Whether you're Michael Waltrip or Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty, you can't be the Daytona 500 champion without it having an impact on people around you. When I say that, I mean the race fans. They want to congratulate you for winning the biggest race of the year. It has changed people's perception of me.

Michael Waltrip

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I feel gifted for having the opportunity to compete in Daytona.

Daytona has some of the greatest fans in the world and many remember me from some of the things I've done in this wonderful country.

Alex Zanardi

Great World Wonderful

I said I preferred Daytona to LeMans if I were to race. LeMans is a great event, don't get me wrong, but here in the U.S. is where I turned my life around, where I have a lot of friends, where I feel have my greatest following - not in terms of quantity but of quality - of racing fans.

Alex Zanardi

Life Great Wrong

Growing up, I would say, when we were racing go-karts back in the day, it was always our uncle. We were always looking up to our uncle. I mean, he won the Daytona 500, he's a very well-respected man, and we've always looked up to that.

Amber Cope

Respect Art Would

I think that when we were younger, the fact of knowing our uncle Derrike won the Daytona 500. We were racing go-karts then, and I think that really kind of motivated us.

Amber Cope

Art Younger Young

I have one really nice watch. It's a white-face, stainless-steel Rolex Daytona. I wear it a lot. I got that in the middle of 'The Office.' All the guys in the writers' room were like, 'Let's all get a nice watch.' We were too busy to upgrade our lives in a big way, but we thought this was a nice symbolic gesture.

B. J. Novak

Writers Writer Write

There's a tremendous number of the Daytona Prototypes.

Bobby Rahal

Men Us Types

A fine timepiece is part of dressing like a gentleman. When I first made a little money, I bought my first watch which was a Rolex Daytona. It was just one of those things that said I was successful.

Brian McKnight

Time Success Money

A lot of musicians put diamonds on things to show they had money. I on the other had felt that Daytona showed I had style and I didn't need to be flashy.

Brian McKnight

Music Money Wed

I woke up this morning, and I still don't believe I won the Daytona 500.

Dale Earnhardt

Morning Won Woke

Nothing will ever feel like winning a Daytona 500. I'm never going to do anything in broadcasting, probably anything in any other professional job that will feel like winning the Daytona 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Winning Win Will

The 1979 Daytona 500 was awesome. It was almost like the first race that Ken Squier ever did. And so he was sort of introducing himself as well as the sport.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Well Ton T

I never thought I would ever win a Daytona 500. I never thought we would sweep Bristol. I just never thought any of that stuff was going to happen or be possible.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Would Win Weep

All these tracks you have memories at, all of them, Daytona included.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

You Tracks Track

The Dodge Charger in the late '70s at Daytona, that looked like an awesome car.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Car Ton T

I've been fortunate Daytona is a place I've run better than anywhere else, and that's a big race. Maybe it has to do with attention and pressure and the drive to do well when a lot of people are watching.

Danica Patrick

Wit Where Well

I grew up in Florida in different cities. I was born in Mississippi. My parents moved a lot, so I moved to Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, all through the South. But my family's roots were from central Florida, like Daytona Beach area, so we ended up moving there.

Diplo

Family Car Were

The social scene in Daytona Beach was simple. The white cats surf, and the blacks play music.

Duane Allman

Music White Us

When you've got the Daytona 500 out there at stake and everything riding on the line, guys go for it, and the guys that go for it are the ones that are either going to win or they're going to wreck.

Jeff Gordon

You Wreck Win

I used to skip out of high school and go flying. It was just one of those things, I thought it was kind of a cool thing to do. I never thought about doing that as a profession, but I started checking things out and I found out there was a flight school down in Daytona Beach, called Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Jerry Doyle

Cool Art Yin

The Daytona 500 is a career-winning race. It defines careers for drivers, crew members, crew chiefs and race teams. It has that power.

Jimmie Johnson

There is no other way to start the season than to win the Daytona 500.

Jimmie Johnson

I always like my chances at Daytona.

Kevin Harvick

Newman and I were friends. We were great teammates, and he needs to check his trophy case on that Daytona 500 trophy I helped him get years ago.

