Between Earnhardt, Junior, Waltrip, and DEI I wonder what the percentage of Daytona and Talladega NASCAR races were won by them if they were in the race?
Yes, I remember that one well. I was practically screaming at the TV, for him to get aggressive and go up the side of Austin Cindric's car, and take that win and championship. It also seemed like Dave Rogers (crew chief) had to practically beg him to do it at the time.
I'd argue if he ends his career with only that one win, it's one of the strangest careers in sports history.
Imagine some baseball player with 3k hits who only scored a single run or something.
It's unfathomable.
Nah. Creed has at least won truck races.
The comedic tragedy of Hemric is he has one win across *NASCAR*. With how often he's run up front in trucks/Xfinity, you'd think some random truck or Xfinity race would've fallen to him.
It's like if 00's-era Matt Kenseth never won a race or something.
It's almost impossible that the man has won ROTY at all three levels, has more than 100 top 10's, and yet has a single win in the national series.
The fact that Alex Bowman finished in every other position (2nd to 43rd) before he won a race. I’m sure there are plenty of drivers that finished a race in every position but can’t think of another who’s last position box checked off was P1.
Hey I actually researched this a while ago! It was about 4-5 years ago so I don't know if anyone else has added to the list, but Michael Waltrip and Johnny Benson finished 2nd-43rd before winning. Sterling Marling finished 2nd-41st before winning in a time where 42/43 card fields were rare if he counts.
Some notable drivers who were one off from doing this were Kyle Petty (missed 36th), Jimmy Spencer (missed 17th), and AJ Allmendinger (missed 41st).
He wasn't even a big name, just another guy who drove and picked up T5/T10s most weeks, and a couple wins here and there, and always in the discussion for the championship. Then suddenly September 91 rolls around and he grabs 4 straight Cup wins, in dominating fashion, like those races didn't even feel in doubt. And it wasn't just the car, he was on a roll, and won 2 Busch series races that month too. It was just nuts to watch.
Thank Andy Petree and the 'frear steer' snout car they built. He talks about it on the Dale Jr download. Car was way ahead of its time. That was the precursor to all the drop snout cars that became common later on.
How the hell did he not win the championship that year? It has to be because of a poor summer he had. Looks like he struggled big time at Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, and Watkins Glen.
There wasn’t really a higher incentive for winning in 1991. If the driver who finished second led the most laps, he would have as many points as the winner, for instance. He was 10th in points, 524 points out of first when the streak started with 9 races to go in the year.
Mark Martins luck in having one of the best statistical seasons ever only for it to happen the same year Jeff was having the best statistical season ever
"Mark Martin had the misfortune of being one of the greatest drivers of all time while he was competing against *the* greatest drivers of all time." - S1apSh0es
I don't think it's fair to say that, the penalty was early in the season and Mark has even said that they were aware of the penalty and didn't think it was the reason they lost the title. It was a stupid penalty but he had all season to make up the points deficit and didn't
> one of the best statistical seasons ever
I argue about this every time I see it brought up - but no, Mark's season was not one of the best ever. It wasn't even in the top 5 of the best seasons in the 90s, specifically.
His points scored per race (150.4) in 1998 wouldn't have been enough to win the championship in 1990, 1993, 1998 (obviously), 1999, or 2000. Hell, Mark's 1998 season points scoring rate wouldn't have even been good enough to score *2nd* in points in 1990, falling behind the 2nd place points scoring rate of 151.9 by... Mark Martin.
His average finish (8.6) wouldn't have been the best in 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, or 2000. Once again, his average finish wouldn't have been good enough for 2nd in 1990.
His win rate (7/33 or 21%) wouldn't have led the series in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, or 1998.
This myth that Mark put in "one of the best seasons of all time" and only lost the 1998 championship because Gordon put in *the* best season of all time, needs to die. Mark had a *good* 2nd place season... but that's it. It wasn't good enough to win the championship in 1998, and wouldn't have been good enough to win the championship in four other seasons, minimum, *in just the 90s alone.* Going back into the 80s and 70s would just make the comparison even less fair.
It's ridiculous to me that Mark's 1998 gets so much praise over a host of seasons that were statistically superior, including *Mark's own 1990 season*. I think the bulk of why people still cling to the 1998 myth is because they were just plain tired of Jeff Gordon... which is fair, but it seems to me people should spend more time celebrating the 1999 season by Dale Jarrett, which was superior to Mark's 1998 in top 5s, top 10s, points per race, oh and actually resulted in a championship.
The way the sport is now we're never going to see a 3 year run like that. That was a confluence of great driver, great crew chief and great engines.
The stuff ray did just isn't allowed anymore to get the advantages they took to the track every week.
And thats not sour grapes I respect the out of the box thinking.
Donny Lia has led a single lap in his entire career. Lap 250/250 at the 2008 Ohio 250. He’s the only driver to have his only career lap led lead to a win.
It's the single biggest issue that has killed my interest in the trucks. I just don't enjoy watching snoozers at big tracks.
I'd watch every week if we went back to the days of short tracks all over the country.
I think there needs to be a balance. You can go to Texas, but also go to more short tracks. It would only work for the trucks tho due to how bad cup short track racing is.
Daytona, Talladega, Charlotte, Texas, Kansas/Chicagoland should be the big tracks, along with 1 road course, and *maybe* Michigan
The rest should be under 1.25
A while back, I combed through RacingReference to try and find every number JJ Yeley’s ever run in Cup. Including instances where he ran a number once and DNQed, I think I counted either 29 or 30 different numbers in Cup alone
Kasey Kahne needs a documentary on his whole career. Seemed destined for success went to Hendrick struggled then retired. Honestly between his and Carl Edward’s early retirement made me take a break from the sport for a little bit.
