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(Intro: Here it is - the breakdown of the King's career. At nearly 2500 words, it is certainly the longest post I've ever made. Just a warning to let you know what you are getting into...)
NASCAR Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup-level racing has more or less been the same since 1972, when NASCAR changed the structure of the season to the format that it still used to this day. Many of NASCAR's pioneers, like Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson, won many races of less than 100 miles, on dirt tracks, with less than 20-car fields. Prior to 1972, the qualifying races for the Daytona 500 (AND for one year, 1961, NASCAR had qualifiers for the World 600) counted as points-races which count toward the official victory totals of the drivers who won them. That is, until 1972, when they stopped counting those wins as official victories. David Pearson officially won 105 races at the Cup level, including two Daytona qualifiers in 1969 and 1971. Jeff Gordon has won 81 Cup-level races, NOT including four Daytona-qualifier victories (1993, 2002, 2005, and 2006). How is a modern driver supposed to challenge for the records of yesterday when there are not the same races available to race? How can you make an apples-to-apples comaprison of yesterday's drivers and today's when races they USED to count, but STILL run, don't count anymore? I don't get it.
The mother of all NASCAR records is obviously Richard Petty's career total of 200 victories. From 1967 to 1971 alone, the King won 92 races. Ninety-two! That's more than Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt won in their entire careers, and it is no doubt and incredible feat. However, among those 92 wins were:
- April 6, 1967 - 19 cars on a dirt track at Columbia Speedway, 200 laps/100 miles
- May 20, 1967 - 16 cars on a dirt track at Langley Field Speedway, 250 laps/100 miles
- June 8, 1967 - 20 cars on a dirt track at Smoky Mountain Raceway, 200 laps/100 miles
And several others like them, with relatively tiny fields (no NASCAR Cup race since 1972 has had less than 22 starters) and VERY short distances. Each one of those races was completed in less than ninety minutes! They quit running those as Winston Cup races almost forty years ago, and yet today's drivers are still trying to chase down the King's records as though they ran the same races.
I would like to see NASCAR reclassify some of those older races and readjust the win totals of the legends of the sport, to try and put them in the proper context with today's drivers. They haven't run a dirt race in NASCAR since 1970, so put all of the dirt races in a separate category. And take these shorter races that wouldn't be NASCAR Sprint Cup races today and call them something else - make them equivalent to Nationwide Series races or something. But don't try to tell me that the King's 1968 win at Fairgrounds Raceway in Birmingham, AL, where he beat 17 other cars in a race that took 67 minutes, is equal to any win Jeff Gordon (or Robby Gordon, for that matter) ever achieved in a Cup car.
HOWEVER, that isn't to say that ALL of the King's pre-1972 wins should be eliminated by any means. As NASCAR got closer to 1972, the schedule was getting closer and closer to what it would eventually become, with longer races and bigger fields in EVERY official race. Several of today's NASCAR events were born in the 1950s and 1960s and were exactly the same as they are today. Therefore it IS possible to adjust the win totals of the drivers of the past, to make them more comparable to today's drivers. But how do we figure out what is comparable to today's race and what isn't? I decided to take it track-by-track.
There are TEN race tracks NASCAR runs today that they ran prior to 1972. Several of them have hosted the same event for many, many years. Here's how the King's race victories break down:
First, we start with his total wins that came AFTER 1972, which is 60.
- Atlanta: Atlanta Motor Speedway was opened in 1960, and they have run 400 and 500-mile races there since it opened with only a couple of exceptions. The King won the 1966 Dixie 400 and the 1970 and 1971 Dixie 500s. Those three wins put him at 63.
- Bristol: They have run 500-lap races at Bristol since its very first event in 1960. Before 1972, the King won there only once - the 1967 Volunteer 500. That win puts him at 64.
- Darlington: Darlington has been the home of the Southern 500 since 1950. The King won the Rebel 400 twice, in 1966 and 1967, and the Southern 500 in 1967. Three more wins put him at 67.
- Daytona: The Daytona 500 celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, and the King won three 500s, in 1964, 1966, and 1971. He didn't win the July race until 1975, but those three wins put him at 70.
- Dover: Dover has hosted races since 1969. I counted the King's two Mason-Dixon 300 wins in 1969 and 1970 (they run 300 one-mile laps at Loudon), and the King also won the 1971 Delaware 500. Three more wins ups his total to 73.
- Lowe's: Back when it was plain ol' Charlotte Motor Speedway, they began running the World 600 in 1960. Incredibly, the King didn't win at Charlotte until 1975, so a big ZERO goes here, although he DID win one of those '61 qualifiers that make his 200 a nice round number.
- Martinsville: Paved in 1955, Martinsville has hosted 500-lap races since 1956. The King OWNED Martinsville, winning six Virginia 500s in the spring and four Old Dominion 500s in the fall. Ten wins pushes him past Jeff Gordon, to 83 wins.
