Daytona 500 Statistics – Laps Completed (February 7, 2018)

A total of 11,621 laps have been completed in the 59-race history of the Daytona 500. And one driver has completed more than half of those.

Terry Labonte competed in 33 Daytona 500s between 1979 and 2014, completing 6,159 laps. That is nearly 53 percent of all laps completed by winners of The Great American Race.

Labonte completed all 200 laps of the 2014 race and completed every lap of a race 17 times. (Interestingly enough, Labonte never completed the last lap of the race first!) That included the 109-lap event in 2003, the shortest Daytona 500 on record, and four races that went into extra laps. And, of the 33 races (6,476 laps) in which he competed, he completed all but 317 laps. That’s an astounding 95.1 percent of the laps. The fewest laps in which he completed was 47 in 1981.

Labonte may be the only driver to complete at least half of the laps in the Daytona 500s that have been run so far, but he isn’t the only driver with an exceptionally high number completed. Former 500 winners Bill Elliott and Michael Waltrip are second and third all-time, the only other two drivers that have completed more than 5,000 laps in the Daytona 500.

Here’s a closer look at some of the laps completed statistics in the Daytona 500.

Daytona 500 – Laps Completed (Top 10)

- Terry Labonte: 6,159

- Bill Elliott: 5,392

- Michael Waltrip: 5,270

- Dave Marcis: 4,938

- Ricky Rudd: 4,861

- Richard Petty: 4,860

- Mark Martin: 4,746

- Darrell Waltrip: 4,726

- Kyle Petty: 4,314

- Sterling Marlin: 4,313

Notes of Interest

- Terry Labonte’s 6,159 laps completed is worth 15,397.5 miles. That's more than halfway around the Earth following the Equator.

- Labonte isn’t the only driver in the top 10 most laps completed that never won the race. Others in the top 10 in laps completed without winning include Dave Marcis, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin and Kyle Petty.

- A total of 544 drivers have completed at least one lap in the Daytona 500. Drive drivers have only completed one lap – Rene Charland, Joe Penland, Robert Vaughn, Jim Cook and Ken Marriott, the last-place finisher in the first Daytona 500.

- Jim Bray holds the distinction of completing the fewest laps by a multi-time race starter – he completed only six laps in two races.

- Joey Logano is the only driver to complete every lap in each of the last four Daytona 500s (2014-2017). He’s also completed all but two laps – 1,619 of 1,621 laps, to be exact – in the 2010s.

- In addition to Logano, A.J. Allmendinger, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard, Trevor Bayne, Aric Almirola, Michael Waltrip, Martin Truex Jr. and Michael McDowell have completed every lap of the last three Daytona 500s (2015-2017).

- Of the race winners, Mario Andretti completed the fewest laps in their Daytona 500 careers, with 336 in three races.

- A total of 13 drivers completed at least 4,000 laps in their Daytona 500 careers.