How Big Is Winning a Daytona 500? Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. Share Their Takes

To win the Daytona 500 is no easy feat. This bit should be clear from the fact that there are many NASCAR drivers who have won a Cup title but not the 500. Two such Cup champions are looking to tick that off their bucket list are Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr.  However, both Keselowski and Truex have slightly different perspectives on how to win the 500 and what it means for them personally.

“The Daytona 500 feels like a race that you don’t win, you get chosen to win,” Keselowski said in a recent interview. “All you can really do is put yourself in a position and hope you’re chosen. You can go back and watch the end of races and people win this race and you kind of scratch your head and go, ‘How did they win this race?’ There wasn’t a move that won it for them. It just fell in their lap, and that part gets super frustrating.”

Keselowski claimed how in the last few years, he has put himself in a position to win the Great American Race but it fell apart in ways where he felt he wasn’t chosen to win it. “I feel like there’s a divine power in it,” the 2012 Cup champion added.

Having said that, Keselowski mentioned that in retrospect, there’s not much he would do differently from what he did.

In Martin Truex Jr.’s case, he too wants to win the Daytona 500. “Obviously, I want it. It’d be great. It’d be amazing,” he said. But Truex also mentioned that if he fails to win the 500, he wouldn’t be “completely disappointed” with his whole career.

“I don’t know if that is a big deal to me or not. I think there’s still a lot of opportunities to get it done. I try not to think about it, but it’d be huge to win, that’s for sure,” he added.

Brad Keselowski fires warning to his NASCAR rivals amid major Ford changes

It won’t be a stretch to say that Brad Keselowski, who is more or less in the final third of his driving career at this point, won’t have many opportunities to win the Daytona 500. In fact, considering the major changes to the Ford Mustang body this year, even this season might not be a big chance for him to win it, right?

“No, not at all,” Keselowski ruled. “I think the Ford car is going to be really, really good at every track. The work that’s been put in is exceptional. The Fords were significantly behind last year with aerodynamics of the car and that pushed us to be better in other areas.”

The RFK Racing driver-owner added that by fixing the aerodynamics of their Next Gen cars along with the other strengths they’ve build over the last year, the 2024 NASCAR season would be “a big year” for them.

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• Brad Keselowski
• Martin Truex Jr.