“He probably has to try really hard because he's not good at superspeedways,” said Owen, who added that his father is bad at drafting through traffic but had no advice for improvement.
“I've actually never drafted in my life," he said.
Larson will try to snap a 0-for-11 skid in "The Great American Race” on Sunday, and The Associated Press will be embedded with his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team.
Daytona has never been good to Larson despite three poles. He is actually 0 for 21 in the Cup Series with nine DNFs, and his Daytona national series debut was terrible: Larson flew into the fence on the final lap of the 2013 Xfinity Series race and demolished his car.
But Larson has started this year on a hot streak with wins in sprint cars in Australia, the Chili Bowl and his first Gator Trophy at Volusia Speedway Park’s annual DIRTcar Nationals last week before he shifted into Daytona 500 preparations.
“I think it keeps me sharp, for sure. I just like to race. I kind of like to stay in the rhythm of racing,” Larson said. “I feel like I’m just trying to continue to better my abilities.”
He's not sure if he can continue the winning roll when he starts 22nd on Sunday.
“Everybody in here wants to win the big one,” Larson said. “I think this is like the last of the big ones that I have left (to win). I think that adds a little bit more to it.”
Larson is among a slew of NASCAR champions who have never won the 500. This year's field includes 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr. (0 for 20); two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch (0 for 19); 2012 champion Brad Keselowski (0 for 15); and Hendrick teammate and 2020 champion Chase Elliott (0 for 9).
Busch, who drives for Richard Childress Racing, is coming off the first winless season of his career — a drought that cost him his NASCAR record of 19 consecutive years with at least one win.
But he’s not giving up hope ahead of Sunday’s race and is taking inspiration from RCR's storied history. The late Dale Earnhardt suffered dozens of heartbreaks in the Daytona 500 before finally driving RCR’s No. 3 Chevrolet to NASCAR’s top glory in 1998 on his 20th try.
“Twenty years of trying. There was another storied racer of the past that won on his 20th try and that was a pretty big deal,” Busch said. “He was a former RCR driver, as well, so it’d certainly be nice to win that race and do it with RCR.”
There's a large crowd of NASCAR stars who have never won stock-car racing's Super Bowl, including Hall of Famers Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace.
Larson said he wasn't sure how Daytona defeats haunted other drivers, particularly Stewart, who also came up empty in his childhood dream of one day winning the Indianapolis 500. He noted that the style of racing at Daytona, which is so unusual and requires so much help from other drivers and a ton of luck, that drivers today can accept that winning the 500 is a crapshoot.
“I imagine Tony Stewart, who doesn’t have it, doesn’t lose sleep,” Larson said. "I think when you look at the style of racing, especially nowadays, how it’s difficult to win because you do have a lot of good fortune where there’s a lot out of your control. I think that helps you sleep at night if you don’t win.
“I don’t think it does anything to Tony’s legacy whether he’s won the Daytona 500 or not. He’s in every Hall of Fame that he’s deserving of being in. I don’t think it does anything to his career.”
Larson figures his career resume would be fine without a Daytona 500 victory. He's won every other crown jewel: NASCAR's All-Star race in 2019, 2021 and 2023; the 2021 Coca-Cola 600; the 2023 Southern 500; and the 2024 Brickyard 400.
“Like, I’m not going to lose sleep if I don’t ever win this race, but I still want to win the race and have that ring and that trophy and be a part of the names that have won it,” Larson said. “But again, I think there’s a lot else, a lot more that goes into winning and a lot of luck. It’s not a big deal.”
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Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP