NASCAR: The Daytona 500 ended an obscure 1,077-race streak
By Asher Fair
For the first time in nearly three decades, a NASCAR Cup Series race was contested without a No. 18 car in the field, and that number wasn’t even on the entry list.
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season got underway this past Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway with the 65th annual Daytona 500, a race won by JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The race was the first official points-paying race following an offseason which was filled with huge driver changes, headlined by Kyle Busch leaving Joe Gibbs Racing for Richard Childress Racing after spending 15 years behind the wheel of the No. 18 Toyota.
Ty Gibbs, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, was promoted to his grandfather’s team as Busch’s replacement, but he and the team opted to use his Xfinity Series number, No. 54, instead of putting him behind the wheel of the No. 18 Toyota.
As a result, there is not a No. 18 Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2023.
The Daytona 500 was the first race since the 1994 season to be run without a No. 18 car in the field, and it was the first race since the 1991 season to be run without a No. 18 car even on the entry list. No Daytona 500 had been contested without a No. 18 car since 1990.
The last time a race was run without a No. 18 car in the field was in October 1994, when Dale Jarrett failed to qualify his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Between then and the 2023 season opener, 991 races had been contested.
But the No. 18 car was still on the entry list for that race. The last time a race had been run without a No. 18 car even on the entry list was in November 1991, the final race before Joe Gibbs Racing joined the Cup Series. That race took place at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Between then and the 2023 season opener, 1,077 races had been contested.
Joe Gibbs Racing entered the Cup Series in 1992, and they used No. 18 as their original car number, fielding the No. 18 Chevrolet for Jarrett.
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Their plan is to bring the No. 18 car back at some point in the future, but they have not provided any further details about the matter. They also run the No. 11 Toyota for Denny Hamlin, the No. 19 Toyota for Martin Truex Jr., and the No. 20 Toyota for Christopher Bell. Hamlin and Truex are both 42 years old.