NASCAR

6 NASCAR Cup Series Champs Chasing 1st Daytona 500 Win

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By
Jared Turner
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Jared Turner Sports Editor

Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.

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Published11 Feb 2025

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Chase Elliott looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 17, 2023.

When the green flag waves on Sunday’s Daytona 500, Joey Logano will be the only NASCAR Cup Series champion in the field with a Daytona 500 victory.

Remarkably, the other five — and possibly six — champions will all be chasing their first Harley J. Earl Trophy.

Before the engines fire in Central Florida to kick off the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, here’s a breakdown of the champs who’ve yet to prevail in NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

Chase Elliott, 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion

There’s no more shocking absence from the list of Daytona 500 winners than Elliott, NASCAR’s perennial most popular driver. Despite typically being fast at Daytona International Speedway, Elliott has never won a points race of any kind at the fabled 2.5-mile track.

His best finish to date in the Daytona 500 came in 2021, when he took the checkered flag second behind surprise winner Michael McDowell after Logano and Brad Keselowski crashed while batting for the lead with less than half a lap to go.

Kyle Larson, 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion

Widely considered NASCAR’s most talented active driver, Larson has been inexplicably mediocre throughout his career at both Daytona and NASCAR’s other true superspeedway, 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Winless at both venues, the Hendrick Motorsports driver will look to relinquish his reputation as a driver who’s never at his best in the sport’s biggest race — or any of the four superspeedway races on the NASCAR Cup Series’ annual calendar.

Kyle Busch, 2015 and 2019 NASCAR Cup Series champion

No driver past or present has endured more heartache in the Daytona 500 than Busch, who seems to almost always be in the contention to leave the season opener with some coveted hardware but ultimately comes up short for one reason or another. Busch’s best Daytona 500 finish — second-place — came in 2019, but he’s been firmly in the mix on myriad occasions.

This weekend, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will be making his 20th start in The Great American Race. That’s the same number of tries the late Dale Earnhardt needed to finally break through. Busch, of course, competes for Richard Childress Racing — the team with which Earnhardt captured six of his record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series championships. So, who knows? Maybe 20 is the magic number of Daytona 500 starts for RCR drivers with multiple championships.

Brad Keselowski, 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion

Like Busch but unlike Elliott and Larson, Keselowski owns a single points-paying triumph in the NASCAR Cup Series’ annual summertime event at Daytona. The Daytona 500 has been another story, though. Keselowski has come home no better than third in The Great American Race, crossing the finish line in this running position in 2014.

Keselowski’s best opportunity to secure an elusive 500 win was the aforementioned 2021 installment of the event. But he and then-Team Penske teammate Logano weren’t willing to give an inch, and crashed together while going for broke. Keselowski, now the co-owner and a driver for RFK Racing, has a chance on Sunday to become the first owner/driver to win the Daytona 500 since Richard Petty in 1979.

Ryan Blaney, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion

A two-time Daytona 500 runner-up (2020 and 2017), Blaney certainly knows his way around the NASCAR Cup Series’ two true superspeedways. The second-generation driver has won the summertime points race at Daytona (2021), and he’s a three-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner at Talladega — Daytona’s sister track. Of the former champions still in search of their maiden Daytona 500 triumph, Blaney quite possibly has the best chance of getting it done this year based on his successes in the not-too-distant past.

Martin Truex Jr., 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion

Of the half dozen NASCAR Cup Series champions in pursuit of their first taste of Daytona 500 glory, Truex is undoubtedly the biggest longshot. The reason? It’s pretty simple. Having retired from full-time driving at the end of 2024, he is no longer with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). Rather, the 2016 Daytona 500 runner-up will be making a cameo appearance at Daytona with TRICON Garage. That’s a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team aiming to make its Cup Series debut on NASCAR’s grandest stage.

The good news is that TRICON Garage will have technical support from JGR — another Toyota team — but that might not be enough for Truex to be all that competitive or even qualify for the Daytona 500, which he’ll need to do by way of traditional qualifying or Thursday’s qualifying races that will set all but the front row of the starting grid.