2011 Daytona 500: Drivers Faced Personal Potholes Along The Road

Though this week’s Daytona 500 drivers may be rich and successful now, none of them reached NASCAR’s Super Bowl without some bumps along the way. We asked several drivers to share the story of a difficult moment with us. Up next: Jeff Gordon.

Jeff Gordon first came to national attention while coming up through the sprint car ranks – and once he hit NASCAR, his career took off at a lightning-fast pace.

Though this week’s Daytona 500 drivers may be rich and successful now, none of them reached NASCAR’s Super Bowl without some bumps along the way. We asked several drivers to share the story of a difficult moment with us. Up next: Jamie McMurray.

Jamie McMurray’s road to Daytona – which eventually led to him becoming Daytona 500 champion last season – was no piece of cake. At one point, he had all his possessions in his Chevy Tahoe – but amazingly, he says he never minded it.

Though this week’s Daytona 500 drivers may be rich and successful now, none of them reached NASCAR’s Super Bowl without some bumps along the way. We asked several drivers to share the story of a difficult moment with us. Up next: Kurt Busch.

Coming up through the racing ranks, it was obvious Kurt Busch had a ton of talent – but he didn’t necessarily make many friends along the way. Busch’s aggressive nature in the lower levels ruffled the feathers of many a veteran, which he explained in his own words:

Though this week’s Daytona 500 drivers may be rich and successful now, none of them reached NASCAR’s Super Bowl without some bumps along the way. We asked several drivers to share the story of a difficult moment with us. Up next: Ryan Newman.

Ryan Newman didn’t come from a wealthy family – quite the contrary, actually. What money his family did have went toward Newman’s racing career, which turned out to be a wise investment in the future.

Growing up in Indiana, Tony Stewart would do anything to race. But in order to do so, he had to find people who were willing to give him the time off to be at the track.

Most of the people who fit that description were racers themselves – and they had random jobs for Stewart, such as working at Woody’s Tow Truck company.

Having established himself as a consistent Chase driver, it’s hard to believe Greg Biffle ever struggled to make races. But it’s true: In 2003, Biffle missed the third race of the season in Las Vegas.

By that time, Biffle had already won a championship in the Truck Series (2000) and the then-Busch Series (2002). But there were no guarantees Biffle would make it at the Cup level.

Though this week’s Daytona 500 drivers may be rich and successful now, none of them reached NASCAR’s Super Bowl without some bumps along the way. We asked several drivers to share the story of a difficult moment with us. Up next: Kyle Busch.

To some fans, Kyle Busch is the ultimate silver spoon driver. They believe he never faced adversity or hard times on his way up the NASCAR ladder, simply showing up in good rides all along the way.

One of the great NASCAR success stories in recent years has to be David Reutimann. After fighting to reach the highest levels of racing for his entire life, Reutimann finally made it to the Sprint Cup Series in 2007 – at the age of 37.

We’ll let him talk about the good ol’ days in his own words:

Though we view this week’s Daytona 500 drivers as rich and successful now, none of them reached NASCAR’s Super Bowl without some bumps along the way. We asked several drivers to share the story of a difficult moment with us. Up first: Bobby Labonte.

Over the past two seasons, 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte’s career hit the skids in a major way. Long gone were the glory days of his time at Joe Gibbs Racing, replaced instead by a miserable 2009 (in which he lost his Hall of Fame Racing ride) and an even worse 2010 (in which he was uncompetitive and even had to start-and-park at times).