Time is ticking to win The Great American Race for veterans like Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott.
For Busch, he’s had over 20 cracks to win the Daytona 500 but hasn’t found the right set of circumstances to line up for him. After a miserable 2025 season, the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 team got off to a great start in 2026 as Busch put his Chevrolet on pole.
With the field lining up for the final restart with four laps to go, Busch ended up in 12th, sixth on the outside lane. Considering the calamity that 2025 Daytona 500 champion William Byron went through in going from 10th to the win on the final lap, it wasn’t inconceivable that Busch could find a way to win his maiden 500. However, after moving to the bottom not long after the restart, he was shuffled back and eventually bailed all together, falling to 29th as he took the white flag.
As the dust settled, Busch navigated the carnage to finish 15th. This week, Thomas Dunn and Christopher Hansen evaluate whether the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion did all he could, as another opportunity at winning the Daytona 500 fell by the wayside.
You Go For the 500, Every Single Time
Several times during the course of Sunday’s (Feb. 15) Daytona 500, Busch was driving like he had something to prove.
The 63-time Cup race winner paced the field for 19 of the race’s 200 laps. However, the future NASCAR Hall of Famer was not among the top finishers when the checkered flag fell. After running toward the front of the lead pack prior to the Big One on lap 123, Busch endured tough sledding the rest of the afternoon, as he found himself mired mid-pack, with Toyota drivers Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell and Daytona 500 rookie Corey Heim clogging up the field by driving part throttle to save fuel out front.
As the field rounded turn 4 with two laps to go, Busch slowed significantly, bleeding positions as the final lap approached. A split-second decision to drop from the main pack cost Busch a chance to finally silence the critics and win his first Daytona 500.
Despite dodging the chaos that unfolded ahead of him on the final lap, Busch settled for a 15th-place finish when the checkered flag fell. Plain and simple, Busch abandoned any chance at finally winning NASCAR’s most prestigious race after dropping far enough behind the lead pack to avoid being swept up in a multi-car accident.
Yes, he did keep his car clean through the chaos of the final lap, but in doing so, Busch’s losing streak extended to a career-long 94 races, while failing to win the Daytona 500 in his 21st attempt. Fans have grown tired of seeing the Cup champion struggle the past two seasons with not winning races or being a part of the postseason picture.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned former Cup champions in Elliott and Keselowski both ran in the top five in the final laps and both had equal chances to win the 500. While it didn’t pan out for either driver, the important thing was they gave themselves a chance. Busch, on the other hand, decided to play it safe and avoid mayhem for a solid result.
You can go down the list of NASCAR legends, including Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, and none of those Hall of Famers would be content to play the conservative route and avoid being involved in a crash in the biggest race of the season. And all four of those names mentioned have Daytona 500 wins.
Busch’s fans deserve to see their driver up front, channeling his aggressiveness that earned him the nickname “Rowdy” when driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. When the checkered flag fell, Busch chose the safe route and will have to wait another full year before trying for the 22nd time of winning The Great American Race. –Christopher Hansen
Busch Raced With Long-Term Perspective
In acknowledging that both drivers and fans alike want to win, and especially so in the Daytona 500, Busch raced with his head and not his heart. In comparing Busch to the 2025 Byron scenario, falling back to 24th with two laps to go, there just weren’t many options compared to last year’s miracle.
Sure, Busch could’ve feasibly maneuvered lanes and attempted to get toward the top 15, but then he would’ve had to avoid the Carson Hocevar turn 1 crash. And had he survived that, whatever was left in the trioval was waiting for him. Busch could’ve ended up with a wrecked racecar but instead made a call that can pay dividends down the line.
Lest we forget that points racing now has a bigger impact in 2026 with the revamped Chase format. You think points don’t matter? Just ask Busch’s Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon after his crash early in stage three and Ryan Preece as he went into the KFB book of tricks and drove across the finish line backwards.
If the Cup Series veteran is fortunate enough to make the Chase and by 15 points or less, you’ll look back on this day all the way back in February as a decision that paid dividends.
The situation is different if Busch was on a positive trajectory in those final few laps, but by virtue of falling backwards through the field, he had to make the best of a roller-coaster situation. Fighting hard just to get wrecked just another day at the Daytona office even with the potential of a top 10 in his case; and knowing how superspeedway racing is in this day and age, Busch made a sound decision.
At the end of the day, this circumstance was about having to create your own leverage. Busch made a choice to make something happen, and it backfired. Had the crash happened sooner and triggered overtime, he would’ve looked like a genius.
That’s just how racing goes sometimes. It’s not like Texas Motor Speedway back in 2007, where Busch drove a wrecked car to the garage and went home for the day. With the variables changing at every turn, the veteran hedged on a decision based on the trends of speedway racing, which paid off even at the expense of a minuscule opportunity to win the Daytona 500. -Thomas Dunn
Thomas is in his second year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon. He helps manage the 2-Headed Monster Column.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college athletics in the Bay Area, writing about the California Golden Bears and doing play by play broadcasting.
The clock is ticking for Elliott? How old do these guys think he is?Unless he gets seriously injured, it’s nothing but manufactured drama.
You gotta know when to fold ’em, and know when to hold ’em.
You writers at Frontstretch are just bitter because Kyle is straight and has refused to go out with any of you. Get over it.
People have ridden in the back of the pack for years. Dale Jarrett comes to mind. He would just hang on to the draft to stay competitive and then near the end, he would finally get on the accelerator. Nothing new. If Kyle decides it doesn’t look like a good idea to get up in mix, I’d go with his experience over anything else. He got a decent finish by being smart.
Humble Denny and other Toys have spent a lot of laps at the rear of the field on restrictor plate tracks but they go when they have to. Baby Busch didn’t.