By: Kelly Crandall | 12 hours ago Through the nature of its racing, the Daytona 500 is often hyped as anyone’s to win. But the reality is that the “Great American Race” has only opened the gates to victory lane to a select few over the years, with some of the sport’s biggest names never hoisting the Harley J. Earl trophy (pictured above).Winning Daytona is an accomplishment attached to a driver for life. It is the culmination of a winter’s worth of work mixed with a few hours of a driver’s luck and skill. Here are how a few drivers put together 500 miles to make themselves known as a Daytona 500 champion:On the importance of starting position…AUSTIN DILLON: We won it from the back when we went to a backup car. If it’s a fast car or it’s undriveable, I don’t think it matters where you start — you have to have the car driving good. I’d rather start toward the front though, and see how it plays out instead of having to work my way to the front.KURT BUSCH: It’s really not all that important because of how long the race is and how much goes on. You always want to have a fast car qualifying and have a good qualifying race, but there’s just so much time and you’re not worried about stage points at this race. You’re worried about the checkered flag.JOEY LOGANO: Our strategy is always to stay up front, whether that’s right or wrong. We want to be up in the front all the time, so starting up front helps. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t qualify well, but it helps.RYAN NEWMAN: It’s important. I’ve seen guys crash going into Turn 1 on the first lap. It’s important to try to avoid that first crash because there’s no guarantee where it’s going to be. Approaching the first third of the race …DILLON: I’m just making sure my car can stay in the draft the first third of the race. If it can’t, we’ll back off and try to adjust. If I’m up front, I’m trying to hold that position and get some stage points. It’s based off feel. If I feel like the pack is being smart or I feel like the intensity is rising, I don’t really want to be in that situation because you want to be there at the end. So, putting yourself in the right positions is so key.BUSCH: Primarily I’m watching others and staying out of trouble. When you’re watching others, you’re trying to see who’s strong and who’s not. The biggest thing is just staying out of trouble in that first sector and then anticipating if it’s going to be a green flag stop — the yellow flag stop helps, but sometimes those green stops with a lot people, first time of the year, it gets pretty wild.DENNY HAMLIN: Definitely a little bit cautious, but with the stages and points at stake, you’ve got to try and put yourself in position to be inside the top three or four. Outside of that you got to just make sure you’ve got a race car until the end. We’ve seen so many wrecks over the last few years leading into the end of stages, and that kills your chance if you can’t get to the finish so it’s important for us to make sure we’re there.NEWMAN: You want to be up front and you want to be out of the crashes. You have to execute cleanly on pit road because the second you put yourself a lap down because of a mistake, you’re at the mercy of how many cautions you get and that’s no way to race. Realistically, just keeping the fenders on it and getting your car, and keeping your car, so it’s driving (well) and putting yourself in position where you know you’re going to be capable toward the end. Whether handing or speed is the focus …DILLON: You want it to handle well throughout the course of the race and at the end you want it to be fast. It’s a nice blend because at the end of the race you’re holding on either way. Handling comes into play, but you want the speed with it.BUSCH: Each year’s a little different. If it’s cool out then speed is more important. If it’s hot and the track’s going to be slick, then handling is more important — and you have to have that built into the car before you even show up. HAMLIN: Handling is the number one thing that I believe I need to be successful. But obviously you can’t do it with a slow car, either.LOGANO: I always like to have a car that handles well so I can make aggressive moves. The course of the run changes as tires wear out and the draft changes a lot from the beginning of the race to the end as drivers learn the trends that are going on, (like) who’s strong and who’s not.NEWMAN: There’s always speed and handling, so the second you have to start lifting and moving around, and running the non-ideal part of the racetrack, depending on the draft, you put yourself at risk to not keep up and getting passed.

