The four Cup Series races generally accepted by the modern era of NASCAR as crown jewel events are the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, the Brickyard 400, and the Southern 500. Only four drivers in history have won all these races, marking a career grand slam. But four other active drivers are currently on their heels with three of the four boxes ticked green.
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The ones who’ve already won all the races are Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Dale Earnhardt. Kyle Larson is the first in the battle to join their ranks. The Hendrick Motorsports star has won every race save the Daytona 500. He most recently became a Brickyard 400 winner before the 2024 Olympic break. He won the Southern 500 in 2023 and the Coca-Cola 600 in 2021.
Meanwhile, Larson’s biggest foe Denny Hamlin has won every crown jewel race except the Brickyard 400. It did not help that the fixture was away from the schedule for three years from 2021 to 2023. He has won the Daytona 500 and the Southern 500 three times each. He won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in 2022. Both Hamlin and Larson have run out of chances to complete their grand slams in 2024.
Richard Childress Racing star Kyle Busch has won every race save the Daytona 500, the same as Larson. He won the Southern 500 in 2008 and the Coca-Cola 600 in 2018. He won the Brickyard 400 twice in 2015 and 2016. Judging from his current form, he will need to change his team to have any hope of winning the 2025 Daytona 500 and completing his arc.
Brad Keselowski is the fourth driver and he follows through on the path of Larson and Busch by lacking a Daytona 500 victory. The RFK Racing co-owner has won each of the other races once over his tenured career. The records of these four stars end with the question of who is most likely to win all four crown jewel races. Most fingers would point towards Larson.
The 2021 Cup Series champion is the youngest of the lot and has quite a few years left to go before calling it quits. The rest have long been considering retirement and have got much shorter fuses to reach the goal. All eyes will be on the opening race of next season at this juncture. Should one of the three fail, it will be up to Hamlin to win the 2025 Brickyard 400 and leap ahead of them.
