{"id":475208,"date":"2026-02-14T21:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475208\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T21:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:21:10","slug":"why-so-many-stars-never-win-the-daytona-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475208\/","title":{"rendered":"Why So Many Stars Never Win the Daytona 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

The massive Harley J. Earl trophy is the Stanley Cup of stock car racing. It carries the names of every driver who has won the Daytona 500, from Lee Petty in 1959 to William Byron last year.<\/p>\n

It resides most of race week in the Daytona International Speedway media center, where visitors delight in having photos shot alongside the four-foot-tall trophy.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

Tony Stewart was in the media center Thursday for a press conference in advance of competing in Friday night\u2019s season-opening Craftsman Truck Series race. Before answering questions from media representatives, Stewart busied himself by walking around the trophy and examining some of the long list of names, which include Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, and David Pearson.<\/p>\n

Among the names not on the trophy is Stewart\u2019s. He failed to visit victory lane in 17 attempts and was adamant in proclaiming Thursday that his name will never be found on a Daytona 500 entry list again.<\/p>\n

Stewart is one of the best drivers to never win the 500, but he is far from alone. The list of 0-for-forever drivers at the 500 includes retired notables Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Ned Jarrett, Terry Labonte, Carl Edwards, and Martin Truex Jr.<\/p>\n

\"auto:<\/p>\n

Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Active drivers still looking for win No. 1 in the 500 include Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n

While some of auto racing\u2019s best have failed repeatedly in the 500, it\u2019s worth noting that Derrike Cope, Trevor Bayne, and Michael McDowell own wins in stock car racing\u2019s biggest event.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n

The 500 is one of the hardest races to win. Teams spend much of the off-season attempting to build the perfect car and engine for the race, and there typically is very little difference in speeds posted by the top 15.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

Especially in recent years, winning the 500 means weaving through calamity in the final few laps. Drivers going for a career-defining win take risks beyond common sense, and crashes and overtime often are the result.<\/p>\n

An impressive all-star roster of drivers could be compiled of those who have seemed on the way to 500 wins only to have the door slammed in their face.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Mark Martin lost by inches to Kevin Harvick, and Martin later ended his Hall of Fame career without a win in the 500 and without a Cup championship.<\/p>\n

\"kevinSimon Bruty\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick beat Mark Martin to the finish line by 0.02 seconds at the 2007 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson had the lead on the last lap in 2017 but ran out of fuel.<\/p>\n

Charlie Glotzbach, known throughout his career as Chargin\u2019 Charlie, led by 11 seconds in the 1969 race but was passed for the win on the last lap by LeeRoy Yarbrough.<\/p>\n

Donnie Allison was on target to win but famously crashed with Cale Yarborough in the third turn of the final lap of the famous 1979 race. Richard Petty inherited the win, one he sealed as Allison, his brother Bobby, and Yarborough wrestled in the infield.<\/p>\n

Stewart was passed for the lead on the last lap of the 2008 race.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Bubba Wallace lost to Austin Cindric by 0.03 of a second in overtime.<\/p>\n

Is there a best bet among the \u201closers\u201d in Sunday\u2019s lineup? It might be Kyle Busch, who will start the long afternoon from the pole. Busch owns the rather dubious distinction of having led the most laps\u2014342\u2014in the 500 without winning. Sunday\u2019s 500 will be his 21st.<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Mike Hembree has covered auto racing for numerous media outlets, including USA Today, NASCAR Scene, NBC Sports, The Greenville News and the SPEED Channel. He has been roaming garage areas and pit roads for decades (although the persistent rumor that he covered the first Indianapolis 500 is not true). Winner of numerous motorsports and other media awards, he also has covered virtually every other major sport. He lives near Gaffney, South Carolina and can be convinced to attend Bruce Springsteen concerts if you have tickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive Harley J. Earl trophy is the Stanley Cup of stock car racing. It carries the names…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,192958,784,1642,634,192957,82,183339],"class_list":["post-475208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-9839afff-5fef-4ee2-b9d1-6d3dbd791e2f","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-why-so-many-stars-never-win-the-daytona-500","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}