This week, there has been a lot of news about some surprise entries in the Great American Race. From Martin Truex Jr. and Tricon to Helio Castroneves and Trackhouse to Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports making their Cup Series debut, this year’s duel races are shaping up to be real barnburners. Some big names are bound to miss out on the 2025 Daytona 500.
But on the other end of going through the trials and tribulations of making the Great American Race are those who seem to dominate the event. Some drivers throughout NASCAR’s history just had a knack for this sort of sprint-to-the-finish superspeedway-style race. So, with no further ado, here are 6 of the most dominant drivers in the Duels at Daytona.
The late, great Bobby Allison was one of those drivers who just had a knack for finding victory lane in the duels to set the pace heading into the season-opening Daytona 500. On the all-time wins list in this event, he currently sits in a 4-way tie for third of all-time. He won this race an impressive 5 times in his career, capturing his first win in the 1972 edition of the event. He went on to score victories in 1975, 1981, 1984, and 1988. His final win in the event acted as a prelude to his third and final Daytona 500 victory later that weekend. That win was a classic race that saw him and his son, Davey, duking it out to hoist the Harley J. Earl Trophy. The old man got the best of his boy in this instance.
Bobby Allison passed away at the age of 86 on November 9, 2024. The hall-of-fame driver had a legendary career that stretched beyond his success in the Daytona Duels. Over his career, he scored 85 wins and the 1983 NASCAR Cup Series title.
The next driver on our list also scored 5 victories in the Duels at Daytona. Darrell Waltrip scored his first victory in the race in 1976 and followed it up with back-to-back wins in 1978 and 1979. He also won the race in 1981 and 1988. Year in and year out, he was a constant threat in this race and the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, like his long-time rival and friend Dale Earnhardt, the Great American race alluded him for 17 years. His day eventually came. In 1989, using fuel mileage, he could finally capture his one and only Daytona 500 win.
Undeniably, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time is Jeff Gordon. He won 4 NASCAR Cup Series titles, 93 races, and 3 Daytona 500s in his career. He was also consistently one of the greatest drivers in his Duel Race in February. He won the race a total of 5 times, the first coming in 1993. However, it would be almost a decade before he’d win the race again. Unlike many drivers, Gordon became really consistent in this race later in his career. He captured wins in 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2009.
In his career, he captured the Daytona 500 pole in 1999 and 2015, the latter being his final attempt in the race. He sat on the front row a total of 4 times in his career. Three of those 4 came in the closing years of his career. After sitting on the front row, Gordon tended to take it easy in his respective duel race. This probably contributed to his fall-off in performance in these races following his 2009 win.
Making the first appearance for an Earnhardt on this list is none other than Little E himself, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Did you really think he wouldn’t make this list? Like Gordon, Waltrip, and Allison, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his respective Daytona Duel race a total of 5 times. His first win in the race came in 2003. He followed that up with a win in 2004. He also went on to win the race in 2008 (one of his first victories with Hendrick), and back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. His win in 2004 led to his iconic sweep at Daytona where he won the Daytona 500 as well as the Xfinity Series race.
Dale Jr.’s dominant tendencies in the Daytona Duels shouldn’t be surprising. He is easily one of the greatest superspeedway racers in history. In his career, he won 2 Daytona 500s (2004, 2014), the summer Daytona race once (2001), and 6 total races at Talladega between 2002 and 2015.
Coming in second on this list is none other than NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Cale Yarborough. Yarborough won this event a staggering 6 times throughout his career, the first one coming in 1970. He won the event later on in 1974, 1977, and 1982, and back-to-back in 1984 and 1985. In 1977 and 1984, his wins in the Duels were preambles to two of his three Daytona 500 victories. Over the course of his career, Cale Yarborough won the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 3 (consecutive) times (1976-1978). He won a total of 83 races, tying him with 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
Cale Yarborough passed away on December 21, 2023, at the age of 84. He was one of the greatest drivers of all time and the second-greatest to ever compete in the Daytona Duels.
The undisputed champion of the Daytona Duels is the Intimidator Dale Earnhardt. His win count in these races more than doubles that of his son, and does the second-place driver’s win count. That’s right, you thought 5 and 6 wins in these races were impressive? Try 12. That’s right, Big E won his Daytona Duel an Earth-shattering dozen times. All this success makes his trials and tribulations in the Great American Race all the more heartbreaking and triumphant, doesn’t it? He scored his first win in the race in 1983. The second came in 1986. Then, beginning in 1990, he won his Duel race every year through 1999. That’s TEN IN A ROW! Following his victory in the race in 1998, he went on to win that year’s Daytona 500, his lone win in the event.
There is no question that Dale Earnhardt was one of the (if not the) greatest drivers to ever live. He won 7-NASCAR Cup Series titles and 76 races. But Dale Earnhardt really shone on the high banks of the superspeedways Daytona and Talladega. At the former, he visited victory lane 34 times. He also has 10 wins at ‘Dega. So, it should shock no one that Dale Earnhardt was the absolute best in the yearly Duels at Daytona.
