56 Fun Facts About Daytona 500

In which US state is Daytona International Speedway?

Florida is home to the race because it grew out of speed trials and stock car races on the hard-packed sand of Daytona Beach, which moved inland once the speedway was built.

Twenty of the 59 starters in the first Daytona 500 were what kind of car?

Convertibles had their own NASCAR division at the time, and its cars were merged into the field for the first 500. Each type ran its own 100-mile qualifying race to set the grid.

How long is one lap of Daytona International Speedway?

2.5 miles a lap is why the 500 runs to exactly 200 laps. The turns are banked at 31 degrees, which is what lets stock cars hold such high speeds all the way around.

What did Bobby Johns's car lose to a gust while he led late in the 1960 Daytona 500?

The rear window went and the car spun out of the lead, letting the eventual winner drive past. Johns gathered it up and still finished second.

Which NASCAR founder built Daytona International Speedway to move the racing off the beach?

Bill France Sr. saw new hotels crowding the old beach-and-road course and proposed a permanent track in 1953. The first Daytona 500 ran there six years later.

Who won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 after a photo finish that took three days to settle?

Lee Petty was not the man in victory lane. Johnny Beauchamp was flagged the winner, and officials spent three days studying photographs and film before reversing the call.

Who discovered drafting on his way to winning the 1960 Daytona 500?

Junior Johnson found in practice that his car could not keep pace alone but was pulled along in a faster car's wake. He rode that discovery to the win, and drafting has decided superspeedway races since.

Who has won the Daytona 500 a record seven times?

Richard Petty took his seventh in 1981 on a gamble. Crew chief Dale Inman skipped fresh tires at the last stop and took fuel only, and the seconds saved put Petty in front for good.

Which open-wheel star won the 1967 Daytona 500, his only NASCAR Cup victory?

Mario Andretti took the lead from his own teammate, 1965 winner Fred Lorenzen, with 33 laps left and pulled away. No other driver has won this race, the Indianapolis 500 and a Formula One title.

Who lapped the entire field to win the 1972 Daytona 500?

A. J. Foyt, an Indianapolis 500 winner moonlighting in a stock car, traded the lead with his main challenger until that car broke a valve on lap 80. He led the last 120 laps and won by more than a lap.

Why was the 1974 Daytona 500 shortened to 450 miles?

The oil crisis led NASCAR to trim its races by ten per cent to save fuel. Rather than call it a 180-lap race, officials scored the 500 as starting on lap 21.

Who won the 1976 Daytona 500 by limping across the line after a last-lap crash with his great rival?

David Pearson pushed in the clutch as he spun, so his engine never died. His rival's car stalled just short of the line and would not restart, and Pearson crawled past through the infield grass.

Which network carried the 1979 Daytona 500, the first shown live flag-to-flag on network TV?

CBS got lucky with the weather. A snowstorm kept much of the East Coast indoors, and a bigger audience than expected saw the leaders crash on the last lap and then trade punches in the infield.

Which two leaders crashed on the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500, then fought?

Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison wrecked each other fighting for the lead. Bobby Allison pulled over to check on his brother, punches followed, and the third-place car drove past to win.

Who won the 1980 Daytona 500, still the fastest ever run at an average of 177.602 mph?

Buddy Baker had led the race in earlier years and never won it. In 1980 he led 143 of the 200 laps from the pole, and no 500 since has been run faster.

Where does the Daytona 500 fall on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar?

The season opener has been the 500 every year since 1982, the reverse of most sports, which save the biggest event for last. Before that the season began weeks earlier on the road course at Riverside, California.

Which part fell off Bobby Allison's car early in the 1982 Daytona 500, sparking a cheating row?

The rear bumper flew off on lap four, and the car ran faster without it. The runner-up accused the team of rigging it, which Allison denied, and he won by almost 23 seconds.

Who won the 1983 Daytona 500 in a backup car after flipping his primary at 200 mph in qualifying?

Cale Yarborough had just run the first 200 mph qualifying lap at Daytona when he got airborne on the next one. He started eighth in a backup Pontiac, passed the leader on the last lap, and won again in 1984.

What did NASCAR mandate at Daytona in 1988, the year after Bill Elliott's record 210.364 mph pole lap?

Restrictor plates choke the air reaching the engine. NASCAR turned to them after a car got airborne at Talladega in 1987 and tore into the catch fence, which is why Elliott's lap still stands.

Bobby Allison became the oldest Daytona 500 winner in 1988 at 50. Who finished second?

