Rick Hendrick reveals he left Daytona 500 early, shares reaction to William Byron winning

For the 10th time in Hendrick Motorsports history, Rick Hendrick finds another one of his cars in victory lane for the Daytona 500. William Byron captured his second straight win in the Great American Race.

Rick Hendrick has accomplished all there is to do in NASCAR. As a team owner, his drivers have risen to the top of the Cup Series multiple times over. In William Byron, he likely has his next superstar.

The wins have been coming. To snag back-to-back Daytona 500s is massive. It really feels like a championship is inevitable at this point. If not this year, then soon.

Mr. H went home during the rain delay, but watching Byron win again was special for the Cup team owner.

“No, I was in shock, too. I had no idea what was going on,” Hendrick said to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “Then when I saw him come off the corner I said, ‘We’re going to win this thing.’ Anyway, I’ve been leading this race and coming off of [Turn] Four and get wrecked a bunch. It’s never over until it’s over. I guess I was just a little numb because it was just the last lap. I mean, you just, you know you’re just holding your breath.

“What I do, every time there’s a wreck like that, I look for my cars. Where, did they come out the other side or are they spinning in the grass? You’re so tense just trying to survive in the race and then you just don’t have a chance for the emotion to come. Like, I was real excited last year and I ran out there and I don’t know how I did it because I had a bad knee. I beat [Jeff] Gordon out there and he said, ‘How’d you get out here?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know I just ran.'”

To win another Daytona 500 and become the winningest organization in the history of the race outright is a big deal. Hendrick Motorsports now has one more Daytona victory than Petty Motorsports.

Rick Hendrick: Daytona 500 is ‘special’

While talking to Pockrass, Rick Hendrick touched on Daytona itself. The race and the track and the history of it all makes it the Great American Race.

It means everything to everyone who has ever put on a racing helmet.

“Daytona is such a special place and everybody wants to win it,” Hendrick continued. “You see guys like Kyle Busch that are disappointed that have won everything and never got a chance. Or Darrell and Dale Earnhardt Sr. that won everything down for years and finally got his trophy.

“So, you gotta, there’s a lot of variables, and I think the cars are tighter, packs are tighter. I don’t know how you run three abreast any laps without somebody moving and making a mistake and touching and it just takes out half the field. I guess from the attention to the hoping that you’re not in it to just after all that’s over and you’ve won it.”

William Byron delivered another Daytona 500 to Rick Hendrick. Is that championship trophy the next big award he gives Mr. H?