Winning a stock car race at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval has been a mark of NASCAR greatness since the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994.
Out of 28 Brickyard 400 presented by PPG races on the IMS oval, 23 have been won by drivers who also captured a NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Only five drivers—Ricky Rudd (1997), Jamie McMurray (2010), Paul Menard (2011), Ryan Newman (2013) and Kasey Kahne (2017) – have won the Brickyard 400 without earning a Cup title. Even among that group, their credentials are impressive.
Rudd was inducted into the 2025 NASCAR Hall of Fame. Newman and Kahne were both honored in 2023 as two of NASCARs 75 Greatest Drivers. McMurray won the Daytona 500 in the same season as his Brickyard triumph.
Menard remains the true outlier. His 2011 Brickyard 400 victory stands as the only win in his 471-race Cup Series career.
The Brickyard also has been a stepping-stone to even greater success. Nine times, the winner of the Brickyard 400 has gone on to claim the Cup championship in the same season.
Yet, despite its prestige, many legendary drivers have never kissed the bricks as a Brickyard winner. Granted, the inaugural race took place just 31 years ago, leaving some of NASCAR's greatest stars never to race on the iconic track, such as Richard Petty and David Pearson.
Here are five of the greatest who have raced in the Brickyard 400 but came up short.
Kurt Busch
A member of the 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame class, Busch tallied 34 wins in 776 Cup starts, including the 2017 Daytona 500. But the Brickyard eluded him – he was 0-for-20, with a best finish of fifth in his rookie season (2001). He showed flashes late in his career, including a front-row start in 2020, but never broke through. Interestingly, he did earn Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors in 2014, finishing sixth for Andretti Global.
Matt Kenseth
Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2023, Kenseth notched 39 Cup wins, including two Daytona 500s, the Southern 500, Coca-Cola 600 and All-Star Race. Yet he went winless in 20 Brickyard starts. He finished second four times (2003, 2006, 2016, and 2020), with 10 total top-five finishes – five of those in his final seven appearances.
Mark Martin
A 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Martin was a five-time championship runner-up with 96 wins across NASCAR’s national series. At the Brickyard, though, he was 0-for-20. He finished second twice and had five top-six results in the first six races there. Despite his consistency, Indy remained just out of reach.
Rusty Wallace
Wallace, inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2013, claimed 55 Cup victories, 37 of them with Penske Racing. In 12 Brickyard 400 starts, he logged nine top-10 finishes but never won. He came close multiple times, finishing second in 1995, 2000, and 2002, and fourth in the inaugural race in 1994.
Denny Hamlin
Hamlin’s résumé lacks two major accomplishments: a Cup championship and a Brickyard 400 win. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran is 0-for-16 at Indy, though he’s been close—with seven top-six finishes, five of them in his last eight starts. Last year, another promising run ended with a late-race crash triggered when two-time Brickyard winner Kyle Busch spun beneath him in Turn 3. Hamlin will have a chance to stand atop Victory Podium at IMS this Sunday.
Click here to buy tickets or for more information about Brickyard Weekend on July 25-27 at IMS.