By: Kelly Crandall 12 hours ago Where you want to be in the middle portion of the race …DILLON: After that second stage, things change a lot. That’s when there’s no mistakes. You don’t want to make a mistake from that second stage on because track position starts to matter.BUSCH: You want to have no scratches or big dents on your car; (being on the) lead lap is obviously the most important part and then by that time, you’re running with the who’s who –knowing who’s going to be the players when it comes down to crunch time.LOGANO: I want to be in the lead. Anytime I can be in the lead, I want to be there. It’s a good place to be. It’s the safest place to be. It scores points during the race, and ultimately, it shows how good your car is.NEWMAN: Anywhere in the first group. Anywhere in the top drafting group — I think there will be at least three of them. That will determine how good your car is, how well you’ve run in the pits, and you know who you’re racing. You’ve learned at that point what those guys’ strengths and weaknesses are. When the race for the win really begins …DILLON: Oh man, I would give it 50 laps to go. Twenty is really hard to get to the front, but you can do it here. But I’ll give it that 50 mark. I start getting where I want to go.BUSCH: I would say 20 to go is too late for a stock car race, because there’s so many cars that are on the lead lap and in contention and have a chance to win. So, I look at it always as around two sets of tires to go, which is usually around 100 miles or so. Maybe a little bit more. That’s when you have to be position.HAMLIN: I think it starts after halfway, really. The guys that have been strong all week or have been strong in the Clash or the Duels, if they’re not around at the halfway point of the 500, it’s just not in the cards. You’ll see by halfway who’s going to be contending for this thing.LOGANO: Usually about 40 to go. Last fuel run gets pretty anxious. And a little bit even before that it starts to ramp a little bit, but the last fuel run gets pretty big and then the last 20 laps are long. They’re long laps.NEWMAN: After last year, when I finished eighth with the nose clobbered, I have no idea (when the race for the win really starts). I think everybody last year thought each caution was going to be the last caution and then there was three or four or five more. So, I don’t know. That’s kind of an energy you have to feel. When the ideal time to take the lead is …DILLON: The last lap. That’s the only one you need to lead. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to lead other laps in this race, I’ve done it before, but the only one that matters truthfully is the last one. BUSCH: It’s around this same time, 100 miles to go. You’re setting the tone.HAMLIN: You’d like to have control of the final restart — that’s the biggest thing, is putting yourself in the line that you want to be going into it.NEWMAN: Coming to the checkered flag — the last 10 feet. We’ve seen it be won or lost there. Really, a lot of it’s luck. A lot of it’s preparation, a lot of it’s positioning, there’s so many aspects of restrictor-plate racing that are different than when we go to other tracks. Coming to the checkered flag in the Daytona 500 …DILLON: It’s like a dream. You can’t fathom it because it’s something you dream of so long, so when it comes true you’re kind of tripping. You get to celebrate in front of thousands of fans right there on the frontstretch. That feel is unmatched.BUSCH: That [2017] race was pretty wild. My mirror bracket broke with about 30 laps to go and the only thing I knew was to run the high groove because that would eliminate somebody passing on my right — I literally couldn’t see behind me. When I came off Turn 2 to pass for the lead, my spotter said, ‘You’re clear by three. You’re clear by four,’ and I was like, ‘Please say five next, please say five,’ because if you say four they’re going to catch me in time. And he said clear by five and at that moment I had chills and I still hadn’t gotten to Turn 3 yet, and I felt like, yeah, I’m going to win this. But I couldn’t see behind me, and so I just held the prettiest wheel I could, came off Turn 4 and the guys never caught me from behind. Everything is out in front of you, everything is black and white, all the flash bulbs go off and it sets in, like you did it. We did this. It was 17 years of coming down to Daytona and finally being that guy to cross the line first.HAMLIN: It’s just simply feels like accomplishment. Not only by you but your team, and especially how we won it [in 2016]. It was just a huge feeling of accomplishment that you’ve won something you’ve worked for a long time.LOGANO: It’s like coming off the Turn 4 in Miami knowing you’re going to win the championship. Same exact feeling. It’s a big race, it’s the biggest race of the year and it is the race everyone wants to have checked on their bucket list — Daytona 500 champion. Yeah, you win Atlanta next week, that’s special and a big deal, but it’s not the Daytona 500. This is just so much bigger.NEWMAN: I felt like we won the [2008] race down the backstretch when Kurt got behind me and pushed me and the way those cars drafted then, once the cars pushed and separated there was no way that Kurt could get around me. I had the momentum for the next half a lap and that was to the start/finish line and then some. It was an amazing feeling … everything lined up and that was our lap.