William Byron discloses $80,000,000 Hollywood actor as the most unexpected person to congratulate him for his Daytona 500 triumph

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron disclosed receiving unforeseen praise from a Hollywood actor having a net worth of $80,000,000.

The #24 Chevrolet driver clinched the season-opener victory at The Great American Race. Despite starting his Daytona 500 run all the way back from P18, the 26-year-old HMS driver resurged from his back-of-the-pack start to acing the longest race on the NASCAR calendar at P1.

Byron claimed his 11th NASCAR Cup Series win after fighting a close battle for contention with Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric before taking the checkered flag under caution. With his triumph on the 2.5-mile track, William Byron replenished his team Hendrick Motorsports' nine-year Daytona 500 victory drought.

The #24 driver's impeccable display was praised by his crew chief Rudy Fugle, team owner Rick Hendrick, and many more. However, according to Byron, the most unexpected of them all was getting congratulated by Jake Gyllenhaal. Byron revealed the same on Instagram’s NASCAR broadcast channel.

William Byron disclosed:

"Hey guys! Man what a 24 hours it's been. Gonna have to let it sink in for a while. I had a lot of people close to me that reached out. The most unexpected though has to be Jake Gyllenhaal."

William Byron unraveled his on-track dilemma moments before securing his maiden Daytona 500 victory

Byron, the 2024 Daytona 500 winner, faced a dilemma during the final lap after a bump by teammate Alex Bowman, but Brad Keselowski couldn't escape the chaos, resulting in a horrific pile-up.

It happened the moment the white flag was signaled and brought Bowman next to his #24 teammate. Byron was neck-to-neck with the #48 driver, so he was unsure if he dominated the 500-mile run until he noticed Rudy Fugle's emotion.

William Byron opened up about his final-lap perplexity, saying (via CBSSports):

"I didn't really know at that point [whether] we were the leader or not. But it was just a pretty incredible sequence of events. You just don't know how these races are going to end, and you have to try to put yourself in a great spot."

He added:

"I was like, 'Dude I hope he's crying for a good reason. But I guess he was. He was a ball of emotion there. I was still like, did we actually win or not, and then I think Branden [Lines, Byron's spotter] came on the radio and said that we were first."