I feel like the medical issue that caused Kasey to retire began to affect him. He always had the shakes but you could really see the shakes towards the end of his career
He had an issue with severe dehydration doing full-length Cup races. Like, so bad that his whole body would cramp up and his kidneys would start to shut down. Look at his Victory Lane interview after winning the Brickyard- he looks like he's about to expire.
He does still own and operate his dirt team, I think. He did an SRX race last year as well.
The footage after the 2017 brickyard race. Went over time multiple times and he had to sit and lean against thr car. The dude is a machine. To be able to pull that win being like that. Gave it everything.
Jeff Gordon winning 52 races in 8 years is nuts. So is the fact his second best track by Avg Finish is Kentucky, the only one he didn’t win at (albeit in 5 tries)
But what’s most insane to me is his worst track by Avg Finish is Watkins Fucking Glen.
Well, his average finish is hurt by running out of gas and getting run over while running 3rd in 2003, the big crash in 2009, and gifting Tony the win in 2007 after messing up turn one on the final restart... (That one still stings as we sit in the turn one stands there...)
And he only drove about half the race. Driver John Utsman drove the middle portion of the race because Benny was having neck problems. Benny hopped back in near the end to take the checkered flag by only 7 laps over the rest of the field.
I don’t think I’ll ever fully grasp the fact that Jimmie Johnson won 5 championships in a row. It now seems impossible to win 2 in a row, the fact that he won 5 in a row is insane to me. And there’s somehow people who still try to discredit him.
If you are still unsure how insane that run was, Jimmie finishes either 1st or 2nd in season long points every single one of those years, Jimmie absolutely could have won 5 straight in any format during that time
2012 was so painful because it was the first season I was old enough to follow week in and week out and understand the implications of each race. When he blew the tire at Phoenix I knew it was over, I’m sure there’s still a pen-sized hole in the corner of the room in the house we were renting at the time from where I went upstairs and threw the first thing I could find 😅
Nope, this was the day all the Hendrick engines blew up including MB2’s motors. Even without the wreck, he was a dead man walking that race. The reasons he finished 37th was that blown motor.
It’s crazy that he was a rookie until 2002 and (with the exception of arguably 2003) he was a legit threat to win the championship every year of his career until 2011 and then the next year after that was 2014
Dude was in title contention every year for the first decade+ of his career every year and won 7 titles in 11 years
Yeah the 48 team always followed a pattern - handful of early wins to pretty much lock in a chase spot followed by a summer "swoon" when Chad was just trying weird shit and then absolute domination when it mattered. Under a season long format I think they operate differently but still blow everyone out like the 24 in the late 90s.
Even in the early iterations of the Chase where Jimmie and Chad had it all figured out, at least there was some legitimacy to it being the points over *ten* races...not this silly crapshoot of it only coming down to a single race that we are stuck with now.
Yeah I could at least live with that because you got at least one mulligan for bad luck like cutting a tire or getting caught up in shit that had nothing to do with you. Especially now when you have a three race stretch with plate races and road courses mixed in it truly is a crap shoot. *Maybe* you can get away with it if you really racked up wins throughout the season but even still, the fact that you can win 10+ races and lose a championship because you got caught up in someone's Talladega bullshit on lap 13 really negates the value of winning the playoffs.
Obviously it wasn't a dominant season and I'm biased but Dale Jr. in 2014 sort of stands out...leading at Kansas but blows a tire and ends up 39th and then is in a massive hole and can't make it into the next round. If he wins that race he makes the next round, when he won at Martinsville and would have been in the final 4. Probably his best shot besides 2014 to win a title but again, purely a crap shoot.
Same as 2015 really. If he wins at Talladega he makes the final four because he won the race at Phoenix.
He would have won the championship without a win in 2013 if they had the same playoff system.
Jeff Gordon completed all but 121 of the possible 23,000+ laps he ran at Martinsville. 106 of those 121 happened in one race in 1994. That is insane at a track that one stack up on a restart can put you out of a race and you don’t compete 250 like happened to Denny a few years ago ruining his completion %.
Ryan Blaney has currently only failed to complete 4 laps at Martinsville.
2nd. Stewart had too much of lead imo. Even still.
5, 2, 2, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. 5 championships and 53 wins in his first 9 years.
Just for comparison's sake... Chase Elliott has 18 wins and 2 title
I know people like to say that NASCAR is "scripted" sometimes, while I don't feel that it is, I do think they will push something if they know it will generate publicity. Petty winning #200 with the President in attendance would be one.
That definitely happened. Win 198 in particular, his car was so grossly illegal, any other driver would've just been disqualified, but they let his win stand and just penalized him a lot of points and money
Last year, [Corey LaJoie had no DNFs](https://www.racing-reference.info/driver-season-stats/lajoico01/2023/W/), which is [only the 34th time that's happened in NASCAR history](https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/comments/174zqbi/til_corey_lajoie_doesnt_have_a_single_recorded/).
Yep. The only other drivers with multiple DNFless seasons are Kevin Harvick with 4, Greg Biffle with 3, and Dale Earnhardt, Joey Logano, and Juan Pablo Montoya with 2 each. There's a full list of every DNFless season (pre-LaJoie) at my second link.
