The Daytona 500 has long been one of motorsports’ Crown Jewels. Even as times have changed, The Great American Race has never lost its luster.
Over the last two decades, the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series season has given us an unbelievable amount of excitement and memories. While it wasn’t easy to narrow down, here are the top ten moments and storylines from the last 20 Daytona 500 races.
The Top 10 Moments of the Last 20 Daytona 500 Races
10. 2020 | Denny Hamlin Wins His Third & Ryan Newman Makes It Out Alive
Before all of the chaos that 2020 brought to our lives (hey, it brought you In-Between Media, too), a Monday night Daytona 500 brought all of us some unexpected moments.
The race’s main storyline should have been Denny Hamlin claiming his third Daytona 500 win (and second consecutive) and asserting the superspeedway dominance that the No. 11 had held in the Gen-6 era. But Hamlin had to battle a couple of Ryans – Blaney and Newman – to claim the checkered flag.
Blaney’s race ended 0.014 seconds behind Hamlin, while Newman’s No. 6 crashed and was flung into the air off the nose of Corey LaJoie. The car scraped down the track in a shower of sparks across the finish line in P9, coming to rest in turn one, with no driver climbing out of the crashed vehicle and fuel leaking onto the racetrack.
Though we all feared the worst, especially when privacy screens were brought out and Ryan Newman was taken to the hospital, he was released later that week and returned to his ride when the series came back qfrom the pandemic break. Though the 2008 Daytona 500 champ would never win another race in the Cup Series, seeing him back in the car was victory enough.
9. 2018 | Austin Dillon Returns the No. 3 to Daytona’s Victory Lane
After Dale Earnhardt’s passing in the 2001 Daytona 500, his No. 3 did not run in the Cup Series for the next 13 seasons. When Richard Childress’ grandson, Austin Dillon, was ready for the Cup Series in 2014, the hallowed number returned to the track.
Dillon had not just raced the No. 3 in the then-called Nationwide and Truck Series, he had won series championships with it. But still, there were reservations about seeing the number back at the Cup level.
And while Dillon’s first career Cup win came in the 2017 Coca-Cola 600, it wasn’t until his second Cup win that he truly earned the No. 3. Coming to the finish of the Daytona 500 in 2018, 20 years after Earnhardt’s 20-year quest to win one ended, it was Austin Dillon versus Aric Almirola for the win. Almirola threw a bad block heading to turn three and was sent into the wall in much the same way that Earnhardt would have raced. Suddenly, it was open road for Dillon and the 3 car to win the Daytona 500.
Dillon is far from a championship-caliber racer at the Cup level, but earning six Cup victories, including a second at Daytona in 2022, is a career that would make even the legendary Dale Earnhardt proud.
8. 2010 | “Little Jamie Baby” McMurray Kicks Off His Crown Jewel Year
The 2010 season was the start of a new era in the careers of both Jamie McMurray and car owner Chip Ganassi. The 34-year-old driver had just been cut loose after four seasons with Jack Roush. Ganassi had just had to downsize and merge his team with the faltering Dale Earnhardt Inc., barely keeping the lights on after a previous failed merger with Ginn Racing.
After keeping Juan Pablo Montoya in the fold for his No. 42, Ganassi and Teresa Earnhardt needed a driver for the No. 1 car that was vacated by Martin Truex Jr. Enter Jamie McMurray, who had driven for Ganassi in parts of 2002-2005, including his first win substituting for Sterling Marlin. It was unclear how the two would match up in their reunification, but as it turns out, it was a perfect match.
McMurray’s orange and black Bass Pro Shops Chevy charged to the front near the end of the race. And even as Dale Earnhardt Jr., the best superspeedway racer of the series, charged right behind him, the Missouri native held off Junebug and won the 2010 Daytona 500. In fact, 2010 was McMurray’s best Cup Series season, winning the Brickyard 400 and the fall Charlotte race as well.
7. 2017 | Kurt Busch Will Never Forget His First
Heading into 2017, Kurt Busch was once again entrenched at the top of NASCAR. Character issues had forced him out of Penske years earlier and rides with Phoenix Racing and pre-Truex Furniture Row Racing hadn’t been on the elder Busch brother’s talent level.
