Team Penske's Austin Cindric led the field to the white flag at Daytona International Speedway, 2.5 miles from potentially securing his second Daytona 500 victory in the last four years.
It appeared as though he may get a chance to do it well before actually taking the checkered flag, as 23XI Racing rookie Riley Herbst lost control of his No. 35 Toyota before the run into turn one of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida.
But Herbst was able to gather it back up before spinning out and/or hitting the wall, ironically giving his team owner, Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, another crack at Cindric.
The caution flag was not thrown, nor should it have been.
Where NASCAR could have, and probably should have, thrown a caution flag a lot faster than they did was a few seconds later, when a massive wreck collected both Cindric and Hamlin, among a number of others, on the back straightaway.
The chaos paved the way for Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron to move from seventh to first place and ultimately win the "Great American Race", making him just the fifth driver to ever win it in back-to-back years.
Byron was the obvious winner here; he avoided the wreck while the six drivers ahead of him didn't. He then held off 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick for the entire back half of the lap to take the checkered flag.
Then NASCAR threw the caution flag.
Given just how huge the backstretch pile-up was, there is a legitimate case to be made that NASCAR simply should have thrown the yellow when it unfolded. I understand wanting to hold it on the final lap, and it's fine to take a different approach than you would at lap 50 or something, when you know for a fact that everybody has to come through the accident scene on the next lap.
But that no-call was only controversial in and of itself; it had no bearing on the final outcome. Byron would have won the race either way, and Reddick would have finished in second place either way.
It not only wasn't a "big deal"; it was quite literally a case of being "no deal" at all.
The next race on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is also a superspeedway race, that being the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Last year's race saw a three-wide finish after a chaotic last few laps somehow did not include a massive multi-car pileup. Tune in to Fox on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET for live coverage. Be sure to start a free trial of FuboTV now!