DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The 1962 New York Mets, the mid-70s Tampa Bay Bucs and the current Philadelphia 76ers have nothing on Casey Mears.

The nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rick Mears, Casey has a tortured losing streak that is closing in on 300 races. His chances of winning the Daytona 500 on Sunday are about as slim as the gap between cars in bumper-to-bumper pack racing.

“I don’t like the stat that I have, the longest-running winless streak,” Mears said. “But I think a lot of those things drive you to push and work hard now to try to end that.”

Don’t worry Mears, you actually don’t have the longest streak.

According to STATS LLC, the longest active losing streaks in the Sprint Cup series by drivers attempting this year’s Daytona 500 are held by:

•Bobby Labonte, 395 races.

•David Gilliland, 330 races.

•Mears, 296 races.

•Reed Sorenson, 234 races.

•Michael Waltrip, 218 races.

Those are just a few of the of forlorn drivers who will trudge into “The Great American Race” without much expectation of pulling off The Big One and adding to the short list of upsets at Daytona International Speedway.

With few exceptions, the majority of the long shots are on the wrong side of NASCAR’s power structure. They drive low-funded cars with inferior equipment and have inexperienced crews that put them in the hole before the green flag even drops.

The days of an underdog like Alan Kulwicki scratching together the resources to win a championship, much less multiple races, are over. Cars owned by Roger Penske, Rick Hendrick, Stewart-Haas and Joe Gibbs won 35 of the 36 Cup points races last season. Martin Truex Jr. was the lone outlier, winning once for Furniture Row Racing.

For some drivers, the thought of starting the engine knowing there was no chance of catching Jimmie and Junior — or even winless Danica — was a blow to their pride.

Justin Allgaier went 0 for 75 in three years at the Cup level before dropping to the second-tier Xfinity Series.

“I saw a side of myself that I didn’t necessarily like,” he said. “I started doing some things with the way I approached the track, and I didn’t like the way I was doing that. I’ve struggled to understand why it works the way it works with myself.”

Greg Biffle was once one of NASCAR’s regular winners, getting to victory lane six times in 2005 and finishing fifth in the standings in 2012. He’s coming off back-to-back winless seasons for the first time in his Cup career.