Daytona 500 is Where Winners Write New Chapters in Racing History
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Before the roar of the engines, the checkered flag waves, and the feeling of the vibration in your chest, at the heart of Daytona’s legacy beats a list of names, each synonymous with speed, skill, and victory.
Lee Petty’s inaugural win to Junior Johnson’s early dominance, Fireball Roberts’s fiery spirit, Richard Petty’s seven crowns, Mario Andretti’s impressive win, Cale Yarborough’s calculated victories, A.J. Foyt’s crossover success, Benny Parsons’s fan-favorite appeal, David Pearson’s smooth precision, Bobby Allison’s relentless drive, Buddy Baker’s superspeedway skill, Bill Elliott’s record-breaking speeds, Darrell Waltrip’s outspokenness, Davey Allison’s rising star, Dale Jarrett’s strategic mastery, Jeff Gordon’s rainbow revolution, Dale Earnhardt’s intimidating legacy, Michael Waltrip’s emotional wins, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s popular appeal, Matt Kenseth’s quiet consistency, and Jimmie Johnson’s legacy, the Daytona 500 has been defined by a diverse array of legendary winners.
These legendary drivers have etched their names into history as champions of the Great American Race. The Daytona 500 is where legends are made at 200 miles per hour, victory is decided by inches, and every winner writes a new chapter in racing history.
Birth of a Legacy
From its roots on the sands of Daytona Beach to the high-speed ovals of today, the Daytona 500 represents the pinnacle of NASCAR racing. Built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William ‘Bill’ France Sr., Daytona International Speedway, affectionately known as the World Center of Racing, was a marvel of engineering for its time. And in case you haven’t figured it out, the race is called the Daytona 500, combining the location (Daytona) with the 500-mile distance that drivers race over 200 laps to complete the event.
France’s visionary 31-degree banking—the steepest in NASCAR at the time—enabled unprecedented speeds, an unobstructed view of the entire 2.5-mile tri-oval, and revolutionized stock car racing. Coinciding with the speedway’s opening, the inaugural Daytona 500 won by Lee Petty in 1959 wasn’t NASCAR’s first race, but it quickly became one of the most popular races and has remained so ever since.
The following year, NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson—”The Last American Hero”—discovered drafting at the 1960 Daytona 500, overcoming his slower car to win. His innovative driving style and mastery of the drafting technique transformed NASCAR racing, influencing generations of drivers and impacting how races are run at Superspeedways. Not bad for a guy who got his start driving Moonshine.
Kings of Daytona
There have been 67 Daytona 500s, but there is only one man who can call himself the King of Daytona, and that’s Richard Petty. Appropriately nicknamed “The King” by NASCAR fans, Richard Petty holds the record for the most Daytona 500 wins, with seven victories from 1964 to 1981. His wins came in 1964, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, and 1981.
Consecutive wins proved elusive until he won back-to-back in 1973 and 1974, ultimately, winning seven times. While no one has matched Petty’s dominance, Cale Yarborough carved his own legacy as a master of speed and strategy securing four wins.
Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett, and Jeff Gordon all have three wins. Denny Hamlin and William Byron are the only current, full-time Cup drivers with multiple Daytona 500 victories. Hamlin has three, and Byron, who won in both 2024 and 2025, is now the youngest driver to win multiple Daytona 500s at 27 years, 2 months, and 18 days old, breaking Jeff Gordon’s previous record. Byron’s back-to-back victories also marked Hendrick Motorsports’ 9th and historic 10th Daytona 500 win, setting a new record for most wins by a single team in the Great American Race. Trevor Bayne became the youngest driver to win at just 20 years old, while Bobby Allison won at 50.
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The Earnhardt Legacy
For the Earnhardts, Daytona is more than a race—it’s a family legacy forever part of NASCAR history. With his aggressive style, Dale Earnhardt Sr. aka “The Intimidator,” dominated races. Yet, even for him, Daytona remained elusive. It took 20 attempts before he finally conquered the Daytona 500 in 1998.
Carrying on the legacy, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500 twice. His first victory came in 2004, leading 54 laps before executing a perfectly timed side draft on Tony Stewart with 20 to go. It would be ten years before his second win, in 2014.
In 2025, Dale Jr. and his sister Kelly entered their first Daytona 500 as team owners of JR Motorsports with Xfinity Champion Justin Allgaier behind the wheel. After JR Motorsports 9th place finish in the 67th running of the Daytona 500, Dale Jr. said, “It really was good for me, I think, to come here and experience this to see if it was truly something that I felt like I wanted. Because sometimes you wonder, because of growing up in the sport and your last name, are you making yourself do this because it’s what you think you’re supposed to? Or do you really want to do it? And so, you know, I think this helped me understand that I do want to be here,” when asked how much this process validated his desire to be a full-time owner in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Chasing Wins.
Unlike most sports, NASCAR kicks off its season with its biggest race of the year—the Daytona 500, often called NASCAR’s Super Bowl. There have been 67 Daytona 500s and countless storylines. One of the biggest storylines is arguably who hasn’t won the big race.
Denny Hamlin and William Byron can boast being the only current drivers with multiple Daytona 500 victories, but what about those who haven’t got their first? Meanwhile, some NASCAR Cup Series champions are still chasing their first win in the Great American Race. Despite being a two-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch still chases Daytona glory. Nineteen starts. No wins. Sound familiar? It echoes Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s journey. Busch, one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers, has finished in nearly every position but first. He’s in good company—NASCAR Cup Champs Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Terry Labonte, and Bobby Labonte never won it.
Daytona Doesn’t Play Favorites.
In 2023, underdog Ricky Stenhouse Jr. surged from 31st to victory. In 2024 and 2025, rising star William Byron claimed back-to-back Daytona 500 wins, joining the ranks of legends like Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, and Denny Hamlin, and securing his place among Daytona’s elite.
The 2025 race also saw Jimmie Johnson, now a team owner, return to form with a third-place finish – his best since 2013. This unexpected performance proves that at Daytona, legends can be reborn just as easily as new stars are made.
The next chapter awaits. Will it be a veteran’s crowning achievement or a rookie’s breakout moment? At the Great American Race, anything is possible.
Remember 2016? In one of the closest finishes in Daytona 500 history, Denny Hamlin edged out Martin Truex Jr. by a mere 0.010 seconds. The photo finish was so tight that it took several replays to declare the winner, showcasing how every inch counts in the Great American Race.
How will history unfold next year?