Father and son celebrated together in Victory Lane; the same race saw Richard Petty roll about eight times in the tri-oval.

Who won the 1989 Daytona 500 at his 17th attempt, driving car number 17, by stretching his final tank of fuel?

Darrell Waltrip ran the last 53 laps without stopping. His fuel pressure dropped to zero twice in the final two laps, and his crew told him to shake the car to find the last drops.

Who passed Dale Earnhardt late in the 1991 Daytona 500 and won as Earnhardt spun behind him?

Ernie Irvan, nicknamed Swervin' Irvan for causing crashes, was only a witness this time: Earnhardt spun while racing side by side for second. The wreck let Irvan coast home under caution, nearly out of fuel.

Who won the 1993 Daytona 500 as his father called the last lap on live television?

Dale Jarrett passed Dale Earnhardt on the final lap. His father Ned, a two-time champion working in the broadcast booth, dropped the neutral commentary and cheered his son all the way to the line.

Who took his first Cup win in the 1994 Daytona 500, then won the race again a year later?

Sterling Marlin and his father Coo Coo had gone a combined 0 for 443 in Cup races. He ran the last 59 laps on one tank of fuel, then coasted onto pit road with the engine off.

Who won the 1997 Daytona 500 for a team owner at home fighting leukemia?

Jeff Gordon led teammates Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven home in a one-two-three for the team. The owner, at home in North Carolina, congratulated him by cell phone in Victory Lane.

Who passed Tony Stewart with 20 laps left and held on to win the 2004 Daytona 500?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won six years to the day after his father's only victory in the race. Stewart had led 98 laps, more than anyone, and chased him all the way to the line.

What injury killed Dale Earnhardt in the last-lap crash of the 2001 Daytona 500?

A basilar skull fracture is a break at the base of the skull, caused when the head whips forward in a sudden stop. He was the fourth NASCAR driver to die in nine months, and head-and-neck restraints became mandatory.

Who won his first Cup race in the 2001 Daytona 500, then won the rain-shortened 2003 race too?

Michael Waltrip had gone 462 Cup races without a win before 2001. Rain stopped the 2003 race after 109 of its 200 laps, which makes it the shortest Daytona 500 ever run.

Who edged Mark Martin by 0.02 seconds to win the 2007 Daytona 500 as cars crashed behind them?

Kevin Harvick charged up the outside lane on the last lap and drew level off the final turn. Behind them Clint Bowyer slid across the finish line on his roof, on fire.

Who became the youngest Daytona 500 winner in 2011, one day after his 20th birthday?

Trevor Bayne was making only his second Cup start, in a car his team had repaired after a wreck in his qualifying race. It was the Wood Brothers' first Daytona 500 win since 1976, and it remains his only Cup victory.

What did Juan Pablo Montoya crash into under caution in the 2012 Daytona 500, starting a huge fuel fire?

A jet dryer carries about 200 gallons of jet fuel, which burned across the banking and stopped the race for two hours. Crews scrubbed the track with Tide laundry detergent before the restart.

Who became the first woman to win the Daytona 500 pole, in 2013?

Danica Patrick led five laps and took the white flag in third place. She was shuffled back to eighth in the last-lap scramble.

Who lost the 2016 Daytona 500 to Denny Hamlin by 0.010 seconds, the closest finish in the race's history?

Martin Truex Jr. led off the final turn, but Hamlin pulled alongside and won by inches. Truex said the one thing he should have done differently was hold Hamlin up the track coming to the line.

Which car number, made famous by Dale Earnhardt, did Austin Dillon drive to victory in the 2018 Daytona 500?

3 stayed out of the Cup Series from Earnhardt's death in 2001 until 2014, when team owner Richard Childress gave it to Dillon, his grandson. The 2018 win came 20 years after Earnhardt's own.

Who won the 2024 Daytona 500 on a Monday, then won again in 2025 by dodging a last-lap wreck?

William Byron was back in the pack on the final lap of 2025 when the leaders crashed on the backstretch. He slipped past on the high side and beat Tyler Reddick by 0.113 seconds, having led only 10 laps.

Who was leading the 2020 Daytona 500 in the final turn when he was spun into the wall?

Ryan Newman was hit again at the driver's window, had to be cut from the car and was taken to hospital in serious condition. Two days later he was released, having spent the morning playing with his two daughters.

The winner's trophy since 1997 is named after Harley J. Earl. What was he famous for designing?

Earl was NASCAR's second commissioner; the car on the trophy is his Firebird I concept, often mistaken for Campbell's Blue Bird.

