Let the season begin

    The Daytona 500 has never been won by a driver making his first Daytona 500 start, except the inaugural race in 1959. Three drivers have won in their second start: Pete Hamilton (1970), Mario Andretti (1967), and Junior Johnson (1960). Trevor Bayne, Steve Wallace, Andy Lally and Brian Keselowski are all looking to make their first Daytona 500 start.

500 and title

Won both in same season

Driver	Year
Lee Petty	1959
Richard Petty	1964
Richard Petty	1971
Richard Petty	1974
Cale Yarborough	1977
Richard Petty	1979
Jeff Gordon	1997
Jimmie Johnson	2006

    Kurt Busch is winless at Daytona but has finished second three times in 10 Daytona 500s. Busch has finished in the top four in nine of his 20 Daytona races and has the most restrictor plate top-fives (15) and top-10s (24) of all active drivers who have never won a restrictor plate race.
3 -- Three drivers have won two of the past 10 restrictor plate races in the Cup Series: Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart. Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer have the most top-10s in that span with six.
3 -- Richard Childress Racing won three of the four plate races last season. Kevin Harvick won the spring Talladega race and the July Daytona race. Clint Bowyer edged Harvick in the fall Talladega race.
5 -- The past five Daytona 500s have been won by first-time Daytona 500 winners. Jeff Gordon is the last repeat winner (2005).
9 -- Nine drivers have won the past nine Daytona 500s. That matches the longest stretch of different winners (1986 -- 1994).
9 -- The leader of the most laps has not won the Daytona 500 in nine of the past 10 races. Michael Waltrip is the lone exception when he led 68 of the rain-shortened 109 laps in 2003.
15 -- There have been 15 first time winners at Daytona, the most of all tracks ahead of Martinsville (12) and Talladega (10). Six of those 15 were in the Daytona 500: Tiny Lund (1963), Mario Andretti (1967), Pete Hamilton (1970), Derrike Cope (1990), Sterling Marlin (1994) and Michael Waltrip (2001).

 NATIONWIDE SERIES
2 -- Two drivers have finished in the top 10 in both Nationwide Daytona races last season: Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano. Harvick finished in the top five in both Daytona races last season.

New car

2010 winners

Track	Winner
Daytona	Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Michigan	Brad Keselowski
Richmond	Kevin Harvick
Charlotte	Brad Keselowski

2 -- Only two Nationwide-only drivers have won at Daytona in 29 February Nationwide Series races (since 1982): Chad Little (1995) and Randy LaJoie (1997, 1999, and 2001).
4 -- Daytona is one of only four active Nationwide tracks that Roush Fenway Racing has yet to win on (Chicagoland, Iowa and Watkins Glen). Roush Fenway drivers have finished second at Daytona four times including the past two: Carl Edwards (2009, '10).
5 -- Tony Stewart has won five of the past six February Daytona Nationwide races. Five of Stewart's nine Nationwide wins have come in the February Daytona race.
5 -- Five drivers -- Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart -- have combined to lead 69 percent of the laps raced at Daytona in the Nationwide Series since 2006.
5 -- The driver leading with 10 laps to go has won five of the past six Nationwide Daytona races. The driver leading the most laps has also won five of the past six Nationwide Daytona races.
8 -- Kyle Busch has held the lead in the past eight Nationwide Daytona races. If Busch leads Saturday, he will tie Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the longest streak of races led at Daytona with nine. Earnhardt Jr. led nine consecutive races between Feb. '03 and Feb. '07.

 CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES
0 -- A Chevrolet has yet to win at Daytona in the Truck Series. The only tracks Chevrolet has not won at in series history are: Chicago Motor Speedway (2 races), Chicagoland (2 races), Darlington (4 races), Talladega (5 races), and North Wilkesboro (2 races).

Daytona

Truck margin of victory

Year	MOV
2000	0.237
2001	0.318
2002	0.113
2003	0.027
2004	0.141
2005	Caution
2006	Caution
2007	0.031
2008	0.077
2009	0.249
2010	0.068

0 -- No driver has won the race at Daytona and the Truck Series championship in the same season. Mike Skinner (1995) and Ron Hornaday (1998) have won the first race of the season -- not at Daytona -- and gone on to win the championship in the same year.
0.140 -- The largest margin of victory at Daytona was 0.318 seconds in 2005. The smallest margin of victory was 0.027 in 2003. The average margin of victory at Daytona is 0.140 seconds.
3 -- The Daytona 250 winner has gone on to win at least two races that season all but three times: Rick Crawford (2003), Jack Sprague (2007) and Timothy Peters (2010).
3 -- Three drivers have won from the pole at Daytona: Joe Ruttman (2001), Mark Martin (2006) and Jack Sprague (2007).
6 -- Todd Bodine has finished in the top five in the past six Truck races at Daytona races -- the longest Truck top-five streak in Daytona history.
10 -- There have been 10 different winners in the 11 Truck races at Daytona. Todd Bodine is the only repeat race winner (2008 and '09).
77 -- The driver who has led Lap 77 has yet to go on to win at Daytona. This is the only lap a race winner has not led in 11 races.