Four consecutive NASCAR Cup Series seasons have begun with first-time Daytona 500 winners, including two who had never even previously managed to win a Cup Series race.
Michael McDowell took the checkered flag in 2021, followed by Austin Cindric in 2022, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2023, and William Byron in 2024.
First-time Daytona 500 winners are far from uncommon; this four-year streak is the second four-year streak in the last decade alone. The only two exceptions during this 10-year stretch came in 2019 and 2020, when the Daytona 500 was won by Denny Hamlin for the second and third time.
Hamlin is one of 12 drivers who have won the "Great American Race" more than once, and those 12 drivers have combined to win more than half of the 66 Daytona 500s that have ever been contested.
Who has won the Daytona 500 more than once?
Hamlin sits in a third place tie on the all-time Daytona 500 wins list with Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett, and Jeff Gordon. They trail the only seven-time winner, Richard Petty, as well as four-time winner Cale Yarborough.
Petty was the first driver to win it twice, three times, four times, and of course, the only driver to win it for a fifth, sixth, and seventh time.
Only six other drivers have won the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval on more than one occasion. Those drivers are Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Sterling Marlin, and Michael Waltrip.
Hamlin, now a three-time winner, is still the most recent two-time winner. He won the race for a third time in 2020 when he also became just the fourth ever back-to-back winner. Of the six drivers with exactly two wins, Dale Jr. is the most recent to pull off the feat, doing so in 2014.
Hamlin and Johnson are the only two active multi-time winners of the Daytona 500. Other active winners include McDowell, Cindric, Stenhouse, Byron, Joey Logano (2015), and Austin Dillon (2018).
Will a 13th different two-time winner emerge in 2025? Will Hamlin join Yarborough in a second place tie on the all-time list? Or will a 44th different driver earn the Harley J. Earl Trophy?
A full starting lineup is available here.
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