The winner's Harley J. Earl Trophy mounts a model car on a base of what shape?

Daytona's tri-oval gives the base its outline. The full-size trophy stands about four feet tall and never goes home with the winner: it leaves its display once a year for Victory Lane, and drivers keep an 18-inch replica.

What does the Daytona 500 winner hand over to the speedway for a year?

The winning car goes on display beside the track in race-winning condition. In 2022 new cars were so scarce that the handover was in doubt, and the car arrived two weeks late.

Besides 'The Great American Race', what is the Daytona 500 often called?

The Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing fits because it is NASCAR's richest and most prestigious race. 'The Daytona 500 is our Super Bowl,' one winner said, wiping his eyes as he climbed from the car.

Time trials for the Daytona 500 lock in which starting positions?

The front row is all that single-car qualifying decides. The rest of the lineup comes from the Duels, twin qualifying races on the Thursday before, a method no other Cup race uses.

Which rule, adopted in 2004, has repeatedly pushed the Daytona 500 past its 500 miles?

Green-white-checkered finishes add a two-lap dash when a late caution would end the race under yellow. The rule came months after a 2004 Talladega race ended under caution and fans pelted the winner's car with beer.

Which manufacturer has the most Daytona 500 wins?

Chevrolet won just one of the first 16 runnings, in 1960, and did not win again until 1975. It has since overtaken every other make, Ford included.

Which team has won the most Daytona 500s?

Hendrick Motorsports went nine straight 500s without a win after 2014. Back-to-back victories in 2024 and 2025 then carried it past Petty Enterprises to a record ten.

Who won the 1963 Daytona 500 in the car of a driver he had helped pull from a burning wreck?

Tiny Lund took over the Wood Brothers Ford with the injured driver's blessing, then won by stretching his fuel while two rivals pitted late. His own tank began to sputter on the final lap.

Which car, new for the 2022 Daytona 500, swapped five lug nuts per wheel for a single one?

The Next-Gen car also brought a composite body and a rear-view camera. Rookie Austin Cindric won its first Daytona 500 by blocking his own teammate on the run to the flag.

Which president led the Daytona 500 field on a pace lap in his limousine?

Donald Trump gave the command to start engines in 2020, then the presidential limousine led the field around. Rain arrived minutes after it pulled off, and the race finished a day late.

Which race preceded the Daytona 500 as NASCAR's first 500-mile event?

The Southern 500 was first run at Darlington in 1950, nine years before Daytona's. Winner Johnny Mantz ran tires that outlasted everyone else's and won by nine laps while rivals kept pitting for new ones.

A rain-hit Daytona 500 becomes official once it passes what point?

The halfway mark, lap 100, is the threshold. Rain has ended the 500 early four times, and the 2003 race was called after just 109 laps, barely past it.

Who won the 1990 Daytona 500 when Dale Earnhardt cut a tire in the final turn of the last lap?

Derrike Cope had never finished in the top five of a Cup race and had led only four of the first 195 laps. Earnhardt had led 155 of the 200 when debris punctured his right rear tire.

Which sitting president was the first to attend the Daytona 500, giving the command to start engines?

George W. Bush opened the 2004 race from pit road in a racing jacket before some 180,000 fans. Ronald Reagan had come to Daytona 20 years earlier, but for the July race.

Which driver won the 2006 Daytona 500 after NASCAR sent his crew chief home for an illegal modification?

Jimmie Johnson won with lead engineer Darian Grubb running the team after crew chief Chad Knaus was ejected for an illegal rear-window modification found after qualifying.

Which driver won the 2017 Daytona 500 when the leaders ran out of fuel in the closing laps?

Kurt Busch took the lead on the last lap, handing co-owner Tony Stewart the Daytona 500 he had failed to win in 17 attempts as a driver.

Which driver won the 2002 Daytona 500 after the leader was penalised for tugging his fender during a red flag?

Ward Burton inherited the lead when the leader was sent to the back for the red-flag repair, then held off Elliott Sadler over the final three laps.

Which driver won the 2010 Daytona 500, a race stopped twice to repair a pothole between turns one and two?

Jamie McMurray took the win, and track president Robin Braig apologised for the delays, calling the speedway hallowed ground and accepting responsibility.

Which network aired every Daytona 500 from 2007 through 2026, after sharing the race with NBC?

Fox has carried every Daytona 500 alone since 2007; its NASCAR partnership began with the 2001 Daytona 500, the race in which Dale Earnhardt was killed.