The Daytona 500, known as the Great American Race, traditionally opens the NASCAR season and is arguably the second most-watched race in the U.S., behind only the Indianapolis 500. For many, it doesn’t get any better than Daytona. But not NASCAR TV analyst Kyle Petty.
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The son of the legendary Richard Petty, Kyle Petty believes that Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway is the most important race of the season, not Daytona.
“I’m going to say this and I’ll take heat for it,” Petty said on this week’s edition of Performance Racing Network’s Fast Talk. “In recent years, as we look at the Daytona 500, you look at that race and it’s a race where if you’re in the right line at the right place at the right time you could win.”
Petty doubled down on his stance, questioning the merit of winning at Daytona, saying, “And I would say there’s been some Daytona 500 winners that are not going to go down in history as the greatest drivers in this sport.”
Taking drivers like David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson as the benchmark, he added, “You look at the guys that win the 600, they’re great and it’s unmistakable where these guys belong and where they fall in the pecking order.”
To Petty’s point, the last five Daytona 500 winners from 2021 through 2025 have been Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and William Byron (twice). Those four drivers have accounted for 23 combined wins in their Cup careers as of 2025. They’re good drivers, but by Petty’s standard, are they ‘great’ drivers?
Again, looking at it from Petty’s point of view, the last five drivers to win the Coca-Cola 600 from 2020 through 2024 have been Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell.
That quintet of drivers have accounted for 149 combined wins in their Cup careers. It’s pretty clear at least three of them are great drivers. While Keselowski, Larson and Hamlin are almost guaranteed eventual NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees, it’s still a bit early on Blaney and Bell.
