Filling the All-Time Daytona 500 Field

by Julian Spivey

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I had this idea to come up with the all-time greatest Daytona 500 starting grid. When the idea hit me I didn't realize that there have been exactly 40 different winners of the Daytona 500. In today's NASCAR Cup Series there are 40 cars to start each race. So, it was truly perfect timing. I didn't have to worry about either dropping any winners of the Great American Race or fill the field out with non-winners. So, while I'd rather have Tony Stewart, who got around Daytona very well but never won the big race, in my car at the track if I were an owner than say Derrike Cope that's not the way this grid played out. I set the field by number of wins in the Daytona 500 - so the front row are the two drivers who have won the race the most times. Rows two and three are the three-time winners of the race - set by track record at Daytona. Rows four through six are the two-times winners. Row six on back are all the singular winners of the race lined up by track record. 

*I hope this doesn't look like complete crap for phone users. Stuff that looks good on a PC sometimes looks rough on phones. 

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Front Row

Richard Petty
Richard Petty won a record seven Daytona 500 races, so he's the obvious choice for the pole position in our all-time field. 

Cale Yarborough
Cale Yarborough's four Daytona 500 victories are second most all-time in the race's history slotting him into the outside of row one.

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Row Two

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin is the only active driver with multiple Daytona 500 wins and he has three. His Daytona average finish is 15.9.

Bobby Allison
Bobby Allison won the Daytona 500 in the pre-pack racing and pack racing eras. He also became the oldest winner in 1988 in his final start at 50.

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Row Three

Jeff Gordon
Jeff Gordon may be a better driver all-time than Denny Hamlin, but Hamlin's average finish at Daytona is slightly better and that's why I have Gordon lining up behind him. 

Dale Jarrett 
Of the four drivers to win the Daytona 500 three times, Dale Jarrett's has the worst average finish at the track at 16.4 and the fewest top-5s. He'll line up fourth of the three-timers. 

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Row Four 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 
Often during his career it seemed like Dale Jr. could see the air of the draft on the superspeedways like he daddy did. Earnhardt Jr. won the Great American Race early in his career in 2004 and a decade later in 2014. 

Bill Elliott
We have a battle of the beers on row four with Bill Elliott's Coors sponsor and Dale Jr.'s Bud sponsor. Nobody was faster at the superspeedways than Awesome Bill in the '80s. 

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Row Five

Sterling Marlin
The No. 4 McClure Motorsports team knew how to get around Daytona winning the big race three out of five times from 1991-1995 with Ernie Irvan and back-to-back with Sterling Marlin in '94 & '95.  

Jimmie Johnson
The seven-time NASCAR champ often had a rough time at Daytona with double-digits DNFs at the track, but he also had some grand times winning the Daytona 500 in 2006 and 2013. He rounds out the top 10 on our all-time Daytona 500 starting grid. 

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Row Six

Matt Kenseth
Row six has something in common - both drivers won two Daytona 500s with one of those wins being rain-shortened. Rain-shortened races can lead to "well, it's not the same" talk, so it's nice Matt Kenseth and Michael Waltrip had another win.

Michael Waltrip
Michael Waltrip knew how to run a restrictor plate race. All four of his Cup wins came on a superspeedway. I'm glad he got to win for a second time in 2003 after his first win in 2001 was marred by the death of his friend and car owner Dale Earnhardt. 

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Row Seven

Dale Earnhardt
This is the first row of the one-time Daytona 500 winners and it features two of the five greatest NASCAR drivers ever. Earnhardt dominated the 500 many times but something always happened to destroy it until 1998 when he got that monkey off his back.

David Pearson 
David Pearson would likely have a handful of Daytona 500 wins if he didn't run during the Richard Petty era. His 1976 win is maybe the greatest finish to a NASCAR race ever when he and Petty made contact and wrecked on the final lap before Pearson limped his damaged car across the finish line in first.

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Row Eight 

Lee Petty
Lee Petty won the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959 in a literal photo finish that took days to figure out. He wouldn't run many races at the big track, but had an average finish of 10th.  

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Fred Lorenzen
Fred Lorenzen didn't have a very long career but he wracked up a lot of wins in a short time, including the 1965 Daytona 500. The Hall of Famer had an average finish of 8.9 at the track with 16 top-5 finishes. 
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Row Nine

Kevin Harvick
Kevin Harvick won one of the closest and most thrilling finishes in Daytona 500 history in a side-by-side finish with Mark Martin in 2007. He's finished top-5 at the track 11 times. 

Darrell Waltrip
Darrell Waltrip tried and came close to winning the coveted Daytona 500 many times in his career before finally seeing Victory Lane in 1989. He memorably did his own version of "The Ickey Shuffle" and famously shouted: "I won the Daytona 500!"

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Row Ten

Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch had enough gas to make it to the finish line in 2017 when many around him were running out. Busch has had 13 top-5s at the track with an average finish of 18.4. 

Ernie Irvan
Ernie Irvan's career was cut short by injuries but he knew how to get around Daytona, especially in the McClure Motorsports car that dominated the track in the first half of the '90s. He won the Great American Race in 1991. 

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Row Eleven

Junior Johnson
Row 11 features two icons from the sport's early days. Junior Johnson took time out of running from the law to win the 1960 Daytona 500. He'd average a 15.8 finish at the track with seven top-5s. 

Fireball Roberts
Fireball Roberts won the 1962 Daytona 500 leading 144 of the race's 200 laps. Like Johnson, Roberts would have a 15.8 average finish at the track. He died in 1964 from injuries sustained at a race in Charlotte. 

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Row Twelve

Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker's Gray Ghost No. 28 Oldsmobile is one of the most famous cars in NASCAR history as it was almost unbeatable on superspeedways. Baker led 150 of the race's 200 laps in 1980 on his way to victory. 

