Two of the biggest names in this year’s Daytona 500 are seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and 11-time X Games gold medalist Travis Pastrana.
But both superstars needed to outperform the other open cars to get into the show, and they did just that in Wednesday night’s (Feb. 15) qualifying for the Great American Race.
Johnson’s Legacy Motor Club car and Pastrana’s 23XI Racing entry were the two fastest among the open cars, locking their way into the Daytona 500 regardless of what happened in Thursday night’s (Feb. 16) Duel races.
“This. This is a dream come true,” Pastrana said.
He and Johnson shared an embrace after they both made the field. And while both drivers let out sighs of relief after making the field, the brass at NASCAR probably did the same.
Because had either Johnson or Pastrana missed the show, this year’s Daytona 500 would have lost quite a bit of star power. Tracking social media followers isn’t the best way to gauge the appeal a driver brings, but Johnson has 2.5 million Twitter followers, and Pastrana boasts 4.6 million on Instagram.
For reference, the front row for the Daytona 500, Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson, doesn’t have that many social media followers combined across Twitter and Instagram, and those are two of the biggest stars in NASCAR today.
While Johnson attracts a lot of eyeballs within the motorsports spectrum, Pastrana helps bring in an audience that usually doesn’t watch NASCAR. Him being in the race is almost equivalent to if Evel Knievel had secured a Daytona 500 ride in the early 1970s.
Pastrana realistically isn’t going to compete for the Daytona 500 win, even though his 23XI teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick will be major factors. But Johnson has as good of a shot at winning as anyone. After all, he has already won two Daytona 500s.
Should Johnson win the Daytona 500, he would continue a tradition among NASCAR and its seven-time champions. In 1973, NASCAR’s 25th anniversary season, Richard Petty won the Daytona 500, one of seven for the King. In 1998, NASCAR’s golden anniversary, Dale Earnhardt finally broke through for his first Daytona 500 win. This season is NASCAR’s 75th anniversary, and Johnson is the only seven-time champion in the field.
Having Johnson and Pastrana in the field helps reinforce the Great American Race as one of the biggest in the…
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