Greatest Daytona 500 Champions of All Time

NASCAR. The 2009 NASCAR Sprint series opens with the Daytona 500 run in February in Daytona Beach, Florida. Held as one of the most important races on the NASCAR circuit, the reward for becoming the Daytona 500 champion is the largest purse of the racing season. In the 50 years of the race's history, there have been five NASCAR drivers who have managed to win the Daytona 500 three or more times with all-time NASCAR great, Richard Petty , winning the race an unprecedented seven times over three decades.

NASCAR's Top Three Daytona 500 Champions

Richard Petty (1964, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1981)

Richard Petty continues to be the measuring stick by which many of today's NASCAR drivers are measured. His father, Kyle Petty, won the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959 a mere five years before Richard Petty won his first Daytona. In addition to winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times, Petty also won the NASCAR championship a record seven times, won 200 races in his career, won 27 races in a row in 1967, and collected a record number of pole positions in his career (127). One of Petty's most memorable Daytona 500's was actually a year he did not win the race. In 1976, Petty was neck and neck with racer David Pearson. COming out of turn four on the last lap, Petty went below Pearson and passed him but his car drifted up the track, touched Pearson's car, and bot cars crashed coming to rest in the grass. Petty couldn't get his car re-started due to radiator damage, but Pearson was able to do so and crossed the finish line for the slowest finish in the history of the Daytona 500.

Cale Yarborough(1968, 1977, 1983, 1984)

Cale Yarborough was the first NASCAR driver to win three consecutive championships and won the Daytona 500 four times in his racing career. Yarborough has obtained 83 racing wins in his driving career, placing him fifth all time in NASCAR. Before his last Daytona 500 championship, Yarborough wasw the first driver to qualify for the race with a top speed of greater than 200 miles per hour. One of the greatest Daytona 500's that Yarborough is remembered for is one in which he did not win. In 1979 (the first year the Daytona was on television), both Yarborough and Donnie Allison were bumping ach other throughout the race and ultimately crashed down the stretch with Richard Petty winning the race. Yarborough and Allison commenced arguing and got into a fist-fight which was televised on national TV. With Donnie's brother, Bobby, joining the fight, what seemed like a over-heated argument between three rival drivers turned into one of the largest marketing moments of NASCAR racing history!

Bobby Allison (1978, 1982, 1988)

In addition to winning the Daytona 500 three times, Bobby Allison won 84 races during his NASCAR racing career (third of all time). In 1988, he finished one-two with his son, Davey Allison and won the NASCAR championship in 1983. Allison is also known for being involved in a crash at Alabama International Motor Speedway (now Talladega) in May, 1987 when he went airborn into a protective catch fence next tot he stands at over 200 miles per hour. As a result, NASCAR implemented mandatory restrictor plate racing at Daytona and Talladega the following year to keep speeds under 200 miles per hour. Allison's 1988 victory at Daytona was the first Daytona run with the restrictor plate mandate in place making him the oldest driver (50) to win the race.