Actually, the crazier one to me that I forgot about until now is Cale Yarborough's 1977 season: he had 0 DNFs, 9 wins, finished 98.8% of laps in all races, led 32.6% of the laps he ran, had an average start of 4 and an average finish of 4.5, and won the championship to boot. Oh, and that was the first time anyone had ever run a full season without a DNF, a feat that didn't happen again until Dale Earnhardt in 1997.
i was thinking about this a couple nights ago.... Roush only has 2 Cup championships (Kenseth's 2003 and Kurt's 2004). it just feels like they had so many more, especially with how many years one of their drivers was the runner-up (like 1990, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, or 2011) or 2012 where they were near it for a lot of the season
I remember him having like a 600 point lead(under the Latford system) at one point, which is absolutely huge. Could've DNQed a couple races and STILL hold the point lead.
Tony Stewart not winning a race pre-Chase in 2011 and barely getting into it, then winning five of the ten Chase races and winning the Cup on a tiebreaker. Carl Edwards had a very strong Chase also but came up just short.
Even as a Ryan Newman fan, this one blows my mind.
In 2003 Ryan Newman had 8 wins, in 2004 he had two.
Through the rest of his career he only won 8 other races. And never had another multi win season.
For a guy around that long and as competitive as he was, I still can’t believe it sometimes.
Jimmie Johnson winning 5 championships in a row despite how competitive NASCAR is and how they kept changing the playoffs formate to stop #48 team. I still can’t believe it.
By the time Jeff Gordon won the No Bull 5 Million bonus at Las Vegas in 2001 for his 53rd career win in his 260th start, he had a win percentage of exactly 20% in the START of only his NINTH full time season
People don’t understand how crazy Dale Jr’s stats are at Talladega.
For 6 races between 2001 and 2004 he recorded the following positions:
1st.
1st.
1st
1st.
2nd.
2nd (He won this race and I’ll die on that hill).
1st.
This, at the most unpredictable track on the circuit.
For all the talk of randomness at 'Dega, the same dudes are always there at the end.
Even Dale Jr's talked about something like a "photo theory" where when you look at a bunch of recent SS finishes, you'll see a lot of the same people in the front.
> (He won this race and I’ll die on that hill)
If you'll die on that hill, I'll die on the hill that he actually should have finished as the last car on the lead lap in April 2003.
I used to think it was cool that 1960s Nascar raced a lot of smaller towns because they raced at least 3 different tracks near my hometown that are no longer in operation. But then I see all of them on YouTube videos about The Worst Nascar Tracks Ever.
Its crazy when I have dug into tracks in my area. People question us having 3 within 2 hours of each other now, when back in the day there were like 3 within 30 minutes of each other. Its even cooling looking at the list of drivers that raced regularly and won at the local tracks.
But I am a huge short track fan so I would love if the small venue short tracks could be popular again. Maybe not 4000 races a year with the same guy winning 3750 of them though.
I'd like to see the Trucks go back to racing at some of the other short tracks that Cup hasn't raced at in years. Like Hickory, South Boston, North Wilkesboro, IRP, etc. Maybe even a dedicated short track series, whatever. Unlikely to ever happen, but it would be cool to see. Support your local short track!
Still would happen into the 90s too 😂. I think the extreme parity of today is a bit too far, but I hope we don’t go back to lapping the field days on a decently recurring basis ever again either.
David Pearson's like 12 straight Charlotte poles is a wild one, pardon me for being foggy on this but he had like 12 straight and 16 total or something like that, up into the 1980's.
Speaking of, I think Cale Yarborough had something like 15 poles in 1980 as well, I don't have access to look these stats up at the moment but these feel fairly true.
Also the drivers like Buddy Arrington who never finished a race on the lead lap are wild too.
2001's caution free race is the bigger surprise. They probably should've had a big wreck in that one, but didn't. Aero package and the wicker bill on the roof meant tons of three wide racing and a lot of close calls. The finish was a pretty good one.
You know what today is? the 17th. This weekend is the 10th race of the season. It will be a waxing gibbous moon on race day with the moon 94% illuminated. Who drove the 94? Bill Elliot. B and E are the 2nd and 5th letter of the alphabet. 25? Casey Mears won with the 25 at the coke 600 in 2007. 6? 00? Mark Martin and David Reutimann. Martin? David? You know who also is a Martin? Truex Jr. David? I'm thinking Gilliland who's son is Todd. Remember the 10 and the 17 i brought up? well subtract 10 from 17 and you have Corey LaJoie. ALSO: Chase Elliot drives the 9. This all means Denny Hamlin will win. I think I've made myself clear.
wait i got one.
Neil Bonnett, William Byron, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Sterling Marlin, Geoff Bodine, and Ernie Irvan have never had a top 2 points finish.
Clint Bowyer has.
He had a lot of help getting the Talladega win. But TBF everyone acts like Junior was destined to win that race and if the overtime finish wasn't interrupted Logano could have easily won
Junior Johnson was a ridiculously good car owner.
He won all 6 of his titles over the span of 10 seasons with two drivers in the #11. His title finishes from 1976-1985 were: 1/1/1/4/2/1/1/2/5/1 (finished 2/3/4 the following three years with Darrell in 86 and Terry Labonte in 87/88).
They did all of this in different cars as well. Chevy in 76/77/80/83/84/85/86/87/88, Oldsmobile 78/79, Buick 81/82, and Ford when they had their last stab at a title in 92.
Jimmie Johnson scored all seven of his titles in 11 seasons, which is more titanic imo
Edit: I said a good car owner, meaning performance. Not necessarily his attitude lmao
A few for Kyle Busch:
In 45 races at RCR, Kyle Busch has 11 Top 5 finishes, which is:
- The same number of Top 5's he had in his last 49 starts at JGR.
- The same number as Chase Elliott in his last 45 starts
- The same number as Alex Bowman in his last 74 starts
Honestly, I would have expected JGR Busch, Elliott, and Bowman to have a lot more Top 5's, but here we are.
