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Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Kyle Busch is among the favorites for the 2025 Dayton 500, but said luck will play a stronger role than skill if he wins the Great American Race after "20 years of trying." Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and 2015 winner and defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano join Busch among the Top 5 favorites for the first race of NASCAR's Cup Series season.
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The 2025 Daytona 500 will start at 2:30 p.m. EST Sunday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. The race will air on Fox.
"Twenty years of trying," Busch told reporters at Daytona 500 media day. "There was another storied racer of the past who won on his 20th try and that was a pretty big deal. He was a former Richard Childress Racing driver, as well, so it'd certainly be nice to win that race and do it with RCR in the No. 8 Zone Chevrolet.
"So that would be pretty cool."
Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion, finished 12th last season at Daytona. He placed in the Top 4 three times -- including second in 2019 -- over his previous 19 appearances there.
"We've got really good speed. I just told someone that it's an 80% luck-20% skill race. Others would disagree, but I feel like you have to have a lot of things go your way and you have to have the stars align. Being able to lead off the final pit stop is certainly going to put yourself in a really good position."
Two-time winner Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, defending champion William Byron and Christopher Bell are among other favorites.
"I have more joy coming down here than I did before," Byron said. "I have more passion and excitement for this race than I did before. I feel like having experienced it the way it was last year really changed my perspective on the race as a whole in a good way, obviously.
"I feel that's created some more motivation to get another one. This race, it's a lifetime achievement. It's something people reference everywhere you go. It's something that the first time in my career I've had something like that. It makes it cool, it makes it more special, because you can tell people care about the race."
Drivers will reach speeds of nearly 200 mph as they round the famed, 2.5-mile tri-oval 200 times over 500 miles.
Chase Briscoe used his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to secure the top spot in starting grid Wednesday in a qualifying session for the 67th edition of the race. Austin Cindric and his No. 2 Team Penske Ford earned the No. 2 slot through qualifying.
The order for the rest of the grid was set through Duel at Daytona 150-mile races Thursday at Daytona International.
"You still have to execute," Briscoe said. "You can still start 40th, still start on the pole, you still have to execute and put yourself in position all race long.
"I think there's pros and cons to the front row. I think the pro is definitely from a track position standpoint, it's hard to get now. Starting up front, definitely makes it easier. The con is you're going to burn more fuel starting on the front row, too. There's both.
"It definitely helps starting up front. You still have to execute and put yourself there after 500 miles. It's easy to get jumbled up in track position here. So, yeah, just have to execute from on the green flag, pit stops, things like that. But certainly starting up front is not a huge disadvantage by any means."
