Winner's Circle: William Byron '24 'Axalta Daytona 500' Chevy Camaro

In 2023 Lionel Racing upgraded its Nascar Authentics brand by creating a new sub line, 'Winner's Circle.' These new waves of cars come in a plastic bubble package and feature raced-won versions of race cars from all three of Nascar's top series. 

Now, this isn't the original WInner's Circle line. Long-time collectors like myself remember the heydays of Nascar diecast, and back in the 90's Winner's Circle diecast were 1/64 scale race cars that came fastened to a plastic pit stall complete with 1/64 scale pit crews rushing to make adjustments. This is not that, but it is a noteworthy effort made by Lionel to add a little something extra to their mainline retail product. For a closer look at this Winner's Circle Daytona 500 Winning Chevy Camaro, Read on...

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The real thing: William Byron wheeling his number 24 Camaro on the high banks of Daytona February 18th, 2024 (Photograph by Joel Bray)

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Opening up the bubble casing reveals a collector card, and a 1/64 scale race car mounted on a plastic rounded victory circle stand with a golden nameplate. The car can be freed from its pedestal with a triangular screw driver. It's choose to take my 1/64s off of the bases, but to each their own. Either way, you're going to really enjoy the detail that Lionel is now able to replicate on a three-inch slice of diecast zinc. The comedy of William Byron's success at the Daytona 500 is that up until his win, he'd never finished on the lead lap of a Daytona 500. To say this hadn't been his bast track isn't entirely correct as his first cup victory would occur at the facility in 2020. But it was an incredible moment nonetheless. Littered in confetti, William Byron's Axalta Chevy is a prime raced won 1/64.

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Notes:
The car's best feature is the quality of the print and paintwork. The model display's meticulously placed confetti and damage from contact during the race. There are very few omissions that I can find and this is a hat's off effort to the Lionel design team. Job well done.