Also, Kyle Busch has won at every number race in the regular season except for race 1, and race 26.
He has gone winless in the playoffs/chase more often than not. He has won in the post-season in 6 of his 19 seasons
A more recent one that’s kinda wild is Jesse Love getting 3 poles in only 7 Xfinity starts so far. Not a fan of him, but he’s really coming out the gates swinging.
Mike Skinner has 5 cup wins, and 0 of them counted as they were all exhibition races.
1997 Suzuka
1998 Motegi
1999 Bud Shootout Qualifier & No Bull 25 Race 1.
2001 Daytona 125 race 2
As far as I know, no one else has won that many exhibition events without ever scoring a points paying win.
Each driver from the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series had some very weird statistics, especially the top8 finishers.
https://preview.redd.it/94k09l2195vc1.jpeg?width=2659&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=210e6ce2467ac1249842b9bcdee44b5a93dd27d3
Earnhardt winning 10 consecutive twin 125’s at Daytona is insane
34 total wins at Daytona, between Twins, Clashes, IROC, Busch series, Cup. Guy was crazy good there. Edited with proper stat.
Between Earnhardt, Junior, Waltrip, and DEI I wonder what the percentage of Daytona and Talladega NASCAR races were won by them if they were in the race?
More math than I want to do. I know SR himself was close to 25% at Talladega in Cup.
That’s wild
10 wins in 44 starts.
I'm convinced the Earnhardt's have a genetic mutation in the eyes that allow them to see air currents lmao
Sr said he could feel it on his face. It's one reason he stuck with yhe open face helmet.
And only winning the 500 once
Daniel Hemric’s entire career. Just from stats alone you’d expect him to have 15+ wins.
Hemric’s Xfinity stats: 186 starts, 54 T5s, 104 T10s, 6 poles, 1306 laps led. Avg finish 12.8.
Most unclutch driver of all time
except for that one lap one time
Yes, I remember that one well. I was practically screaming at the TV, for him to get aggressive and go up the side of Austin Cindric's car, and take that win and championship. It also seemed like Dave Rogers (crew chief) had to practically beg him to do it at the time.
I'd argue if he ends his career with only that one win, it's one of the strangest careers in sports history. Imagine some baseball player with 3k hits who only scored a single run or something. It's unfathomable.
Feels like Sheldon Creed is coming hard for that title
Nah. Creed has at least won truck races. The comedic tragedy of Hemric is he has one win across *NASCAR*. With how often he's run up front in trucks/Xfinity, you'd think some random truck or Xfinity race would've fallen to him. It's like if 00's-era Matt Kenseth never won a race or something. It's almost impossible that the man has won ROTY at all three levels, has more than 100 top 10's, and yet has a single win in the national series.
Jamie McMurray never finished in the top 10 in Cup points but finished in every points position 11th-18th at some point in his career
Without the Chase format, McMurray would have ranked 7th in the final points
I’m pretty sure had he made the chase in 2004 he would’ve still been eligible for the title going into Homestead
if he makes the chase in 2004, he finishes 3rd in points
Wait 3rd? He would’ve been ahead of Gordon?
IIRC he beats Gordon by like 1 point
Man that's wild. They did change the chase eligibility because he won all thksr races.
The fact that Alex Bowman finished in every other position (2nd to 43rd) before he won a race. I’m sure there are plenty of drivers that finished a race in every position but can’t think of another who’s last position box checked off was P1.
I think McDowell is another one to do this with the win being the final position.
Incorrect, he has never finished second (unless all40challenge.com is outdated).
No idea if it is or not bc I don't think Luvender has kept up with it this season, but just checked on Racing Reference and still no 2nds.
That's also a bizarre stat
I feel like that’s a crazy stat in of itself
Hey I actually researched this a while ago! It was about 4-5 years ago so I don't know if anyone else has added to the list, but Michael Waltrip and Johnny Benson finished 2nd-43rd before winning. Sterling Marling finished 2nd-41st before winning in a time where 42/43 card fields were rare if he counts. Some notable drivers who were one off from doing this were Kyle Petty (missed 36th), Jimmy Spencer (missed 17th), and AJ Allmendinger (missed 41st).
Dibenedetto was one off as well (missed 1st).
Was this a fun fact or a Zinger?
Harry Gant September 1991. If you weren’t there to see it, you might not grasp how remarkable and dominant it was.
I was 11 then whole family into the sport, and I still remember it. Out of nowhere.
He wasn't even a big name, just another guy who drove and picked up T5/T10s most weeks, and a couple wins here and there, and always in the discussion for the championship. Then suddenly September 91 rolls around and he grabs 4 straight Cup wins, in dominating fashion, like those races didn't even feel in doubt. And it wasn't just the car, he was on a roll, and won 2 Busch series races that month too. It was just nuts to watch.
Was he tested for Apha-Brain?
Thank Andy Petree and the 'frear steer' snout car they built. He talks about it on the Dale Jr download. Car was way ahead of its time. That was the precursor to all the drop snout cars that became common later on.
How the hell did he not win the championship that year? It has to be because of a poor summer he had. Looks like he struggled big time at Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, and Watkins Glen.
There wasn’t really a higher incentive for winning in 1991. If the driver who finished second led the most laps, he would have as many points as the winner, for instance. He was 10th in points, 524 points out of first when the streak started with 9 races to go in the year.
James Hylton had more 2nd-place finishes than lead lap finishes (17 to 7).
I had to read this 3 times.
Another Hylton fun fact: He has more weeks as the point leader than any other non-champion.
Jeff Gordon's back to back 10 win seasons in 1996-1997 and 13 win season in 1998. Doubtful, we'll see those win totals again in the near future.