But after signing with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, Kurt Busch had won at least one race each season and was no worse than 12th in the points, however, the Daytona 500 had still eluded him. Not this year.
Even after being involved in a crash earlier in the race, Busch’s No. 41 was in the thick of it late in the race, and when fuel mileage came into play, Busch knew it was his time to shine. On the race’s final lap, multiple drivers, including a young hotshot named Kyle Larson, ran out of gas. But Busch’s fuel tank held on and the Las Vegas native earned his Harley J. Earl Trophy.
The career renaissance continued for Busch, and he won one race a year until his career came to an end midway through 2022 due to concussion issues. Of course, no win meant more than The Great American Race.
6. 2021 | Michael McDowell & Front Row Motorsports Reach the Pinnacle
Michael McDowell and Front Row Motorsports were a match made in heaven. McDowell, largely a backmarker, start-and-park driver, had been working his way up the ladder to try and be more competitive. Front Row was on the same trajectory, and their highlights included a win at Talladega with David Ragan and earning a foggy checkered flag with Chris Buescher.
But win number three for Front Row and win number one for McDowell would be their best yet. The superspeedway tracks are always prime territory for underdog teams to perform, and McDowell had learned how to run up front late in those races.
It was quite late, after a five-plus-hour rain delay, when the white flag was dropped in the 2021 Daytona 500. McDowell ran third on the final lap, with Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano running in first and second, respectively. McDowell’s No. 34 gave a big push to Logano, and the Nos. 2 and 22 tangled, with the result being a fiery crash. When the dust settled, it was McDowell leading the race and coasting to the checkered flag under caution as the newest champion of the Daytona 500. Michael McDowell and Front Row earned one more win together in 2023 at another Crown Jewel race track on the Indianapolis road course before parting ways.
5. 2011 | Happy Birthday, Trevor Bayne! Wood Brothers Win in Driver’s Second Start
In the late-aughts and early 2010s, the “two-car tandem” was the way to go in Cup superspeedway races. Having a leader and a pusher was the fastest way around town. This was easy for bigger teams to manage, but for the single-car Wood Brothers Racing, it wasn’t that simple. After being one of the series’ best decades prior, the Wood’s famed No. 21 was just a part-time team in this era.
With the help of Ford and Roush Racing, they had signed up young prospect Trevor Bayne, who had made just one prior Cup start, to drive the car. Of course, start number two would be a memorable one.
Bayne held his own throughout the day and was out front after a green-white-checkered overtime restart, being pushed by Bobby Labonte and the single-car JTG-Daugherty Racing No. 47. Much more experienced and/or better-funded tandems of Kurt Busch with Juan Pablo Montoya and Carl Edwards with David Gilliland were hard charging. Edwards made the most noise on the race’s final lap, breaking up the other tandem and making it to Bayne’s back bumper off of turn four. But the young driver held off the series vet and took the Wood Brothers back to victory lane for the first time in nearly a decade.
Though Trevor Bayne wouldn’t earn another victory, the win helped restore the Wood Brothers to their former glory. The legendary team finally eclipsed 100 wins at NASCAR’s top level, seeing each of Ryan Blaney, Harrison Burton and Josh Berry take them to victory lane during their current affiliation with Penske.
4. 2016 | A Photo Finish Between Denny Hamlin & Martin Truex Jr.
It’s a wild thought that after nearly 500 miles of racing, a finish can still come down to the blink of an eye. The 2016 Daytona 500 brought us all but closer than that. The race’s final laps were dominated by Toyotas affiliated with Joe Gibbs Racing.
On the race’s final lap, Matt Kenseth led Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., who wanted nothing more than to deny Kenseth of his third Daytona 500 win and claim it for themselves. When Kenseth moved down to block, there was no respite, sending Kenseth’s No. 20 all but spinning up the track. This left the battle between Hamlin and Truex, with the No. 11 on top and the No. 78 on the bottom.
Side-by-side, to the finish line, but it was Denny Hamlin who claimed victory by 0.010 seconds, the closest in the race’s history. It was Toyota’s first Daytona 500 win and Joe Gibbs’ first since 1993’s “Dale-and-Dale show” that ended with Dale Jarrett coming out on top. Hamlin, of course, has won an additional two 500s, while the 2017 Cup champion Truex retired after 2025’s Great American Race having never won on a superspeedway.
