There are plenty of takeaways from the 2024 Daytona 500, but it was clearly a special moment for Hendrick Motorsports. NASCAR's winningest team not only claimed its ninth Daytona 500 but the victory also came on the very same day of the team's first race in 1984.
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In the year HMS is celebrating its 40th Anniversary, winning the Daytona 500 feels like it was meant to be.
And as special as that is, it was even sweeter that William Byron took Hendrick's famed No. 24 to victory lane.
Byron celebrated the win in victory lane. Right after the post-race interview, Rick Hendrick, the man who gave Byron a chance, caught up to him and gave him a big hug.
Byron's Daytona 500 victory snapped the HMS' winless drought in "The Great American Race." Before the No. 24 captured the checkered flag, it had been 10 years since NASCAR's winningest team had won the race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the last driver to win the Daytona 500 for Hendrick in 2014.
Hendrick and team vice-chairman, Jeff Gordon, had plenty to reflect on when Fox Sports' Jamie Little interviewed them.
"I'm telling you; you couldn't write the script any better 24 in 24... When we came down here the first time we came here, we didn't think we should be here," Hendrick said. "We felt so out of place, and to win this on the 40th, to the day... and tying the record now, it's just awesome."
Gordon drove the No. 24 to three Daytona 500 victories of his own and was asked what it meant to see the 24 back in victory lane.
"It's so cool, what this is going to do for this team, for Axalta and all our partners and William Byron," Gordon said. "He was already a superstar, ... he's just gone to another level of being a superstar."
The way Byron was able to pull off the win, it sure felt like it was Gordon back out there behind the wheel of the No. 24.
This year is going to be special for Hendrick Motorsports it appears.
