Mark Beech

2 weeks ago | si.com | Mark Beech

The thrilling finish of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte was as swift as it was stunning. With six laps to go, Cup veteran Ross Chastain drove his No. 1 Chevy to the inside of William Byron and swept past him to the front. Byron had led 283 laps to that point. Chastain had led just two. But there would be no more lead changes from there on out. The race was over. “[It] just sucks,” Byron told Amazon Prime’s Trevor Bayne after the race. His disappointment was understandable.

2 weeks ago | si.com | Mark Beech

Jaxon Bell may be all of 22 years old, but it’s not wrong to think of him as a late bloomer. Even though he didn’t start racing until 2023, he's currently the No. 2 driver in the Toyota GR Cup Series. The kid knows something about fast starts. The son of former IndyCar driver—and current Fox Sports racing commentator—Townsend Bell, Jaxon grew up in Los Angeles with little practical connection to racing outside of his family’s annual trips to the Indianapolis 500.

2 weeks ago | si.com | Mark Beech

The green flag will drop on NASCAR’s longest race at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday night, marking the start of the 66th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The event has become a Memorial Day tradition on the Cup circuit, and its prestige has risen to rival that of the Indianapolis 500. (More on that in a moment.) It’s one of the crown jewels of the NASCAR season.

1 month ago | si.com | Mark Beech

From his spot atop the pit box of driver William Byron’s number 24 Chevrolet, crew chief Rudy Fugle sits at the top of NASCAR’s Cup Series. Together, the pair won their second straight Daytona 500 in February, and Byron currently leads the series in points. They’ve been together at Hendrick Motorsports since 2021, winning 13 races and finishing in the top 10 in every season. Though they have yet to win a championship, there’s a sense that it’s only a matter of time.

Feb 17, 2025 | si.com | Mark Beech

There was more to William Byron’s second straight Daytona 500 victory on Sunday night than just luck. There was a fast car and hard racing, of course. But there was also something providential about the way his number 24 Chevrolet took the checkered flag—almost like someone was running supernatural interference for him. Twice in the race’s final laps, Byron was nearly taken out by the types of catastrophic wrecks that have made the Great American Race such a captivating crapshoot.