Kyle Busch has won just about everything in NASCAR.
Two Cup Series championships. Brickyard 400. Coca-Cola 600. More than 60 career victories.
The Daytona 500 remains—possibly the only box—still unchecked.
Busch will get his latest shot Sunday from the best possible starting position after winning the pole for the 68th running of “The Great American Race,” putting the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the front row and squarely back in the center of a storyline he can’t seem to escape.
“We just got to get the job done so we stop talking about it,” Busch said. “No better time than right now here in 2026.”
Busch is set to make his 21st start in the Daytona 500 and is still searching for his first victory in the event.
No driver has earned his first Daytona 500 win after his 20th attempt — a piece of history Busch would happily rewrite.
“It’s a box we got to check,” he said. “Here we are. This is an opportunity to be able to do that. I’ve come down here a lot of years. I think I’ve finished in about every position possible.”
The pole is Busch’s first for the Daytona 500 and only his second at Daytona International Speedway, a track that has often delivered heartbreak along with opportunity.
Still, Busch tempered expectations, noting that the real work begins Sunday night, and that getting there cleanly through Thursday’s Duel qualifying race is a priority.
“We’ve got a great opportunity to start on the front row with this race car,” Busch said. “We’ve got to get through the Duel race. … We’d like to not wreck tomorrow night and have a good, clean race to come out and be able to use this car for Sunday and start the race from the number one spot.”
The pole also marks a strong early statement for Busch and Richard Childress Racing as they open a new season with crew chief Jim Pohlman, who is calling his first Daytona 500 atop the pit box.
“To come out swinging and get a Daytona 500 pole as a first race as a crew chief is pretty humbling for me,” Pohlman said. “There’s a lot of hype around it. Feels really good, obviously. But … this is just one small step of it.”
Childress praised the offseason work that led to Wednesday’s result, saying he has been impressed watching Pohlman settle into the organization.
“To watch how they worked this winter, the way they just do everything right now, I’m just happy and proud of all of ’em,” Childress said. “Kyle, we got to get this 500.”
For Busch, now in his fourth season with RCR, the motivation to finally capture NASCAR’s most prestigious race extends beyond legacy.
He acknowledged the annual questions about his Daytona 500 drought can grow tiresome.
But he also revealed a more personal driver behind his pursuit.
“It’s no secret,” Busch said. “Seeing my son and his passion that he has, he really, really is probably my biggest cheerleader. He wants to see me run well. He wants to see me win races. He wants to celebrate in Victory Lane like he sees other drivers’ kids being able to do.
“So there’s nothing more that drives me every single weekend than seeing him see me, be proud of me.”
Busch joked that leading all 200 laps would be the simplest solution — “stink up the show and win this thing” — before acknowledging that Daytona rarely unfolds so neatly.
“There’s going to be 30 other guys plus that have that same opportunity that they believe they can win this race as well,” he said. “That’s why you got to run the place and play it all out as it comes.”
Busch has spent two decades chasing a victory in the sport’s biggest race.
On Sunday, he’ll begin that pursuit from the front of the field and with another chance to silence one of NASCAR’s most persistent storylines.
