Like an increasing number of NASCAR fans, William Byron has been a big fan of CELSIUS for several years. The energy drink, which features healthy-energy formulas clinically proven to offer significant health benefits to dedicated consumers and racers, has taken off and become more popular both in the NASCAR world and in the United States as a whole.
Just before the start of the 2025 Cup Series season, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet announced a new partnership with the energy drink brand, making him the newest CELSIUS athlete.
Let's just say that the return on investment has already been really, really good.
A few days later, Byron was holding up a CELSIUS can in Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway, having become just the fifth driver to ever win back-to-back Daytona 500s.
The 27-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina was thrilled to be able to reward the company so quickly after the partnership started.
"It started pretty recently, just right before the season here," Byron told Beyond the Flag. "It's cool because I've been drinking CELSIUS for a while and have really incorporated that into my fitness aspect of life, so I enjoy it when I'm training."
After winning the Daytona 500, he admits the partnership could not have started off better.
"Now to be able to be partnered with them on the motorsport side, and to be able to incorporate it into my weekend at the track, is really special," he said.
There are now dozens of CELSIUS flavors as the brand continues to expand its presence as the go-to drink for athletes and fans worldwide, and Byron gave us his personal top three.
"I like the Orange and the Strawberry, and the Arctic flavor is really good too," he said. "So yeah, those are great ones."
Coming to the white flag in ninth place, it appeared as though Byron's shot at back-to-back "Great American Race" wins may be 2.5 miles from coming to a close, and his first official CELSIUS-sponsored victory would have to wait. But about 1.25 miles later, he found himself in the lead.
Byron worked his way to seventh place off of turn two of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval when the six drivers in front of him were all either collected or bottled up by a huge wreck.
But the No. 24 Chevrolet got through unscathed, and that was enough to go back-to-back.
Things might not have looked great at first, but Byron knew anything was possible.
"In some ways, I did, just because anything can happen in these races," he admitted. "And I feel like you put yourself in the position at the end of the race just to have a shot to have a good finish, and run and compete for the win, so yeah, I think that I just stayed optimistic and hoped that I could put myself in a good spot."
He admits that some of it came down to being in the right place at the right time. But he is also a five-time drafting track winner at the age of 27, with three of those wins coming at Daytona, so it's obvious that there's a lot more to it than luck.
"I was definitely very fortunate and just felt like I was at the right place, right time, for sure," he said. "I had made one move right before that just to position myself in the right place, and I felt like I kind of made my bed at that point, so I was just going to stay in the throttle and try to be on the other side of it. And fortunately, I was.
"I think you honestly control what you can control, and there have been a lot of races where I've crashed out or not finished, but the races that we're in contention, I feel like we've capitalized, and that's just a testament to our preparation and sort of just the way that we go about it."
After being on the wrong side of one of those wrecks the following weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he is a two-time winner, while running at the front, Byron is excited to get back to Circuit of the Americas. After winning there last year, he is looking forward to running the new layout.
"I'm intrigued to see how it goes," he stated. "I think that it's not extremely different. There's still the esses and turn one and the stadium section, and the end of the lap there, so it's not that different. It just has two different corners. It really just shortens up the track significantly, and you don't have that whole back section, and I don't even know really how good I was in that back section, so I'm excited to get there this weekend and try that new challenge."
Sunday's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix is set to be shown live on Fox from Circuit of the Americas beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!