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Kyle Busch is consideredone of the most successful drivers in NASCAR, with two Cup Series championships and more than 230 NASCAR national series wins. Despite winning almost everything in his NASCAR career, there’s one achievement that has eluded Busch: a Daytona 500 victory.
NASCAR veteran Kyle Busch has never won the Daytona 500. He came close several times, with his best finish being a runner-up in 2019, and made 19 starts to win the “Great American Race.” In 19 appearances at the Daytona 500, Busch earned three top-5s and five top-10 finishes.
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In 2019, driving the #18 M&M’s Chocolate Bar Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch led 37 laps despite starting from 31st, but on the final laps, he couldn’t hold off his former teammate Denny Hamlin. He fell 0.138 seconds short of Hamlin to end his long-awaited Daytona 500 victory.
The 39-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada, native has won two Daytona summer races but is yet to win the Great American Race. There were some instances when he was in a position to win, but luck didn’t favor him, and he also experienced a mix of crashes and near-misses in a season-opening Daytona race.
“I would love nothing more than to win the Daytona 500” – Kyle Busch once made his feelings known to win the crown jewel race
Kyle Busch has won three of the four crown jewel NASCAR events, but victory in the Daytona 500 remains one of the few major wins missing from his resume. Ahead of the 2024 Daytona 500, Busch reflected on his intense desire to win the prestigious “Great American Race.”
Speaking about the unpredictability and extremes of his experiences at Daytona, here’s what Busch said (via FOX Sports):
“I would love nothing more than to win the Daytona 500. It's been feast or famine it seems, and there's been a lot of years where I finished second or I finish third or there's five, six times that I can count on [where I had a chance]. But the rest of the time it's ending up in a crash on the hook and going back to the trailer early. We don't want to have that happen”.
Even though Busch hasn't reached the victory lane of the Daytona 500, he will remain one of the greatest drivers in the sport.
As he's still active in NASCAR, competing full-time for Richard Childress Racing, the chase for the elusive Daytona 500 victory continues, and hopefully he will end his wait next season on February 16, 2025.
