 in his No. 24 Chevrolet and would lead the next 42 laps. He had a strong car under him. At that point of the race, all four Hendrick Motorsports cars were in the top seven. They looked to be back in contention in the Great American Race again.

That’s when everything changed.

Jimmie Johnson was involved in a bizarre pit road accident on Lap 158. Byron, hit pit road under that caution for what he hoped would be the final time of the race. He’d have four fresh Goodyear tires and a fast car to move back through the pack.

He’d do just that.

By the next caution on Lap 173, Byron was back in the top 10. Then, Kyle Larson spun on Lap 180. Chad Knaus thought that new tires were going to be the key, so he brought Byron back down pit road to put on four more tires and set him up for a charge through the field.

He somehow escaped the Lap 190 carnage that collected 18 cars and was there to win it in the end. Then, he was an innocent bystander in the Lap 198 crash on Turn 3 when he had no where to go but get collected in the chain reaction crash. He was hit hard in the drivers side door by Landon Cassill, ending his day with a 21st place finish.

It was the third time in the last five years that the Daytona 500 pole winner crashed out. Unfortunately for HMS, all three of those belonged to them. The last five finishes for Daytona 500 pole winners are – 33rd, 37th, 14th, 17th and now 21st.

The last time a pole winner won was 2000.

Despite the bad ending, Byron and HMS look to be on the cusp of something.