21 years of trying, 21 years of frustration, and 21 years of not winning the Daytona 500. That was the harsh reality for Kyle Busch, arguably the best driver in NASCAR Cup Series history never to win the "Great American Race", on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, after starting the race on pole for the first time in his 21-year career.
Busch might have been the betting favorite to win Sunday's 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval after taking the pole, but the real writing was on the wall.
The 40-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native, whose top finish in the race is second in 2019, entered Sunday needing to end a drought that predates his own first career Cup Series start, in that no driver had ever won the Daytona 500 from pole since Dale Jarrett did it in 2000.
Only three drivers in 25 years since had ever even finished in the top five, with Bill Elliott finishing fifth in 2001, Alex Bowman finishing fifth in 2023, and Chase Briscoe finishing fourth in 2025.
Busch led 19 laps, but he could only finish 15th.
He also finished fourth in the second stage to add seven points to his tally, but he's now 0-for-4 in the Daytona 500 since joining Richard Childress Racing in the No. 8 Chevrolet.
On nine times in Daytona 500 history has the polesitter gone on to win the race, and all nine of those occasions took place within the race's first 42 years of existence. Drivers to start P1 are 0-for-26 since.
Considering how little starting position really matters in a drafting race at a superspeedway, it's not an extremely surprising streak.
Having said that, we literally just saw Ryan Blaney win from pole in the summer race at the track back in August. Five Daytona summer race polesitters have won since 2000, and three Talladega Superspeedway race polesitters have won since 2007.
One would think that, at some point, things would fall in the polesitter's favor in the Daytona 500. Yet we haven't even seen a Daytona 500 polesitter finish in the top three for 26 years.