All drivers in NASCAR dream of winning the Daytona 500, but only some can realistically contend for it each year. For those who enjoy glittering careers without this elusive trophy in their cabinets, the prize becomes even more alluring, and Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott are two such drivers.
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Larson and Elliott have made 12 and 10 starts in the Daytona 500 respectively, but have yet to park their cars in Victory Lane.
Ahead of the season opener on February 15, Larson was asked whether there has been or will come a point of urgency to win the 500 before he becomes the guy on the graphic with “X” starts and still searching for his first victory. He said no.
Larson said, “No, I don’t really care about all that,” and he is not hanging his hat on one Sunday in February. The Hendrick Motorsports driver knows the 500 is a roll of the dice. For years, he did not even see himself as a favorite to win it. But that has changed. Now he feels he can put himself in a position without leaning on luck alone.
“So that gets me excited, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. So, obviously, we all would love to win this race in our careers, but if it doesn’t happen, it’s not going to make my career feel any less to me,” Larson continued.
Elliott sings from the same hymn sheet. When asked whether he ever thinks about becoming the guy with a statistic on TV showing that he has not won the Daytona 500 despite “X” number of attempts, he shrugged it off. “No, I don’t feel that way. I haven’t won any crown jewels.”
However, Elliott knows what he brings to the table. The story growing around him is not ink on paper by accident. It is moving at its own pace, for reasons that may sit beyond plain sight. Sometimes, teams and drivers have to let the road rise to meet them. That’s why he prefers to keep his head down and put in the work.
Elliott asserted, “We’ll enjoy that moment if it ever comes. Me thinking about that is not productive to my time of helping us get there, so I don’t really let my mind go there. I’m more just like, what can I do to help achieve the goal for this week, and that starts today in practice. And then, my mind goes to qualifying tonight.
“Then, I’ll think about the duels, and then I’ll start thinking about the race,” he added.
The #9 HMS driver has knocked on the Daytona winning door more than once. In the 2021 Daytona 500, he finished second behind Michael McDowell after starting P12. Then in 2017, in what was his second start, he got the pole, led 39 laps, and had the field covered with three laps left before his No. 24 ran dry. Kurt Busch took the lead and the win while Elliott fell back.
In 2020, he led 23 laps and ran with the front group late before the closing laps shuffled him back to P17.
Meanwhile, Larson has three of the sport’s four crown-jewel victories, yet the Daytona 500 has continued to play hard to get. In 2017, he led on Lap 199 of 200 before his No. 42 ran out of fuel, dropping him to P12 as Busch drove away. In 2022, he started from the pole and ran up front before a crash on Lap 192 left him P32.
In his 2023 Daytona 500 attempt, he lined up among the leaders on a late restart with a legitimate shot at the win, only for a last-lap wreck to wipe it out before the flag flew. Larson’s best Daytona 500 finish remains seventh, including his first top-10 result in 2016.