Davey Allison
Davey Allison would likely appear a bit higher on this grid had he not perished in a helicopter accident in 1993. He often ran upfront in the big race and won in 1992. 

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Row Thirteen

Joey Logano
It would not surprise me in the least to see Joey Logano win another Daytona 500 and vault himself up further on this grid. Maybe even in this weekend's race. The 2015 winner has six top-5s at the track. 

LeeRoy Yarbrough
LeeRoy Yarbrough got around Daytona Speedway really well with a career average finish of 12.5 at the track and eight top-5 finishes. Yarbrough was the first Daytona 500 winner to do so on a last lap pass when he chased down Charlie Glotzbach from 11 seconds back to pass him on the final lap. 

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Row Fourteen

Benny Parsons
Benny Parsons used some smart strategy to win the 1975 Daytona 500 when he hooked up in the draft with Richard Petty, who was eight laps down, and caught up to the dominant David Pearson, being slowed by lapped traffic. With two laps remaining Cale Yarborough spun out Pearson and when Parsons missed the accident he won the race. 

Marvin Panch
Marvin Panch won the third annual running of the Daytona 500 in 1961 taking advantage of a Fireball Roberts blown engine with 13 laps remaining in the event. Panch would have three top-5 finishes at the track with an average finish of 14.3. 

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Row Fifteen

Tiny Lund
Tiny Lund didn't even have a ride for the 1963 Daytona 500 in the days before the race. The No. 21 Woods Brothers car was to be driven by Marvin Panch, but when he was injured in a fiery crash in a sportscar race and pulled out of the burning car by Lund he repaid his friend by giving him his ride. Lund actually ran out of gas on the final lap but had a big enough lead he could coast to the finish line. 

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Ryan Newman
Daytona was arguably the site of Ryan Newman's greatest and worst career moments. He won the Great American Race in 2008 becoming the first driver to do so for Robert Penske Racing. In 2020 a terrifying wreck at the track severely injured Newman and may have killed him had it not been for safety advancements within the sport. 

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Row Sixteen

A.J. Foyt
If this were the Indianapolis 500 A.J. Foyt would be on the front row - there's no doubt about that - as he's won that grand jewel of racing a record four times. In NASCAR, Foyt was always a part-timer running races when not focused on his open wheel career. In 1972 he won Daytona with the Wood Brothers and joined Mario Andretti as the only drivers to ever win both the Indy 500 and Daytona 500.

Austin Dillon
Austin Dillon's Daytona 500 victory in 2018 was controversial when he wrecked Aric Almirola on the final lap of the race to take the victory. He managed to win the Great American Race in the no. 3 Richard Childress Racing car 20 years after Dale Earnhardt did so. Dillon's track average at Daytona thus far in his career is 14.9 with three top-5s.

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Row Seventeen

Geoffrey Bodine
Five drivers have won the Daytona 500 for Hendrick Motorsports, but Geoffrey Bodine was the very first in 1986. Bodine led 101 laps, including the final 34 on his way to Victory Lane. Bodine's career average finish at Daytona was 19.7 with seven top-5 finishes. 

Pete Hamilton
Pete Hamilton was the Michael Waltrip of superspeedways of his era. Both drivers only won four Cup Series races in their careers and all four of those races for each came at Daytona and Talladega. Three of Hamilton's came in 1970 when he won the Daytona 500 and both Talladega races. Hamilton only ran six seasons at the Cup level before retiring from complications of a neck injury sustained in 1969.

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Row Eighteen

Jamie McMurray
I was surprised to see that I had Jamie McMurray this far down on the grid as he always seemed to run well on plate tracks, but his average finish at the track was only 22.8, which is actually second worst of any Daytona 500 winner. He must have gotten into a lot of "Big Ones" while running near the front. 

Ward Burton
Not to take anything away from Ward Burton, but I can't help but thinking what if Sterling Marlin wasn't a bonehead whenever thinking about Burton's 2002 Daytona 500 win. During a late race red flag Marlin got out of his race leading car to check on potential damage from a previous incident and tugged on his fender - an illegal move. He was black-flagged and moved to the back. Burton assumed the lead and held on for a three-lap shootout to the finish.

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Row Nineteen

Mario Andretti
It feels weird to have a legend such as Mario Andretti so far down the grid, but he only ran 14 Cup races in his career and three Daytona 500s. In his first Daytona 500 he finished 37th. In his last he finished 29th. But in 1967 driving for Holman-Moody Racing he won the damn thing. He didn't just win. He dominated leading 112 of the 200 laps. It was his only Cup win. He's one of only three drivers to say the Daytona 500 was his only NASCAR Cup win.

Michael McDowell
One of those three drivers to say their only Cup win is the Daytona 500 is Michael McDowell, the most recent winner of the race. McDowell avoided a major wreck on the final lap of the 2021 Daytona 500 to earn his first ever Cup Series win. McDowell gets around well on superspeedways, so perhaps he'll get a second win down the road. 

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Row Twenty

Trevor Bayne
Trevor Bayne is maybe the most surprising Daytona 500 winner of all-time managing to win the race in just his second ever Cup race at the age of 20. It looked like the beginning of a promising career. But it would prove to be his only Cup win, as he only wound up competing in three full-time seasons in the series.

Derrike Cope
Derrike Cope is one of those Cinderella stories of being in the right place a the right time. Dale Earnhardt's car was absolutely dominant during the 1990 Daytona 500 leading 155 of 200 laps, but while leading on the final lap he shredded a right rear tire and was passed by Cope who crossed the finish line in first for his first career Cup Series win. Cope's second and final Cup win would come later that season at Dover. His average Daytona finish of 29.1 is, by far, the worst of any Daytona 500 champ.