'Weird Winners' Take Charge Early This NASCAR Season

It's early, but this start to the NASCAR season is ... well, strange. Anyone who follows the sport already knows that.

“I don’t think we’re weird, but it kind of is a little bit weird,” William Byron crew chief Randy Fugle told reporters after Byron won Sunday's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The victory was a first for Byron in 26 races. It followed two consecutive wins by first-time Cup winners in Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell.

"The start of the 2021 season has included unexpected names, and Sunday’s race proved that trend would continue on intermediate tracks," noted Alex Andrejev of the Charlotte Observer. "While drivers like Martin Truex Jr. (third-place finish), Kevin Harvick (fifth place) and Denny Hamlin (11th) were a presence in the top-10 throughout the race, so were drivers like McDowell (sixth), Chris Buescher, who won the first stage and led the second-most number of laps with 57, and Tyler Reddick, who finished in second place to tie his career-best Cup Series finish. Seven different teams finished in the top 10."

Byron, McDowell and Bell may indeed be strange winners on the early NASCAR circuit. But they are winners nonetheless.