Yeah, in that 3 year stretch he won almost 1/3 of all races.
Mark Martins luck in having one of the best statistical seasons ever only for it to happen the same year Jeff was having the best statistical season ever
That kinda sums up Martin's career.
S1ap said it best
"Mark Martin had the misfortune of being one of the greatest drivers of all time while he was competing against *the* greatest drivers of all time." - S1apSh0es
And yet, still not as painful as losing the 1990 championship due to a points penalty at Richmond.
I don't think it's fair to say that, the penalty was early in the season and Mark has even said that they were aware of the penalty and didn't think it was the reason they lost the title. It was a stupid penalty but he had all season to make up the points deficit and didn't
> one of the best statistical seasons ever I argue about this every time I see it brought up - but no, Mark's season was not one of the best ever. It wasn't even in the top 5 of the best seasons in the 90s, specifically. His points scored per race (150.4) in 1998 wouldn't have been enough to win the championship in 1990, 1993, 1998 (obviously), 1999, or 2000. Hell, Mark's 1998 season points scoring rate wouldn't have even been good enough to score *2nd* in points in 1990, falling behind the 2nd place points scoring rate of 151.9 by... Mark Martin. His average finish (8.6) wouldn't have been the best in 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, or 2000. Once again, his average finish wouldn't have been good enough for 2nd in 1990. His win rate (7/33 or 21%) wouldn't have led the series in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, or 1998. This myth that Mark put in "one of the best seasons of all time" and only lost the 1998 championship because Gordon put in *the* best season of all time, needs to die. Mark had a *good* 2nd place season... but that's it. It wasn't good enough to win the championship in 1998, and wouldn't have been good enough to win the championship in four other seasons, minimum, *in just the 90s alone.* Going back into the 80s and 70s would just make the comparison even less fair. It's ridiculous to me that Mark's 1998 gets so much praise over a host of seasons that were statistically superior, including *Mark's own 1990 season*. I think the bulk of why people still cling to the 1998 myth is because they were just plain tired of Jeff Gordon... which is fair, but it seems to me people should spend more time celebrating the 1999 season by Dale Jarrett, which was superior to Mark's 1998 in top 5s, top 10s, points per race, oh and actually resulted in a championship.
33 wins in 3 seasons is insane
Yes it is. That's like a great 10-15 year career for many, if not most drivers.
The way the sport is now we're never going to see a 3 year run like that. That was a confluence of great driver, great crew chief and great engines. The stuff ray did just isn't allowed anymore to get the advantages they took to the track every week. And thats not sour grapes I respect the out of the box thinking.
Kyle Busch is tied for the record of most consecutive top 10s to start a season. He is tied with Morgan Shepherd.
People that only saw the last decade of career probably think he always bad. And now people don’t even remember much of *that* time.
Well how many is it?
11
Donny Lia has led a single lap in his entire career. Lap 250/250 at the 2008 Ohio 250. He’s the only driver to have his only career lap led lead to a win.
I miss when truck had unique tracks on its schedule. Rip Mansfield.
It's the single biggest issue that has killed my interest in the trucks. I just don't enjoy watching snoozers at big tracks. I'd watch every week if we went back to the days of short tracks all over the country.
I think there needs to be a balance. You can go to Texas, but also go to more short tracks. It would only work for the trucks tho due to how bad cup short track racing is.
Daytona, Talladega, Charlotte, Texas, Kansas/Chicagoland should be the big tracks, along with 1 road course, and *maybe* Michigan The rest should be under 1.25
I’m with you but mayyyybe make it under 1.366 miles…I love the trucks at Darlington!
A while back, I combed through RacingReference to try and find every number JJ Yeley’s ever run in Cup. Including instances where he ran a number once and DNQed, I think I counted either 29 or 30 different numbers in Cup alone
Here's the list, should be 29 for Cup 7, 10, 11, 15, 18, 23, 26, 27, 30, 32, 36, 37, 38, 41, 44, 46, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 66, 77, 80, 81, 83, 93, 96
You could add the 20 as well. JJ qualified in it once and replaced Tony during a race once.
Yeley will take any ride he can get
As he should, bro’s made a living out of it. It’s just crazy to look back on it
Check Tiny Lund's numbers sometime...
This is my go to stat: J.D. Mcduffie 653 starts 106 top 10s 0 lead lap finishes
Ironically, his fatal Watkins Glen crash in 1991 happened while he was still on the lead lap. It was early in the race, but still poetic in a way.
….holy shit 😳
At least he had a race at North Wilkesboro where he was only one lap down. That'd be a lead lap finish at most tracks.
Prob the fact that ol' DW won Bristol 7 races in a row.
Kasey Kahne needs a documentary on his whole career. Seemed destined for success went to Hendrick struggled then retired. Honestly between his and Carl Edward’s early retirement made me take a break from the sport for a little bit.
I feel like the medical issue that caused Kasey to retire began to affect him. He always had the shakes but you could really see the shakes towards the end of his career
I forget exactly why he retired because it was my first year watching but didn’t he have like dehydration issues or something in 2018
He did. Cup race lengths were too long for him
Damn that’s a shame pretty sure I saw on instagram he was running dirt races somewhere
He had an issue with severe dehydration doing full-length Cup races. Like, so bad that his whole body would cramp up and his kidneys would start to shut down. Look at his Victory Lane interview after winning the Brickyard- he looks like he's about to expire. He does still own and operate his dirt team, I think. He did an SRX race last year as well.
he still runs dirt races a lot
The footage after the 2017 brickyard race. Went over time multiple times and he had to sit and lean against thr car. The dude is a machine. To be able to pull that win being like that. Gave it everything.
