BREAKING THROUGH: A list of 10 drivers still looking for a first win in the Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH — For every driver that’s been immortalized with a Daytona 500 win, there’s a handful that came oh, so close.

The Great American Race is strange and elusive. Underdogs become champions. Champions become humbled.

Heck, it even took Dale Earnhardt Sr. 20 tries to finally break through.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that several drivers come into town this week riding significant, and in some cases, puzzling winless streaks in stock car racing’s premier event.

Here is a look at active drivers who will race in next Sunday’s 65^th Daytona 500 that are still looking for a breakthrough, sorted by career starts.

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T-9. Chris Buescher

• Career Starts: 257

• Career Wins: 2

• Superspeedway starts: 29

• Superspeedway wins: 0

• Daytona 500 starts: 7

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 5^th (2018)

• Average Daytona finish: 22.4

A positive sign: Buescher and teammate Brad Keselowski swept the Duel races last year. The No. 17 car has won the Daytona 500 three times, most recently in Matt Kenseth’s second victory in 2012.

T-9. Chase Elliott

• Career Starts: 257

• Career Wins: 18

• Superspeedway starts: 28

• Superspeedway wins: 2 (Talladega: spring 2019, fall 2022)

• Daytona 500 starts: 7

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 2^nd (2021)

• Average Daytona finish: 20.9

A positive sign: Elliott won the Cup Series' most recent superspeedway race in Talladega last fall. A victory here would make Chase and Bill Elliott the fifth father-son duo to win the Great American Race, joining Lee and Richard Petty, Bobby and Davey Allison, Ned and Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

8. Ryan Blaney

• Career Starts: 270

• Career Wins: 7

• Superspeedway starts: 32

• Superspeedway wins: 3 (Talladega: fall 2019, spring 2020. Daytona: summer 2021)

• Daytona 500 starts: 8

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 2^nd (2017, 2020)

• Average Daytona finish: 18.1

A positive sign: Blaney has the best average Daytona finish of any driver on this list and has three top fives in the last six 500s. A victory would give Team Penske its second straight Daytona 500 victory and fourth overall, tying it four fourth all time with Joe Gibbs Racing, Ranier-Lundy, Morgan-McClure Motorsports and Robert Yates Racing.

7. Kyle Larson

• Career Starts: 295

• Career Wins: 19

• Superspeedway starts: 33

• Superspeedway wins: 0

• Daytona 500 starts: 9

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 7^th (2016, 2019)

• Average Daytona finish: 22.6

A positive sign: Larson sat on the pole for the 500 last year and his overall Daytona average is skewed greatly by bad finishes in the summer race. Larson’s average finish in the 500 is 15.6 and that includes three top 10s in the last four years. Remarkably, Hendrick Motorsports, second all time with eight Daytona 500 victories behind only Petty enterprises (nine), hasn’t won the Great American Race since Dale Earnhardt Jr. was victorious in 2014. None of the team’s four current drivers have won the Daytona 500.

6. Ricky Stenhouse

• Career Starts: 364

• Career Wins: 2

• Superspeedway starts: 40

• Superspeedway wins: 2 (Talladega: spring 2017. Daytona: summer, 2017)

• Daytona 500 starts: 11

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 7^th (2014)

• Average Daytona finish: 20.1

A positive sign: He’s been markedly better at Talladega (15.4 average finish, nine top 10s) than Daytona (20.1 average finish, three top 10s) but the law of averages says his checkers-or-wreckers superspeedway record is due to pay off. He has but just one top-10 finish in the Daytona 500, a seventh all the way back in 2014, but he has run much better than that. Chevrolet has not been to Victory Lane since Austin Dillon’s win in 2018.

5. AJ Allmendinger

• Career Starts: 394

• Career Wins: 2

• Superspeedway starts: 37

• Superspeedway wins: 0

• Daytona 500 starts: 9

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 3^rd (2009, 2017)

• Average Daytona finish: 20.4

A positive sign: An admitted hater of superspeedway racing, it’s been kind to Allmendinger as of late. He won the fall Talladega race in the Xfinity Series last year and finished in the top three of all four Xfinity superspeedway stops in 2022. Allmendinger is also riding a string of back-to-back top 10s in last two 500 starts (third in 2017, 10^th in 2018) and is back after signing to run a full-time Cup Series schedule for Kaulig Racing.

4. Aric Almirola

• Career Starts: 424

• Career Wins: 3

• Superspeedway starts: 48

• Superspeedway wins: 1 (Daytona: summer, 2014)

• Daytona 500 starts: 12

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 4^th (2017)

• Average Daytona finish: 20.2

A positive sign: One of his three career victories came at Daytona and he had one of the closest calls imaginable, leading into Turn 3 on the final lap in 2018 before being turned by Dillon. Almirola was set to retire last year before changing his mind and signing a multi-year extension with Stewart-Haas Racing. A win here would certainly make that decision worthwhile.

3. Brad Keselowski

• Career Starts: 485

• Career Wins: 35

• Superspeedway starts: 55

• Superspeedway wins: 7 (Talladega: spring 2009, spring 2012, fall 2014, spring 2016, fall 2017, spring 2021. Daytona: summer 2016)

• Daytona 500 starts: 13

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 3^rd (2014)

• Average Daytona finish: 23.1

A positive sign: Keselowski is by far the most accomplished superspeedway racer on this list and has also had the most close calls. That includes last year, as he took the green flag in overtime starting on the outside of the front row before the cars in his lane broke up behind him and he faded to ninth. RFK Racing could become just the third first-time winning team in the last 12 years at the Daytona 500 (Stewart-Haas Racing with Kurt Busch in 2017, Front Row Racing with Michael McDowell in 2021).

2. Martin Truex Jr.

• Career Starts: 621

• Career Wins: 31

• Superspeedway starts: 71

• Superspeedway wins: 0

• Daytona 500 starts: 18

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 2^nd (2016)

• Average Daytona finish: 21.5

A positive sign: Look no further than a week ago as Truex ended a winless drought dating back to September of 2021 with a win at the Busch Light Clash. No one in the history of the Daytona 500 has come closer, literally, as Truex was on the short end of Denny Hamlin’s first 500 win in 2016 by 0.01 seconds. Truex won both the first and second stage last year.

1. Kyle Busch

• Career Starts: 642

• Career Wins: 60

• Superspeedway starts: 70

• Superspeedway wins: 2 (Talladega: spring 2008. Daytona summer 2008)

• Daytona 500 starts: 17

• Best Daytona 500 finish: 2^nd (2019)

• Average Daytona finish: 19

A positive sign: A new team, a new outlook? Busch won a pair of superspeedway races in his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing and went the next 14 years without one. And perhaps numbers line up. Busch is about to make his 18^th 500 start in his first points-paying race since leaving the No. 18 car for the Richard Childress Racing No. 8. He made his Cup Series debut at Las Vegas in 2004. That same year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove the No. 8 car to Victory Lane in the Daytona 500. That accounts for the No. 8 has ever won the Great American Race. Busch’s average finish in two Daytona races last year? Yep, eighth.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: DAYTONA 500 10 active NASCAR drivers still in search of an elusive win