The Daytona 500 is NASCAR's Super Bowl, so why doesn't it always equate to greatness?

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon won the Daytona 500 twice in his first seven seasons, adding another win six years later in 2005. He thought there would surely be more to come.

After that, Gordon never won NASCAR's biggest race again.

“You get frustrated with, 'Man, what else am I doing?'” Gordon said.

The answer, strangely enough, was nothing.

Such is the nature of this NASCAR race, a crown jewel that represents a unique contrast in the field of top sporting events: It is NASCAR's Super Bowl in many ways, but also remains one of the least reliable indicators of greatness.

Some of NASCAR's most legendary names, such as Tony Stewart, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, never won this race. Meanwhile, five of the last seven Daytona 500 victors have gone winless in the season's remaining 35 events.

“You would assume that in the biggest race of the year, the best teams and drivers would always win,” said Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner. “But that's not the case.”

Logano brought the fastest car to this year's 500 and qualified on pole position for the first time in his career. But the style of racing on NASCAR's so-called “superspeedways” like Daytona means there are no guarantees Logano will perform well in the race, when more than three-quarters of the field has a legitimate chance to win. (The race, originally scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed to Monday at 4:00 PM ET due to rain.)

The reason is rooted in safety concerns. If NASCAR Cup Series cars were allowed to drive unrestricted on Daytona's high-altitude, 2.8-mile course, they could reach a top speed of 200 mph, putting competitors and fans alike at greater risk.

By requiring every car to have a “tapered spacer” – a hole-filled aluminum block that reduces airflow to the engines – NASCAR limits speeds to prevent cars from becoming airborne and flying into (or through) the fences that separate the fans. of the race track.

But there is a side effect. The reduced horsepower means that cars typically run in giant groups and drivers must rely on help from other competitors to get around the track. Otherwise, they risk falling helplessly behind and not being able to catch up as the field rushes into the distance.

That dramatically increases the odds on two fronts: one, as-yet-unheralded underdog could stay among the elite long enough to pull off a shock victory; and second, even a small error or mistake by one driver in the pack can cause a major multi-car accident known as 'The Big One'.

“You're not going to be in complete control of your destiny, and I just accepted that,” said defending NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney, who has never won the Daytona 500 despite being one of the top superspeedway racers. “I'm going to do my best to stick with this, and if I get swept away by something that's not my fault, I'll think, 'What can you do?'”

When Christopher Bell won the Daytona 500 qualifying race on Thursday night, he acknowledged that he believed this style of racing was “100 percent luck.”

In reality that is an exaggeration. While luck undoubtedly plays a role at Daytona, it's not everything.

“I used to think this race was more luck than skill, but as I've studied more, the same guys are always at the front,” said Kyle Larson, known as one of the most talented American drivers of his generation. “Those guys aren't luckier than everyone else; they are really talented when it comes to this style and they have a good sense of how things work and where to be at the right time.

Becoming a top superspeedway racer requires a different set of skills than typical tracks, which are more about drivers making their cars handle better (and therefore go faster) than the competition.

At Daytona, the best drivers have excellent racing skills – knowing when to risk a move and when to stay put – and an innate sense of avoiding danger. Combined with these things, they also need smart strategy calls from their teams, quick pit stops from their teams and of course luck.

“The smart ones can navigate through (the danger) or know, 'I've got to get out of this' — or they're already ahead of it,” said Tyler Reddick, who has crashed in all five of his Daytona races. 500 started but won his qualifying race on Thursday. “The drivers who win this will be the ones who stay calm and make good decisions as the race comes to an end.”

Although it was mythically said that the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. 'could see the sky', the reality of modern drivers is that they have to see the video. Together with their spotters, who tell and even dictate what moves to make from positions high above the track, drivers study films of previous races to understand which moves work, which backfire and which cause big crashes.

Some teams track analytics such as the best running positions in the pack that correlate with success. But even then, there are still so many elements they have no control over.

For example, Brad Keselowski has led the most laps in each of the last two Daytona 500s – part of the 177 career laps he has led in this race – but has never won it. Now 40 and running out of time to claim a Daytona 500 crown, Keselowski said he would trade leading those laps in exchange for leading the last.

“You go to the Daytona 500 and you've done all this prep work… and more often than not the result feels undeserved anyway,” he said. “Like many things in life, you just have to acknowledge that it's not always fair, accept it and move on. But it is certainly difficult to reconcile.”

Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. are among the current Cup Series champion drivers nearing the end of their careers without a Daytona 500 victory. Busch has said he wants to win the 500 more than any other achievement, but also acknowledged that “it's just one race.”

Drivers in the NASCAR garage continue to struggle with that dichotomy; as Gordon said, “Someone is going to win this race, and there is no other victory like it.”

On the other hand, as Logano noted, a Daytona 500 trophy – or lack thereof – does not define a driver's career.

“It's an incredible statistic to have on your resume,” Logano said. “That part is fantastic. But if you had to choose between winning 15 Cup races in one Daytona 500, you would probably prefer to win 15 Cup races.”

GO DEEPER

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(Top image: John Bradford / The Athletics; Photos: Jared C. Tilton, Jonathan Ferrey, Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)