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Kyle Larson won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway last Sunday for his second career Crown Jewel win. However, he is still missing one crown jewel race from his resume, and plenty of other superstar NASCAR drivers are missing big race wins from their resume. Who are they?
Chase Elliott captured the sport’s ultimate prize in 2020 with the series championship, but he has yet to win any of the sport’s crown jewel events. He came close to winning the Daytona 500 in 2017 before running out of fuel late. His most heartbreaking loss, however, came in the 2020 Coca-Cola 600, where a late caution ate up Elliott’s late lead. He elected to pit under that caution, which took him out of winning contention.
William Byron is still young, so he has plenty of time to nab a crown jewel, but he has not come close to many in his early career. He has been involved in at least one accident in every Daytona 500 he has participated in. However, a win in this year’s spring race at Darlington and a second at this year’s Coca-Cola 600 means that a crown jewel win may be just around the corner.
Joey Logano won his first crown jewel relatively early in his career by taking the 2015 Daytona 500, but he has failed to capture one since. He has won races at Darlington and Charlotte before, but those came in the other dates at those venues. He finished second in the Southern 500 in 2018 to then-teammate Brad Keselowski, and he finished second in the Coca-Cola 600 in 2019.
Kyle Busch has led multiple laps in 13 of his 18 Daytona 500s, including leading the most laps in back-to-back years in 2008 and 2009. Unfortunately, for him, the final lap has always eluded him. His best finish in the event came in 2019 with a second-place finish to teammate Denny Hamlin, and Busch also was leading late in the 2023 race.
Kyle Larson has yet to win the “Great American Race”, and he usually has not come close either. He has led multiple laps in the event only twice (2017 and 2023), and he has never finished in the top-5 in the event. The closest he came to winning the race was in 2017 when he ran out of fuel on the final lap after leading at the white flag.
He won the 2016 Coca-Cola 600 in potentially the most dominating performance in NASCAR history, and he won the Southern 500 that year as well. However, his most heartbreaking loss came in the Daytona 500 that year. Truex Jr. came within 0.01 seconds of winning all three races in the same year, and he has never been able to get to the Daytona 500 victory lane in his career.
For as highly touted of a superspeedway racer as Brad Keselowski is, he has never found a way to snag the big one. He took the Southern 500 in 2018 and the Coca-Cola 600 in 2020 over guys that are on this list, but the Daytona 500 has always eluded him. He has led the most laps in each of the last two Daytona 500s, but he found himself in an accident in the most recent one in 2023.
These superstar drivers would probably like to add these races to their resume before their career comes to an end. Will some of these drivers finally add these trophies next year?
