If you ask any driver to list the crown jewel races in the NASCAR Cup Series, they will almost unanimously give you the following four: the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500 and the Brickyard 400.
While plenty of drivers in the mid-20th century completed the trifecta of winning the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500, the Brickyard 400 is the newest addition and has only been a part of the schedule since 1994.
With the grand slam only possible in the last three decades, the exclusive list of winning all four at least once consists of just four drivers: Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.
Johnson won each race at least twice, while Gordon is the only driver to have won each race an astounding three times. He nearly completed the grand slam in a single season (1997), with a fourth-place finish in the Brickyard 400 as the only blemish.
| Wins (Titles) | Daytona 500 | Coca-Cola 600 | Southern 500 | Brickyard 400 | |
| Jeff Gordon | 93 (4) | 1997, 1999, 2005 | 1994, 1997, 1998 | 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2007 | 1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 83 (7) | 2006, 2013 | 2003, 2004, 2005, 2014 | 2004, 2012 | 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012 |
| Dale Earnhardt | 76 (7) | 1998 | 1986, 1992, 1993 | 1987, 1989, 1990 | 1995 |
| Kevin Harvick | 60 (1) | 2007 | 2011, 2013 | 2014, 2020 | 2003, 2019, 2020 |
With 312 wins and 19 Cup championships between the quartet (all of whom are top 10 in NASCAR’s all-time win list), arguably the only club more exclusive is the list of seven-time champions.
Plenty of drivers have managed to win three of the four, and that list added a new member on Sunday (July 21): Kyle Larson.
Since joining Hendrick Motorsports at the start of the 2021 season, Larson has been racking up the hardware with a Coca-Cola 600 win in 2021, a Southern 500 win in 2023 and his first Brickyard 400 win a few days ago.
Combine that with the 2021 Cup Series championship, a 2021 Bristol Night Race win (debatably the fifth-most prestigious race) and 21 total wins in the last 3.5 years, and Larson has been rewriting the record books as one of, if not the greatest driver of the 2020s decade.
In the quest to complete all of NASCAR’s majors, there’s only one hurdle that remains for Larson: a Daytona 500.
Larson isn’t the only driver to lack the coveted Harley J. Earl trophy either, and he is now the fourth full-time Cup driver to be one win away from the grand slam.
| Wins (Titles) | Daytona 500 | Coca-Cola 600 | Southern 500 | Brickyard 400 | |
| Kyle Larson | 27 (1) | X | 2021 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Denny Hamlin | 54 (0) | 2016, 2019, 2020 | 2022 | 2010, 2017, 2021 | X |
| Kyle Busch | 63 (1) | X | 2018 | 2008 | 2015, 2016 |
| Brad Keselowski | 36 (1) | X | 2020 | 2018 | 2018 |
Denny Hamlin only needs the Brickyard 400, and he was one blown tire away from completing the set in 2020. Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski — like Larson — have won everything but the Daytona 500.
But with the dramatic changes in superspeedway racing during the last 10-20 years, the Daytona 500 will arguably be the toughest of the four to win for anyone who hasn’t already.
Aggression is at an all-time high and decorum goes out the window as the laps tick down, which has led to rashes of haphazard moves by the field that more often than not cause the finishes of superspeedway races to turn into glorified demolition derbies.
That puts more of the outcomes up to chance and less up to performance, and one needs to look no further than Busch and Keselowski. They’ve been among the best-performing drivers in the Daytona 500 and on superspeedways in the last decade, as Keselowski has a combined seven wins between Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway while Busch is the all-time leader in laps led by a driver who hasn’t won the 500. They’ve been oh-so-close on numerous occasions, only to have the win slip away in a variety of heartbreaking fashions that can’t be counted on two hands.
Larson is at even more of a disadvantage than them, as his results on superspeedway are, for a lack of better words, ugly. In 39 combined starts between Daytona and Talladega, Larson has just one top five: a fourth-place finish at Talladega in April 2022.
That said, he was in serious contention to win the 2023 Daytona 500, as he restarted in the top five with two to go but got sent head-on into the wall in a last-lap crash.
While his stats on superspeedways are well below average — only eight top 10s in 39 starts and an average finish north of 22nd between the two tracks — all it takes is one race, one moment to win the Harley J. Earl trophy.
The other advantage that Larson has over the other three is age.
Busch, Hamlin and Keselowski are all in their 40s or approaching 40, while Larson will be turning 32 years old at the end of July. As long as he continues to enjoy racing in Cup, he will potentially have a dozen or more opportunities to check that final box.
Even then, all four will still have a handful of attempts to win that final outlier. Will one of those four become the fifth driver to complete the grand slam, or will the next grand slam be completed by a driver who wins a bunch of majors in quick succession down the road?
Now that the Brickyard 400 is back on the oval (even if temporarily), it will be an exciting development to watch for years to come.
About the author
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
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Quite informative. Brad Keselowski has come awful close to winning the Daytona 500, but racing ain’t horeseshoes.
Last time I checked Kyle Busch had two championships.
Interesting that Gordon won 3 of the 4 in the same season twice – in back to back years! They mention nearly winning all 4 in 97 due to his 4th place finish at Indy, but in 98 he led 56 laps (2nd only to Dale’s 107) at Daytona before finishing 16th. So he was competitive in both races. Think of this too, had he won those two races he would have won all 4 crown jewel races in two consecutive seasons – 8 in a row! Mind-blowing – imagine what could have been for Jeff if Evernham would have been content to stay where he was and continue to whoop everybody’s *** week in and week out!
I remember how sad I was when Evernham made that announcement. I knew that they were letting something very special slip away. In hindsight it was a terrible decision given Everham’s short tenure as an owner. Not the first guy to take the money and run. There was at least another 5 productive years left in that Gordon/Evernham dynasty.
Me too