Harrison Burton delivered Wood Brothers Racing their 100th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory last August when he won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
The historic team had been waiting more than seven years and four drivers for that 100th win after Ryan Blaney, who left for Team Penske after the 2017 season, earned them win No. 99 at Pocono Raceway in June 2017.
But Josh Berry, who would be losing his ride with Stewart-Haas Racing following their impending closure at the end of the 2024 season, had already been named Burton's replacement behind the wheel of the No. 21 Ford for the 2025 season when Burton found victory lane.
Burton was unable to land another Cup Series ride and is instead set to compete full-time behind the wheel of the No. 25 Ford for AM Racing in the Xfinity Series this year. And despite the fact that there were nine non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list for this year's Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500, Burton was not on it.
It is extremely rare for the most recent Daytona winner not to return for the next Daytona race.
It has only happened five times in the history of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval, four if you look only at the entry list.
And crazily enough, of the four times in which the driver wasn't actually on the entry list, two instances happened because said driver was literally killed in a crash – and then later resuscitated.
A.J. Foyt won the 1964 Firecracker 400 but did not compete in the 1965 Daytona 500. He then won the 1972 Daytona 500 but did not compete in the Firecracker 400 later in the year.
Tim Richmond won the 1986 Firecracker 400 but did not compete in the 1987 Daytona 500 due to an illness classified as double pneumonia, which sidelined him for the first 11 races of the season.
Bobby Allison won the 1988 Daytona 500 but retired before the 1988 Pepsi Firecracker 400 after a crash that nearly killed him at Pocono Raceway. In fact, he was initially declared dead before reaching a local hospital and being resuscitated.
And then most recently, Jimmy Spencer won the 1994 Pepsi 400 but failed to qualify for the 1995 Daytona 500.
With Spencer having been on the entry list for the 1995 race (and thus not out of the event altogether), you could argue that he shouldn't even count as an example on this particular list.
So if you exclude the health issues which forced Richmond and Allison out, you really have to go all the way back to 1972, more than a half century ago, to find the most recent instance of a driver not returning for the next Daytona race after winning the previous one. Foyt opted to turn his focus to the Indy 500 that year and step away from the Winston Cup Series.
And that's technically the only other instance of such an occurrence.
Why? Because in 1965, Foyt, too, was declared dead by a track doctor after a crash at Riverside International Raceway. Fellow driver Parnelli Jones was able to revive him after seeing movement.
All things considered, and excluding instances of drivers dying, being revived, and/or falling terribly ill, Burton not returning for the Daytona 500 in 2025 is just the second true instance ever of a driver winning a Daytona race and then not returning for the next one.
Fox is set to provide live coverage of the 67th annual Daytona 500 from Daytona International Speedway this Sunday, February 16 beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET following a late schedule change. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!