Kurt Busch

James Finch has always had pretty stout cars for the restrictor-plate races and I know we'll be very competitive at Daytona.

Kurt Busch

The Daytona 500 is a big race, and Darlington is just as big of an event, and a lot of people get excited for it.

Kurt Busch

I'm definitely more one of the drivers who would want to do Daytona, Le Mans, and the Indy 500.

Lando Norris

The most important thing at Daytona is, are you going to have friends willing to work with you during the race as far as drafting? You've got to have friends out there. You can't do it alone. You form those relationships as the race moves along.

Mario Andretti

I wrote my first real murder story as a journalist for the Daytona Beach News Journal in 1980. It was about a body found in the woods. Later, the murder was linked to a serial killer who was later caught and executed for his crimes.

Michael Connelly

There's a Bible verse that says if you believe, you will be in the presence of the Lord in the blink of an eye. And I know Dale was a believer, and that means that he saw his son and his friend going to win the Daytona 500, and he was in heaven all within the blink of an eye.

Michael Waltrip

I don't know anyone who's started more consecutive Daytona 500s than me.

Michael Waltrip

Whether you're Michael Waltrip or Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty, you can't be the Daytona 500 champion without it having an impact on people around you. When I say that, I mean the race fans. They want to congratulate you for winning the biggest race of the year. It has changed people's perception of me.

Michael Waltrip

Everyone who has ever aspired to be a stock car driver wants to win the Daytona 500. If someone says that it's better to win somewhere else, then that tells me one thing for sure - they've never won at Daytona.

Michael Waltrip

You will rarely get introduced as the two-time Pocono champion. You will certainly be introduced as the two-time Daytona 500 champion.

Michael Waltrip

I'm a Christian guy. I believe that we're going to heaven, and I believe when Dale Jr. and I drove off from Turn 4 at Daytona, I think that Dale Sr. had a smile on his face.

Michael Waltrip

I love Daytona and Talladega. I'd like to think maybe I could quit one day running all the races and just run a few that I like.

Michael Waltrip

Well, my favorite memory of a president was in 1984. I was in the grandstands at Daytona, and maybe I was 20 years old. So just sort of down in Daytona, having a good time for the 500 - or for the 400 in July. And Air Force One lands on the back straightaway. It was President Reagan.

Michael Waltrip

I don't understand why everybody can't remember how exciting the Daytona 500 has been over the years when Richard Petty and David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip ran just the three of them racing for the win. Why do you have to have 40 cars in a pack to say it's exciting?

Michael Waltrip

The Daytona 500 is what it is because of the tradition and history of this great event. People have been coming out in February since 1950 to watch this great race. It would be hard to ever change that.

Michael Waltrip

I won the Daytona 500. I won these races twice. I knew I didn't need anything cheating on my part.

Michael Waltrip

When there are challenges like there were up to and after Daytona in 2001, you remind yourself it will one day make sense why everything happens the way it does. You may not figure it out now on this earth, but in heaven, it will all make sense.

Michael Waltrip

NAPA has been with me from winning two Daytona 500s, to missing races with a new start-up team, and back to victory lane again. The relationship grew far past that of just a sponsor, but more of a partner and a friend.

Michael Waltrip

Look at Pusha-T. He makes a certain type of rap music. 'Daytona' is that on the highest level.

Nipsey Hussle

I've got Pacman, Galaga, Galaxian, Daytona 500. Those are the games I grew up playing.

Ray Lewis

NASCAR and the Daytona 500 are about as American as you can get.

Rick Santorum

There's only eight cars that make the Daytona 500.

Robby Gordon

I get to do the Dakar Rally. I get to do the Daytona 500. I get to do the Indy 500. I'm very fortunate to get to do these things.

Robby Gordon

A lot of the listeners don't realize that the Daytona 24 Hours is the most difficult race in the world. It's 24 hours, a lot of darkness because it's held at the end of January, so you're talking about 13-14 hours of darkness.

Scott Pruett

I guess if you're not going to win the championship, you're better off taking the opportunity to win a Brickyard or a Daytona 500 than you are to make the Chase and then fizzle out.

Tony Stewart