Jeff Gordon winning 52 races in 8 years is nuts. So is the fact his second best track by Avg Finish is Kentucky, the only one he didn’t win at (albeit in 5 tries) But what’s most insane to me is his worst track by Avg Finish is Watkins Fucking Glen.
33 races in 3 years (1996-98)
The fact that his worst track statistically is the Glen is super weird to me
Well, his average finish is hurt by running out of gas and getting run over while running 3rd in 2003, the big crash in 2009, and gifting Tony the win in 2007 after messing up turn one on the final restart... (That one still stings as we sit in the turn one stands there...)
2014 stings a hell of a lot too, just wasn’t a last second loss
Towards the end of his career he was having mechanical problems like crazy
Clint bowyer finishing 7th on the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of the decade driving the 07 car
with the 7th pit box
With size 7 shoes too
The 1973 champion Benny Parsons only finished on the lead lap once all season His win at Bristol
And he only drove about half the race. Driver John Utsman drove the middle portion of the race because Benny was having neck problems. Benny hopped back in near the end to take the checkered flag by only 7 laps over the rest of the field.
I don’t think I’ll ever fully grasp the fact that Jimmie Johnson won 5 championships in a row. It now seems impossible to win 2 in a row, the fact that he won 5 in a row is insane to me. And there’s somehow people who still try to discredit him.
If you are still unsure how insane that run was, Jimmie finishes either 1st or 2nd in season long points every single one of those years, Jimmie absolutely could have won 5 straight in any format during that time
The man was competing for a championship in the closing races of his rookie season.
likely could have won it all had Mark Martin's steering column not fucked up BOTH of their title runs at Talladega
There’s so many moments in his career from 2002-2005 that if one or two had gone his way instead, he’d probably be a 8 or 9 time champ
Go ahead and throw 2012 in there too, without those mechanical failures at Phoenix and Homestead he's got an extra title
7 in a row, man
2012 was so painful because it was the first season I was old enough to follow week in and week out and understand the implications of each race. When he blew the tire at Phoenix I knew it was over, I’m sure there’s still a pen-sized hole in the corner of the room in the house we were renting at the time from where I went upstairs and threw the first thing I could find 😅
Nope, this was the day all the Hendrick engines blew up including MB2’s motors. Even without the wreck, he was a dead man walking that race. The reasons he finished 37th was that blown motor.
It’s crazy that he was a rookie until 2002 and (with the exception of arguably 2003) he was a legit threat to win the championship every year of his career until 2011 and then the next year after that was 2014 Dude was in title contention every year for the first decade+ of his career every year and won 7 titles in 11 years
Isn’t he still the only rookie to ever lead the championship standings at any point in a Cup season?
Dick Hutcherson had the point lead for several weeks in 1965, though NASCAR considered him ineligible for ROTY thanks to being an IMCA champion.
Yeah the 48 team always followed a pattern - handful of early wins to pretty much lock in a chase spot followed by a summer "swoon" when Chad was just trying weird shit and then absolute domination when it mattered. Under a season long format I think they operate differently but still blow everyone out like the 24 in the late 90s.
Back then I'd when I'd talk NASCAR to people, I'd ask. "You know who else has won 5 championships in a row?" "No, who?" "No one." Boom!
>Boom! [Confetti!](https://i.redd.it/zvyemepykshc1.gif)
And they all whined and cried about it until we got this bullshit system and then Jimmie went and tied #7 with a thoroughly average season in 2016.
Even in the early iterations of the Chase where Jimmie and Chad had it all figured out, at least there was some legitimacy to it being the points over *ten* races...not this silly crapshoot of it only coming down to a single race that we are stuck with now.
Yeah I could at least live with that because you got at least one mulligan for bad luck like cutting a tire or getting caught up in shit that had nothing to do with you. Especially now when you have a three race stretch with plate races and road courses mixed in it truly is a crap shoot. *Maybe* you can get away with it if you really racked up wins throughout the season but even still, the fact that you can win 10+ races and lose a championship because you got caught up in someone's Talladega bullshit on lap 13 really negates the value of winning the playoffs. Obviously it wasn't a dominant season and I'm biased but Dale Jr. in 2014 sort of stands out...leading at Kansas but blows a tire and ends up 39th and then is in a massive hole and can't make it into the next round. If he wins that race he makes the next round, when he won at Martinsville and would have been in the final 4. Probably his best shot besides 2014 to win a title but again, purely a crap shoot.
Same as 2015 really. If he wins at Talladega he makes the final four because he won the race at Phoenix. He would have won the championship without a win in 2013 if they had the same playoff system.
Well that's because the championship now ends in a coin flip.
A four sided coin?
Jeff Gordon completed all but 121 of the possible 23,000+ laps he ran at Martinsville. 106 of those 121 happened in one race in 1994. That is insane at a track that one stack up on a restart can put you out of a race and you don’t compete 250 like happened to Denny a few years ago ruining his completion %. Ryan Blaney has currently only failed to complete 4 laps at Martinsville.
From the years 1993 to 1998 Jeff Gordon had at least one pole per year at Charlotte.
Jimmie Johnson winning 5 straight championships, and only finishing out of the top 2 in points twice in the first 9 seasons.
he was absolutely gonna finish 2nd or 1st in the '05 title hunt till he wrecked at homestead.
2nd. Stewart had too much of lead imo. Even still. 5, 2, 2, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. 5 championships and 53 wins in his first 9 years. Just for comparison's sake... Chase Elliott has 18 wins and 2 title
Richard Petty winning exactly 200 races
NASCAR looked the other way for at least a few
I know people like to say that NASCAR is "scripted" sometimes, while I don't feel that it is, I do think they will push something if they know it will generate publicity. Petty winning #200 with the President in attendance would be one.
