DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Busch’s list of NASCAR accomplishments is nothing short of legendary.

Busch boasts 213 national series wins, 13 more than Richard Petty for the most all-time. He has two championships in the NASCAR Cup Series, supported by one title in the Xfinity Series. He’s won the Brickyard 400 twice, as well as the Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500.

The Las Vegas native even has a 2008 win in the GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, one of the original “majors” of the sport, as designated by the old Winston Million bonus program from R.J. Reynolds.

However, Busch’s résumé lacks one definitive achievement: a win in NASCAR’s most prestigious event, the Daytona 500.

Sunday afternoon, Busch will make his 16th start in The Great American Race, hoping to finally capture the prize that’s eluded him for nearly two decades.

If he does, he’ll join Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Buddy Baker, Jimmie Johnson, David Pearson and Kevin Harvick as only the 10th driver to win all four of the original crown jewel races in the sport’s history.

For as prolific as Busch has been over his NASCAR career, no race has stifled him more.

Busch, 35, has more Daytona 500 finishes outside the top 30 (five) than finishes inside the top 10 (four). He’s failed to complete all 200 laps in three of the last four events and, traditionally, has seemed to encounter some sort of mishap along the way.

Last year, Busch led with 20 laps to go before engine issues shipwrecked another Daytona 500. He finished 34th, while teammate Denny Hamlin powered to his third win in the sport’s grandest event.

“We’ve been in that spot I don’t know how many times, and I guess we will just keep going down in history of finding new ways to lose it,” Busch said in his post-race interview last year. “I know there is another guy who has done that before [Earnhardt] and he was pretty popular.

“It sucks to be in that conversation,” Busch continued, “but we will go on another year.”

This time, another year has ushered in change. For the first time since 2014, Busch has a new crew chief, as Ben Beshore replaces Adam Stevens atop the pit box.

Stevens helped produce both of Busch’s Cup Series championships in 2015 and ‘19. The two also won 28 times in 203 Cup Series races together.

But Busch is coming off his worst season since 2014, the last time he didn’t have Stevens atop the pit box. That year, he won once at the Cup level and finished 10th in the points standings. Last year, he finished eighth in the standings, which ended five straight years of Championship 4 appearances.

Nixing practices hurt Busch and Stevens, a duo notorious for maximizing and bettering their cars throughout race weekends.

On the outside, showing up and strictly racing neutralized their advantage.

“We had to resort to different circumstances in order to make ourselves better,” Busch said during last week’s Daytona 500 media conferences.

Busch and Stevens tried new ways of business, but ultimately nothing stuck to support a 2021 return. Now, Busch and Beshore are set to roll off 10th in the 63rd running of the Daytona 500, hoping to override years of disappointment by earning a victory Sunday.

“It’s a new challenge and it’s a whole [new] group, but looking forward to it,” Busch said.

Coverage of the 63rd Daytona 500 kicks off at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday, live on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.