To paraphrase Phil Connors, played by the irrepressible Bill Murray, in the classic 1993 movie Groundhog Day:
“When the diehard NASCAR fan saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of NASCAR Nation and basking in the warmth of the Daytona 500, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.”
And that, dear readers, is just how I feel as I look forward to Sunday’s 67th running of the Great American Race. I cannot wait. Let me just express that a little more effusively: I cannot freaking wait.
When the green flag drops on the 2025 Daytona 500, only eight active wheelmen — now that old seven-time Jimmie Johnson has made the field — will know the warm glow of winning NASCAR’s biggest race and hoisting aloft the Harley J. Earl trophy in victory lane, showered in confetti. Those winners, just for the record, are the aforementioned Johnson (2006, 2013), current Cup Series champion Joey Logano (2015), three-time winner Denny Hamlin (2016, 2019, 2020), Austin Dillon (2018), Michael McDowell (2021), Austin Cindric (2022), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2023), and last but not least, last year’s winner William Byron.
So, without much need for the process of elimination, there are plenty of big-name drivers in the field jonesing for the opportunity to know just how it feels to etch their name into Daytona 500 history. And five veterans in particular will be hoping that this year is finally their year. Truth is, plenty of famous drivers never won the 500: Tony Stewart, Texas Terry Labonte and Mark Martin to name just three. As with life, nothing is guaranteed. But could one of these current famous five make their way to victory lane in NASCAR’s ultimate crown jewel race?
Chase Elliott (9 starts)
The 2020 Cup champion and seven-time straight Most Popular Driver is looking for his first 500 victory in his 10th start. The closest he came was when he emerged from the carnage of a huge last lap crash in 2021, when he finished runner-up to McDowell. Elliott has won at the Daytona road course and twice at Talladega Superspeedway. Chase’s Dad, Awesome Bill from Dawsonsville, won the 500 twice (1985, 1987). Could Chase follow in his Dad’s footsteps this Sunday and make it a father-son combo? Don’t rule him out.
Ryan Blaney (10 starts)
Blaney finished a relatively distant second in the 2017 Daytona 500, and then was edged out by Hamlin by a mere 0.014 seconds in 2020 — then the closest ever finish. Three of Blaney’s career 13 victories have come at Talladega and he picked up the checkered flag in the 2021 summer Daytona race. Blaney just missed out on a back-to-back title at Phoenix Raceway in November and has finished 2-1-2 in his last three races.
Brad Keselowski (15 starts)
Keselowski has a best finish of third in the Great American Race all the way back in 2014, but has led 112 laps in the last three Daytona 500s. Each year it seems he’s in the mix before something untoward happens. “It’s the only crown jewel I don’t have, we’ve done a lot to prepare for it,” Keselowski said during this year’s media day. “There’s never been a race I prepared more for every year than the Daytona 500. I feel like we’ve been so close, can’t wait to see if we could break through in 2025.” Maybe, just maybe Brad.
Kyle Busch (19 starts)
Like Keselowski, there’s not much Busch hasn’t won beyond the biggest race of all. He came really close in 2019, finishing in the first loser spot, to then-Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin. Busch has gone 57 races without a win, all the way back to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in 2023, breaking his streak of 19 consecutive seasons with a victory. Could the Richard Childress Racing driver emulate the late, great Dale Earnhardt, who won his first 500 on his 20th attempt?
Martin Truex Jr. (20 starts)
Truex, who finished second in 2016 in a nailbiter of a finish to that man again, Hamlin, qualified for the race on Wednesday in his #56 Tricon Garage Toyota. “A lot of people put a lot of effort and hard work into doing this,” Truex said. “It’s going to be a fun week racing with them. Hopefully, we can have a good week and be prepared for a great Sunday.” And with old crew chief Cole Pearn assuming crew chief duties for the first time since he retired five years ago, maybe lightning will finally strike for Truex. If it does, he will undoubtedly be a popular winner.
Worth noting too that seven drivers have marked their first ever Cup Series victory in the historic race: Tiny Lund (1963), the legend that is Mario Andretti (1967), Pete Hamilton (1970), Derrike Cope (1990), Sterling Marlin (1994), Michael Waltrip (2001), Trevor Bayne (2011), McDowell (2021) and Cindric (2022).
Just as Harrison Burton did in the summer Daytona race the last time we were at the hallowed two-and-a-half mile circuit, could we see another first-time Cup winner on Sunday? In the Great American race, you just never know.
Danny starts his 12th year with Frontstretch in 2018, writing the Tuesday signature column 5 Points To Ponder. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.
As always, total crapshoot.