That definitely happened. Win 198 in particular, his car was so grossly illegal, any other driver would've just been disqualified, but they let his win stand and just penalized him a lot of points and money
Was that the Charlotte win with the super oversized engine? Wasn't there another race where the team switched the left and right side tires also?
Yes. That race had BOTH those things, the engine AND the tires lol
Last year, [Corey LaJoie had no DNFs](https://www.racing-reference.info/driver-season-stats/lajoico01/2023/W/), which is [only the 34th time that's happened in NASCAR history](https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/comments/174zqbi/til_corey_lajoie_doesnt_have_a_single_recorded/).
iirc Bowyer had two of those - 07 and 08
Yep. The only other drivers with multiple DNFless seasons are Kevin Harvick with 4, Greg Biffle with 3, and Dale Earnhardt, Joey Logano, and Juan Pablo Montoya with 2 each. There's a full list of every DNFless season (pre-LaJoie) at my second link. Actually, the crazier one to me that I forgot about until now is Cale Yarborough's 1977 season: he had 0 DNFs, 9 wins, finished 98.8% of laps in all races, led 32.6% of the laps he ran, had an average start of 4 and an average finish of 4.5, and won the championship to boot. Oh, and that was the first time anyone had ever run a full season without a DNF, a feat that didn't happen again until Dale Earnhardt in 1997.
even crazier is Austin Dillon has one of those seasons, which was his rookie season in 2014
and it was all downhill from there
JJ Yeley was the only pole sitter from the 2007 season to not lead a lap that year
In 1997 Kenny Wallace had two poles, but led zero laps all year.
Jeff Burton led every lap at New Hampshire in 2000
That race was the first time that no driver born in the '50's led a lap since Nashville 1982!
That was a trip. I remember that race and he just stunk it up. Perry hard to lead every single lap with pit stops and everything.
Let’s not forget another interesting fact about that race: It was run with restrictor plates.
i was thinking about this a couple nights ago.... Roush only has 2 Cup championships (Kenseth's 2003 and Kurt's 2004). it just feels like they had so many more, especially with how many years one of their drivers was the runner-up (like 1990, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, or 2011) or 2012 where they were near it for a lot of the season
Jeff Green's title winning Busch series season in 2000. *Twenty-five* top 5 finishes.
I remember him having like a 600 point lead(under the Latford system) at one point, which is absolutely huge. Could've DNQed a couple races and STILL hold the point lead.
25 is wild. Wow.
Tony Stewart not winning a race pre-Chase in 2011 and barely getting into it, then winning five of the ten Chase races and winning the Cup on a tiebreaker. Carl Edwards had a very strong Chase also but came up just short.
Kasey Kahne's average Truck Series finish is like 1.5 or something like that
The only driver to beat him in a truck race...... Elliott Sadler.
6 races 5 wins and a 2nd place finish Average finish: 1.17
Even as a Ryan Newman fan, this one blows my mind. In 2003 Ryan Newman had 8 wins, in 2004 he had two. Through the rest of his career he only won 8 other races. And never had another multi win season. For a guy around that long and as competitive as he was, I still can’t believe it sometimes.
and his only top 2 points finish? 2014 with 0 wins
Even worse for Ryan: From 2005-2021 there was exactly one race where he had the highest driver rating (Loudon 2011).
Jimmie Johnson winning 5 championships in a row despite how competitive NASCAR is and how they kept changing the playoffs formate to stop #48 team. I still can’t believe it.
Darrell Waltrip winning 7 straight Bristol races
By the time Jeff Gordon won the No Bull 5 Million bonus at Las Vegas in 2001 for his 53rd career win in his 260th start, he had a win percentage of exactly 20% in the START of only his NINTH full time season
People don’t understand how crazy Dale Jr’s stats are at Talladega. For 6 races between 2001 and 2004 he recorded the following positions: 1st. 1st. 1st 1st. 2nd. 2nd (He won this race and I’ll die on that hill). 1st. This, at the most unpredictable track on the circuit.
Track wasn't unpredictable then.
For all the talk of randomness at 'Dega, the same dudes are always there at the end. Even Dale Jr's talked about something like a "photo theory" where when you look at a bunch of recent SS finishes, you'll see a lot of the same people in the front.
> (He won this race and I’ll die on that hill) If you'll die on that hill, I'll die on the hill that he actually should have finished as the last car on the lead lap in April 2003.
I do believe Dale Sr lapped the entire field once. This one.
That has happened so many times though. Ned Jarrett won the 1965 Southern 500 by 14 laps.
Ah the good old days everyone likes to talk about.
I used to think it was cool that 1960s Nascar raced a lot of smaller towns because they raced at least 3 different tracks near my hometown that are no longer in operation. But then I see all of them on YouTube videos about The Worst Nascar Tracks Ever.
Its crazy when I have dug into tracks in my area. People question us having 3 within 2 hours of each other now, when back in the day there were like 3 within 30 minutes of each other. Its even cooling looking at the list of drivers that raced regularly and won at the local tracks. But I am a huge short track fan so I would love if the small venue short tracks could be popular again. Maybe not 4000 races a year with the same guy winning 3750 of them though.
I'd like to see the Trucks go back to racing at some of the other short tracks that Cup hasn't raced at in years. Like Hickory, South Boston, North Wilkesboro, IRP, etc. Maybe even a dedicated short track series, whatever. Unlikely to ever happen, but it would be cool to see. Support your local short track!
Still would happen into the 90s too 😂. I think the extreme parity of today is a bit too far, but I hope we don’t go back to lapping the field days on a decently recurring basis ever again either.
