The 2025 Daytona 500 winner, William Byron, has found himself at the center of a bizarre conspiracy theory after his dramatic race win and victory celebration. During his post-race burnout, Byron made slight contact with the outside wall. Some NASCAR fans believe that was completely intentional.
The speculation? That Byron’s team Hendrick Motorsports may have tried to cover up potential rule violations by damaging the car before post-race inspection.
The Controversy Behind William Byron’s Burnout
The speculation comes from a long-standing belief in the NASCAR community that teams sometimes intentionally damage their cars after a race to make it harder for officials to inspect the minimum ride height criteria.
Hendrick Motorsports specifically has been involved in such scenarios in the past, with the infamous 2011 pre-race chat between Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, where Johnson was asked to “crack the back of the car.”
This theory was also fueled by a recent past incident in the Craftsman Truck Series, where Parker Kligerman was disqualified due to a very low ride height being detected during post-race inspection, resulting in him losing the race win. Landon Cassill commented that he had, at one time, used this tactic of damaging his car to cover up a potential ride height infraction after the race to avoid getting disqualified.
Byron Shuts Down the Rumors
Amid all the theories, in a tweet posted by NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass, Byron has addressed the situation directly. “There’s conspiracies that I hit the wall on purpose on my burnout. I’m just really clumsy,” he said. His response was straightforward, dismissing the conspiracy as just a really clumsy move.
However, the debate continues online, with some fans insisting that Byron’s move was intentional, and NASCAR teams will always look for ways to bend the rules. Others argue that this theory is being blown out of proportion and that he simply got too close to the wall in the heat of the moment.
While the controversy may not go away anytime soon, one thing is certain — Byron is now the youngest two-time Daytona 500 champion, and no conspiracy theory can take that away from him.
