Past NASCAR Champions Seek First Daytona 500 Win

Getty Kyle Busch (front) & Brad Keselowski (rear) race at Richmond.

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season officially begins with the Daytona 500 on February 19. Several former champions will seek to conquer this race for the first time.

Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott have celebrated the most significant moment in the sport. They have ended the year as the Cup Series champion. They have also won numerous races at tracks such as Darlington Raceway, Texas Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway among others.

What these champs haven’t done is capture the Great American Race. Larson has attempted this feat nine times, but he has only posted a career-best finish of seventh in 2016 and 2019. His teammate, Elliott, has made seven starts in the Daytona 500 with a career-best finish of second in 2021.

The list continues with Keselowski (13 Daytona 500 starts), Busch (17 Daytona 500 starts), and Truex (18 Daytona 500 starts). The members of this trio have won multiple Crown Jewel events, but the Daytona 500 is the main achievement that has continued to elude them.

Truex & Larson Seek Another Streak-Snapping Win

GettyKyle Larson (top) has no superspeedway wins.

While these former champions have gone winless in the Daytona 500, some members of this group have had some success on superspeedways.

Elliott, for example, has two wins at Talladega Superspeedway. This includes the 2022 playoff race. Busch has one victory at Talladega Superspeedway and one at Daytona International Speedway (summer race).

Keselowski has the most superspeedway success compared to the other members of this group. He has one summer win at Daytona and a whopping six wins at Talladega.

The same does not hold true for Truex and Larson. The 2017 champion and the 2021 champion have not celebrated a win at either of NASCAR’s main superspeedways.

Larson’s closest brush with Victory Lane was the 2022 Geico 500 at Talladega when he finished fourth overall. Truex has three fifth-place finishes at Talladega and two runner-ups at Daytona.

The 2023 Daytona 500 will provide both Larson and Truex with another opportunity to finally snap this streak. Though they will first have to avoid the inevitable wrecks that will occur throughout the Crown Jewel event.

Multiple Champions Captured the Daytona 500

GettyJoey Logano celebrates a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

There are five active champions that have not celebrated a Daytona 500 win. They will all try to snap this streak in 2023 while a two-time champion, Joey Logano, will seek his second Daytona 500 win.

Logano is part of an elite list of NASCAR drivers — those who won both the championship and the Daytona 500. This standout list also includes such names as Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, and Lee Petty.

Logano has multiple championships and one Daytona 500 win, but there is another driver who seeks a title of his own. Denny Hamlin has won the Daytona 500 win three times — 2016, 2019, and 2020. However, he has fallen short of winning the championship despite finishing top four in points six times.

If Hamlin can win the fourth Daytona 500 of his career in 2023, he will set himself up to pursue a championship once again. He will kick off his year by securing a spot in the playoffs, and he will join the list of drivers with at least four Daytona 500 wins.