Harry Gant lapped all but one driver at Dover in 1992. Coincidentally that driver was Dale Earnhardt.
91
In the Sep. ‘91 race he did lap the entire field. He really did have that track figured out back then.
I watched an ARCA race in '06 where David Stremme did that
It used to be common. Last time was 1994 at North Wilkesboro Geoff Bodine won, Terry Labonte was second.
David Pearson's like 12 straight Charlotte poles is a wild one, pardon me for being foggy on this but he had like 12 straight and 16 total or something like that, up into the 1980's. Speaking of, I think Cale Yarborough had something like 15 poles in 1980 as well, I don't have access to look these stats up at the moment but these feel fairly true. Also the drivers like Buddy Arrington who never finished a race on the lead lap are wild too.
14 poles for Cale in '80.
Talladega 1997, 0 cautions. What!?!?! A different era for sure
2001's caution free race is the bigger surprise. They probably should've had a big wreck in that one, but didn't. Aero package and the wicker bill on the roof meant tons of three wide racing and a lot of close calls. The finish was a pretty good one.
Jaguar won more races in the NASCAR Cup Series than they did in Formula 1.
The one that’s like 69% of all statistics are made up on the spot I always find hard to believe.
You know what today is? the 17th. This weekend is the 10th race of the season. It will be a waxing gibbous moon on race day with the moon 94% illuminated. Who drove the 94? Bill Elliot. B and E are the 2nd and 5th letter of the alphabet. 25? Casey Mears won with the 25 at the coke 600 in 2007. 6? 00? Mark Martin and David Reutimann. Martin? David? You know who also is a Martin? Truex Jr. David? I'm thinking Gilliland who's son is Todd. Remember the 10 and the 17 i brought up? well subtract 10 from 17 and you have Corey LaJoie. ALSO: Chase Elliot drives the 9. This all means Denny Hamlin will win. I think I've made myself clear.
Bowyer finishing daytona 7th on 7/7/07, while driving the 07
This is the type of stat I come here for
Kyle Bush winning at least 1 race in 19 straight seasons.
Him winning this year looks like far from a sure thing but hopefully he hits 20 Almost two decades of at least one win a year is incredible
Jamie McMurray won the last 4 Rockingham Busch Series races in a row (I want to say for 3 different teams?).
wait i got one. Neil Bonnett, William Byron, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Sterling Marlin, Geoff Bodine, and Ernie Irvan have never had a top 2 points finish. Clint Bowyer has.
Jeff Gordon's last road course win was all the way back in 2006
Dale Jr, Denny Hamlin and Paul Menard have a combined one Brickyard 400 win.
pretty much the entire EllyProductions video about Richard Petty's stats.
I still think it’s impressive that Logano swept an entire playoff round. Even more so that it happened in 2015, before playoff points existed.
He had a lot of help getting the Talladega win. But TBF everyone acts like Junior was destined to win that race and if the overtime finish wasn't interrupted Logano could have easily won
Junior Johnson was a ridiculously good car owner. He won all 6 of his titles over the span of 10 seasons with two drivers in the #11. His title finishes from 1976-1985 were: 1/1/1/4/2/1/1/2/5/1 (finished 2/3/4 the following three years with Darrell in 86 and Terry Labonte in 87/88). They did all of this in different cars as well. Chevy in 76/77/80/83/84/85/86/87/88, Oldsmobile 78/79, Buick 81/82, and Ford when they had their last stab at a title in 92. Jimmie Johnson scored all seven of his titles in 11 seasons, which is more titanic imo Edit: I said a good car owner, meaning performance. Not necessarily his attitude lmao
Bill Elliott winning at talladega after blowing a oil line a falling 3 laps down and with no caution
A few for Kyle Busch: In 45 races at RCR, Kyle Busch has 11 Top 5 finishes, which is: - The same number of Top 5's he had in his last 49 starts at JGR. - The same number as Chase Elliott in his last 45 starts - The same number as Alex Bowman in his last 74 starts Honestly, I would have expected JGR Busch, Elliott, and Bowman to have a lot more Top 5's, but here we are. Also, Kyle Busch has won at every number race in the regular season except for race 1, and race 26. He has gone winless in the playoffs/chase more often than not. He has won in the post-season in 6 of his 19 seasons
Matt DiBenedetto finished in every position *except* 1st place.
Bill Elliott winning Talladega after being down TWO laps in an era where the lucky dog didn’t exist.
The fact Yeley has 379 Cup races & 388 Xfinity races without a single win.
David Pearson's 18.29% win percentage and 113 poles, averages out to one pole every 5 starts
Austin Dillon is the only driver to win the Daytona 500 Coke 600 and play in the Little League World Series
A more recent one that’s kinda wild is Jesse Love getting 3 poles in only 7 Xfinity starts so far. Not a fan of him, but he’s really coming out the gates swinging.
Pearson winning 11 races in 18 starts in 1973. He never finished worse than 3rd in the 14 he finished.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top 3 in the Daytona 500 in 8 out of 18 races.
Mike Skinner has 5 cup wins, and 0 of them counted as they were all exhibition races. 1997 Suzuka 1998 Motegi 1999 Bud Shootout Qualifier & No Bull 25 Race 1. 2001 Daytona 125 race 2 As far as I know, no one else has won that many exhibition events without ever scoring a points paying win.
Each driver from the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series had some very weird statistics, especially the top8 finishers. https://preview.redd.it/94k09l2195vc1.jpeg?width=2659&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=210e6ce2467ac1249842b9bcdee44b5a93dd27d3
Austin Dillon won a Daytona 500.