{"id":7082,"date":"2026-02-16T15:25:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/?p=7082"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:25:01","slug":"nascar-daytona-saturday-february-14-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/nascar-daytona-saturday-february-14-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Daytona Saturday, February 14, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAYTONA 500<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

43 Different winners in 67 Daytona 500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Daytona 500 win for 4 of last 5 winners \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael McDowell<\/strong> (2021), Austin Cindric<\/strong> (2022), Ricky Stenhouse Jr.<\/strong> (2023) & William Byron<\/strong> (2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Won consecutive Daytona 500s (No driver won 3 straight) \u2013 William Byron<\/strong> won last 2 Daytona 500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Won 3 or more Daytona 500s \u2013 William Byron<\/strong> trying to win 3rd Daytona 500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Byron<\/strong> only repeat winner last 8 Daytona races (2 Wins) \u2013 6 Others 1 win each<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Byron<\/strong> only repeat winner last 6 Daytona 500s (2 Wins) \u2013 4 Others 1 win each<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No driver won 3 Daytona 500s by 28-years-old \u2013 William Byron<\/strong> 2 Daytona 500 wins (28-Years-old)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Byron<\/strong> youngest with multiple Daytona 500 wins (2024 & \u201925)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Byron<\/strong> led 14 laps total in 2 Daytona 500 wins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Byron<\/strong>: 2025 Daytona 500 champion \u2013 17-1 Odds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers won Daytona 500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16 Champions won Daytona 500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle Busch<\/strong>: 63 Career wins \u2013 0 for 20 in Daytona 500 (Most career wins without a Daytona 500 win)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle Busch<\/strong>: Most laps led without a Daytona 500 win \u2013 342 Laps led<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most starts before first Daytona 500 win: Dale Earnhardt won in 20th try (1998)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee Petty 1959 & Trevor Bayne 2011 only drivers to win Daytona 500 in first try<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daytona 500 won by defending NASCAR Cup Series champion 5 times \u2013 Last: Dale Jarrett 1999 Champ & 2000 Winner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle Larson<\/strong> defending NASCAR Cup Series champion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denny Hamlin<\/strong> won the 2 closest Daytona 500s (2016 & 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1-hundredth of a second over Martin Truex Jr. in 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14-hundredths of a second over Ryan Blaney in 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denny Hamlin<\/strong> led most laps 4 Daytona 500s \u2013 Tied for most all-time (Richard Petty)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Blaney<\/strong>: 4 Stage 2 wins in Daytona 500 \u2013 Winless<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrick Motorsports<\/strong> leads all with 10 Daytona 500 wins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrick Motorsports<\/strong> won 10 Daytona 500s with 6 different drivers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrick Motorsports<\/strong> won last 2 Daytona 500s \u2013 No team won 3 straight Daytona 500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23 Involved in lap 192 crash 2024 Daytona 500 \u2013 Most ever in Daytona 500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Crashes involving 10 or more drivers in 2025 Daytona 500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biggest Daytona NASCAR Cup Series crash: 26 Involved (7\/6\/14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16 Daytona 500 winners started front-row \u2013 9 From pole<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26 Daytona 500 winners started from first 2 rows<\/p>\n\n\n\n

46 Daytona 500 winners started top 10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Daytona 500 winners started 31st or worse<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Daytona 500 winners started rear of field \u2013 Kenseth 2009, Dillon 2018, Hamlin 2020 & Byron 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Daytona 500 winner from pole last 25 Daytona 500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daytona 500 win was first career victory for 9 drivers including Michael McDowell<\/strong> 2021 & Austin Cindric<\/strong> 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mid-race leader won 2 of last 33 Daytona 500s \u2013 Denny Hamlin 2016 & Denny Hamlin 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mid-race leader crashed out last 3 Daytona 500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of most laps failed to win last 5 Daytona 500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fewest laps led by Daytona 500 winner: 1 \u2013 Kurt Busch (2017), Austin Dillon (2018) & Michael McDowell (2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 Daytona 500 winners led 5 or fewer laps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader with 10 to go failed to finish 3 of last 5 Daytona 500s \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey Logano (2021), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2022) & Kyle Busch (2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final lead change with 13 laps or less to go last 11 Daytona 500s \u2013 5 of last 10 settled by last lap pass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14 Daytona 500s settled by last lap pass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teammates swept top finishing positions 9 times in Daytona 500 \u2013 Hendrick Motorsports 4 times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrick Motorsports (1997) & Joe Gibbs Racing (2019) swept top 3 finishing positions in Daytona 500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Gordon 1998 Atlanta & 1999 Daytona 500 last to win season-finale & first race next season<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Blaney<\/strong> won 2025 season-finale at Phoenix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only win of season for 17 Daytona 500 winners<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Father-Son Daytona 500 winners \u2013 Allison, Earnhardt & Petty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chase Elliott<\/strong> looking for first Daytona 500 win<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Youngest winner: Trevor Bayne 20 (2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd youngest winner: Austin Cindric 23 (2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3rd youngest winner: Joey Logano 24 (2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4th youngest winner: Jeff Gordon 25 (1997)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oldest winner: Bobby Allison 50 (1988)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAYTONA 500 43 Different winners in 67 Daytona 500s First Daytona 500 win for 4 of last 5 winners \u2013 Michael McDowell (2021), Austin Cindric (2022), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2023) & William Byron (2024) 5 Won consecutive Daytona 500s (No driver won 3 straight) \u2013 William Byron won last 2 Daytona 500s 6 Won 3…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,18,6,7,8,9,19],"class_list":["post-7082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-17","tag-broadcasting","tag-chris-myers","tag-chris-myers-sports","tag-fox-sports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrismyerssports.com\/cmi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}