3. 2014 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. Breaks Twitter, Wins Second Great American Race
The 2014 season was an inflection point for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s career. The swap to Steve Letarte at crew chief three years prior had the series’ most popular driver running better, but the duo had still won just one race together. With Letarte heading to the broadcast booth after the season, whether or not Dale Jr. could return to being a winning driver was one of the burning questions of the offseason. Right away, that question was answered.
Earnhardt led well into the night during a rain-delayed race, but ended up with one more overtime restart to defend. Behind the No. 88 were previous Daytona 500 champ Jimmie Johnson, winner of that year’s Clash and his Duel race Denny Hamlin, and Earnhardt’s protege Brad Keselowski. While all three gave it a fight, even getting a piece of tape stuck to the car’s nose wouldn’t slow down Junior on his way to a second Daytona 500 triumph, ten years after his first.
Earnhardt Jr., one of only two drivers who had not yet joined the budding new social media network called Twitter, along with Carl Edwards, posted there for the first time that night: a selfie with the Harley J. Earl Trophy. Dale Jr. would win four races in 2014 and three more in 2015, earning more wins in those two years than the previous nine combined.
2. 2012 | Jet Dryers, Tide, Dave Blaney & Matt Kenseth’s Second Harley J. Earl
Oftentimes, the finish of a race is its most memorable moment. The 2012 Daytona 500’s finish was anything but. For starters, this year’s 500 was the first to be delayed to Monday and later the first to be run at night in primetime, taking the green just after 7 p.m. on Fox.
It was the first Daytona 500 for Danica Patrick, making her move to the Cup Series for the first time and raising excitement. That was quieted on the second lap, when Patrick and Jimmie Johnson were among those involved in a crash and knocked out of contention.
The race continued relatively normally until lap 157, when a caution came out. The damaged car of Juan Pablo Montoya was attempting to be repaired, and came back on track before breaking in turn three. The No. 42 slid and crashed into a jet dryer attempting to clean the track, causing fuel to run down the track and eventually catch fire.
With the cars stopped on the backstretch, the race leader was Dave Blaney for underfunded Tommy Baldwin Racing. The No. 36 stayed out of the pits one extra lap to earn a points bonus by leading the lap before performing their service. As it turned out, it nearly won them the Great American Race.
Remarkably, over the next two-plus hours, the fire was extinguished and the track cleaned with Tide and repaired. The race would continue, and as is a theme in superspeedway races, an overtime finish was required, with Matt Kenseth claiming the victory over Dale Earnhardt Jr. with the help of teammate Greg Biffle.
1. 2007 | Mark Martin Comes So Close, but It’s Kevin Harvick!
Perhaps the pinnacle of modern-era NASCAR came at the 2007 Daytona 500. More than 60 cars had entered the race, new investors were jumping into the sport and a new broadcast deal returned ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, to the NASCAR world.
One of the major storylines included Mark Martin finally stepping away from full-time Cup racing, and being given the opportunity by Ginn Racing to run part-time in the Army No. 01 car. The team was competitive enough that, after the dominant cars of the day, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch crashed out, Martin ended up in the lead of the race.
Martin dominated the ending stages of the race and held a late lead after a caution from a Dale Earnhardt Jr. crash. But nothing is a certainty at Daytona, and playing the cards right in the draft can move you to the front quickly.
Kevin Harvick, driving for the first time without the traditional primary sponsorship of GM Goodwrench and instead in a bright yellow and red Pennzoil/Shell car, did just that, moving toward the front just in the nick of time. By the time Kyle Busch spun in the final corner to trigger “The Big One,” Harvick was just on Martin’s outside. The officials allowed the duo to race back to the stripe, and Harvick edged Martin by 0.02 seconds, returning Richard Childress to Daytona 500 victory lane for the first time since Dale Earnhardt’s 1998 triumph.
The finish, along with crash highlights including Clint Bowyer’s No. 07 sliding across the finish line upside down, is perhaps the most replayed Daytona 500 footage each and every year and certainly the greatest moment.
Thanks for reading our Top 10 Moments of the Last 20 Daytona 500 Races. Be sure to catch us live every Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EST for NASCAR betting analysis on The Backroad!
*Photo Credit: Nigel Cook/News-Journal – USA Today Sports*
