Controversial Daytona 500 Ending Has NASCAR Fans Up Fired Up

The 66th Daytona 500 was one for the history books for William Byron and team owner Rick Hendrick.

Byron, one of NASCAR‘s fastest-rising starts, won the Great American Race for the first time. While Hendrick won his ninth Daytona 500 on the 40th anniversary of his team’s first race.

But the victory was not without controversy, and fans were not at all happy about the result.

Byron began the week with a middle-of-the-pack qualifying effort but then had to go to the back of the field after a wreck in his qualifying race on Thursday.

He worked his way up toward the front of the pack as the laps were ticking down in the 500. But that’s when things got a bit chaotic.

Byron was running in fifth position with nine laps remaining in the race. He then received a push from teammate Alex Bowman and the two began making their way forward. But the push proved too significant and Byron lost control of his car.

He turned left and made contact with second-place running Brad Keselowski. That sent Keselowski careening across the track and took out several of the top-running cars in the race.

Byron and Bowman, however, got through unscathed.

The race restarted with four laps remaining and the same two cars found their way to the front.

Then a wreck occurred just as the due were crossing the finish line to begin the final lap. NASCAR officials determined that the leaders had already crossed the start/finish line, meaning the race was official. They also ruled that Byron was ever-so-slightly ahead of Bowman, giving him the win.

That meant the two cars responsible for wrecking a majority of the field went on to finish 1-2 in the biggest race of the year, and fans were not happy.

Restrictor plate racing always requires a little bit of luck. But it seems a bit unjust for things to happen like they did on Monday night.