Kyle Busch is the winningest active driver (63 wins). Rowdy has two championships (2015, 2019) to his name, and has a confirmed seat in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. If he retires tomorrow, he will still go down as one of the sport’s greatest drivers. Still, why does it feel like the story is incomplete?

Well, because it is! It would be a crime to call a driver one of the greatest, whose not won the Daytona 500 (no offense to Mark Martin, MTJ, and a few others). This might sound harsh, but without that Harly J. Earl trophy, the Bill France Cup looks lonely in the cabinet. However, some recent odds are saying that Busch is the strongest contender to win ‘The Great American Race’ in 2025.

What are Kyle Busch’s chances at the Daytona 500?

Roughly 30 days are left for the Daytona race and we couldn’t help but wonder who would be the next winner of the biggest race purse in NASCAR. And surprisingly, Kyle Busch emerges as a front-runner. Yes, it sounds unlikely that the 57-race winless streak would break at the Daytona 500. But hear us out.

While Kyle Busch in his two-decade-long career has only won thrice on Superspeedway-style tracks (Talladega -2008, 2023, and 2008 Daytona), his recent performances on such tracks have been promising. Take 2024 for instance. The two times that he was close to winning were first at the Daytona race when Harisson Burton fended him off.

And second, in the very next race in Darlington, when Chase Briscoe fought bravely to keep him at bay. In both, he finished in P2. Even at Atlanta, which drives as a Superspeedway now, he managed a P3. So it’s very likely he’ll dominate the Daytona 500. And also according to DraftKings Sportsbook, Busch has the highest odds of winning the Daytona 500 race. He’s closed at +1200, the same as Brad Keselowski.

It could be a tough one between the two. Even Keselowski had a splendid performance on superspeedways last year. Be it the P2 finishes in both Talladega races or a win in the Darlington’s spring race. To add to the spice, even Keselowski has never won the Daytona 500.

But for some reason, we want it more for Busch. It was disheartening to see how Busch could not catch up to Denny Hamlin in that last lap of the 2019 Daytona. Having to be satisfied with a P2. While he made it up with a championship that year, it still felt incomplete.

Also, there is another farfetched connection as to why Busch winning the Daytona 500 in 2025 will be epic!

Can Kyle Busch do what Dale Earnhardt Sr. did?

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In NASCAR, history repeats itself. Take Joey Logano’s even-year magic, making it to the Championship 4 in every even-year season since the introduction of the format in 2014. While Logano’s luck is often through the roof, let’s hope some of that rub off on Busch in 2025. This would be his 20th Daytona 500 attempt. And while no one says that the 20th time’s a charm, in this case, it could be.

In 1998, Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his first Daytona 500 race. And guess what? It was his 20th attempt too. Dale Sr. had come so close so many times but always failed to take the checkered flag.

When he won in ’98, NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton had said, “I think the whole industry breathed the sigh of relief. He had gotten so close so many times, won so many different races in Daytona, but finally had gotten the Daytona 500. And all the championships and every accomplishment that Dale Sr. had, the only piece missing in his puzzle was Daytona 500. Everybody was wondering on the last couple of laps what was going to go wrong? And nothing did.”

Let’s hope the same can be said for Busch in 2025. And you know what’s more interesting? Dale Sr was coming from a 59-race winless streak. ’97 was the season when Sr, after almost fifteen years, went winless for the first time. Just like how Busch went winless for the first time in 2024 after 19 years.

What do you think? Do you believe Busch can get it done in 2025, or is the Daytona 500 win still out of reach for him? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. We’re all eager to see how this story unfolds!