Ten Things To Watch For In The Daytona 500

Too much too soon for Chase Elliot?

He may have Hendrick horsepower, great setups and veteran team behind him, but that’s not going to be enough to help the former Xfinity Series champion win his first Daytona 500 this season. Unfortunately for Elliot and his fans, he is doomed to the Daytona curse that has plagued rookies in The Great American Race over the past couple of years.

Let’s start with Joey Logano. A young man who in 2010 inherited one of the most successful and prestigious rides in racing.  Sadly, that and a championship crew chief wasn’t enough to help Logano, who ended up finishing dead last after a brutal crash into the inside wall in his first Daytona 500.

Then there’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The young rookie who had two amazing championship season in The Xfinity Series and wanted to bring that success over to Sprint Cup. Unfortunately for Stenhouse, he hit a huge learning curve during his first Daytona 500, failing to be a factor throughout the entirety of the race and finishing 38^th at the end of the day. While his first 500 outing was a bit of a disaster, he did finish 12^th in The Daytona 500 during his first full season in The Cup Series.

With that being said, these two drivers prove that no matter how what kind of horsepower is under your hood and what crew chief you have standing on your pit box, you are still vulnerable when it comes to competing in your first Great American Race. Sure, Trevor Bayne is the exception to this rule, winning The 500 in a part-time scheduled car in 2011, but that feat hadn’t been accomplished in years and probably won’t be again for quite some time.