DAYTONA BEACH — Kyle Busch doesn’t want to talk about it.
His Daytona 500 track record of futility speaks for itself.
Busch, 38, still has time to avoid becoming the latest champion or generational talent like Tony Stewart unable to win the sport’s biggest event at its most iconic track. If his Busch’s buzzard’s luck continues, the questions about his struggles will hound the 63-time Cup Series winner and two-time season champion.
“Trust me, I’m well aware, thank you very much,” he said recently after the latest query. “I hope we can talk about some of the same storylines on Sunday; that would be nice.”
Bad weather looms over Sunday’s race at Daytona International Speedway; NASCAR moved Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity race until 11 a.m. Monday.
When Daytona 500 drivers finally get their chance none will be as motivated as Busch.
Of his rare chances to win, few were better than in 2023. Busch led on Lap 200, but the race went to overtime and he crashed. An eventual 19th-place finish matched his average (19.6) during his previous 17 appearances in the Great American Race dating to 2005.
Busch looks to challenge again after crashing Thursday during the Duels for the second straight year.
“I thought media day was Groundhog Day,” Busch quipped Friday. “Then I had yesterday running the Duels’ Groundhog Day from last year getting torn up and crashed, having to go to a backup car, and starting all over again. I don’t know if we saw our shadow today or not.”
Busch isn’t the only Cup Series champion looking to move out of the shadows and make his way to Victory Lane.
Brad Keselowski (2012), Martin Truex Jr. (’18), Chase Elliott (’20), Kyle Larson (’21) and Ryan Blaney (’23) have come up short by varying degrees during the Daytona 500.
Truex, who will make his 20th start, had the ultimate close call against Denny Hamlin. He lost by .01 seconds during the closest finish in the event’s illustrious 65-year history. The 44-year-old aims to make his own history rather than be reminded annually how he fell short.
“Every time we drive into the tunnel here the picture is on the wall,” Truex said. “Every time we come to Daytona it is something that gets talked about. So it is unfortunate to be on the wrong side of it but a cool moment to be a part of.”
Keselowski, a six-time winner at Talladega Speedway, was poised to end his Daytona drought in 2021. But he and Joey Logano, then Team Penske teammates, wrecked while battling for the lead on the final lap to open the door 100-to-1 longshot winner Michael McDowell.
“I don’t feel like I have a ton of anxiety over it,” Keselowski said Saturday after rainy weather canceled practice. “I feel really well prepared. I know my car drives great. There’s going to be 15 or maybe 20 cars that will have a shot of winning in the last two dozen laps or so. You hope you’re around, and when the moment comes you do everything you can right.
“The rest is kind of out of your control.”
The past three Daytona 500 winners spotlight the race’s capriciousness. McDowell, 2022 winner Austin Cindric and defending champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. have a combined six Cup Series wins.
“You can have the fastest race car; the best-handling car. You can have perfect strategy. You can have flawless pits stops, and all it takes is one driver to make a bad move and it ends your chances,” said Larry McReynolds, a former Daytona 500-winning crew chief (1992, ’98) and current Fox Sports analyst. “It’s a crapshoot.”
Hamlin has enjoyed more good fortune than most in the Daytona 500. But the three-time winner is greedy as he nears his career finish line.
The 43-year-old is the linchpin of Joe Gibbs Racing, a co-owner of 23X1 race team with NBA legend and NASCAR fan Michael Jordan, and among nine Toyota drivers in the field. Yet Hamlin will be out for No. 1 as well as Daytona 500 win No. 4 to tie Cale Yarborough’s mark and trail only Richard Petty’s seven wins.
“It’s in my best interest in getting back to basics, and that’s doing what I feel is best to win the race for myself,” said Hamlin, who won in 2016, ’19 and ’20. “While having teammates is great and are certainly assets to use in certain situations to win races, sometimes it’s those who are the most selfish that make moves for themselves who win the race.
“I feel I need to personally go back to the style I had a few years ago and we’ll see what the results say.”
Every driver will have his agenda.
Blaney, a runner-up in 2017 and ’20 and in the mix in ’22, looks to become the first driver since Dale Jarrett in 2000 to follow a championship with a Daytona 500 victory the next season.
Busch has accomplished virtually everything a driver can in the sport, including 229 wins in NASCAR’s three series (Cup, Xfinity, Truck).
Even big brother Kurt Busch took the chance Saturday to remind him whose name is on the Harley J. Earl Trophy awarded the race winner.
“It says, ‘Kurt,’ and doesn’t say, ‘Kyle,’” he joked. “It’s one thing I have on him.”
Edgar Thompson can be reached at [email protected].