- Michigan: They started running 400 mile races at Michigan in 1970, after a 500-miler and a 330-miler in 1969. The King didn't win at Michigan until 1974.
- Richmond: Richmond was a dirt track until 1968, they started running 500-lap races in 1969 and the first three of seven consecutive Richmond wins for the King came in the 1970 Capital City 500, which he repeated in 1971 along with a Richmond 500 win. Those three wins push the King past Darrell Waltrip's 84 wins and put him in first place with 86.
- Talladega: Talladega opened in 1969, and the King's first win came in 1974, so ZERO wins here, as well.
Now, these tracks alone put Richard Petty in the lead with 86 wins. However, there are several tracks that were on the schedule in 1972, and stayed on the schedule until into NASCAR's modern era. Naturally, the King won many of those, as well.
- Riverside: Riverside was a road-course that hosted 500-mile races starting in 1958. Dan Gurney won in 1963a race that finished in just shy of six hours. The races were cut in length to fit television and NASCAR held Cup races there until 1988. The King won the 1969 Motor Trend 500 and the 1970 Falstaff 400, pushing his win total to 88.
- Ontario: The first attempt to have a superspeedway in California, Ontario held a Cup race from 1971 to 1980, but the King never got a win there.
- Rockingham: Many drivers' favorite track held 500-mile races from 1965 until 1995, and 400-milers until its close in 2004. The King's wins in the 1967, 1970, and 1971 Carolina 500 and 1968 and 1971 American 500 add five to his total, bumping it to 93.
- North Wilkesboro: Paved in 1957, Wilkesboro started hosting Cup-length events in 1960, and the King won there seven times, taking the Gwyn Staley 400 in 1962, 1963, 1970, and 1971, the Wilkes 320 in 1962, and the lengthened Wilkes 400 in 1970 and 1971. Seven wins push the King up to triple digits with 100 victories.
- Texas: No, not *that* Texas. Texas World Speedway was a two-mile track in College Station, and the King won the 1971 Texas 500 for win number 101.
- Trenton: Did you ever wonder why there is a Southern 500 and not a "Northern 500"? Well, there WAS one Northern 500 in 1958, then the Northern 300 was run from 1967 through 1972. I might not have included it because 300 miles is the length of a Nationwide race on a 1.5-mile track, but the inclusion of the 1972 event means I have to include the King's wins in 1967, 1970, and 1971, putting his total at 104.
- Nashville: Nashville Speedway hosted Cup races from 1958 to 1984. I didn't include the 100-milers they ran, but in 1961 they started running a longer race every year. The King won five Nashville 400s (1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1969) and the 1971 Nashville 420. Six more wins put the King at 110.
That covers the "1972 end" of the schedule. Now, they ran some would be-Cup races on other tracks BEFORE 1972, but not too many. When examining these races, I made sure the criteria was the same for all of them - at least 22-car fields, and lengths that would fit in today's (or 1972's) NASCAR Cup Series. Going through those races, I got a few more wins for the King.
- Weaverville: From 1958 until 1969, they ran a 500-lap race at 1/2-mile Asheville-Weaverville Speedway
with at least 25 cars, and as many as 41 cars. Petty won the 1965 Western North Carolina 500 for win 111.
- Huntington: NASCAR ran two races at West Virginia International Speedway. They ran a 300-lap race on the 7/16-mile track in 1963, which was won by Fred Lorenzen (at which I did not include in Lorenzen's win total - since it's Nationwide-length), and in 1964 the ran a 500-lapper called the Mountaineer 500, which was won by? You know the answer, and it's win 112.
- Ona: Another track in West Virginia, essentially hosted the same two races as Huntington - a 300-lap race in 1970 and a 500-lap race in 1971. The King won both races at the .455-mile track, and his West Virginia 500 victory is win number 113.
(Now, if you are going to say "JJD, WHY did you include the 500-lap races and not the 300-lap ones?" These races have to pass the "look test", as in "does it look like today's Cup event?" The 300-lap races were both completed in under two hours. Cup races are NOT less than two hours long - those are NWS races.)
- Macon: Middle Gerogia Raceway hosted nine events from 1966 to 1971. The King won the 1969 Georgia 500 (which took place November 17, *1968*) and the 1970 Georgia 500, which actually took place TWO full years later (on November 8, 1970). Those two wins round out the King's total at 115.
So, that's the adjusted total - 115 Cup-level wins. You can look at that two ways, I suppose. One is "OMG JJD you totally screwed the King out of nearly half of his wins!" Obviously, that's not how *I* look at it. 115 wins in a definite Cup-level race is AMAZING. I honestly expected the total to be LESS than that when I started, and it DEFINITELY does NOT make the record somehow more attainable for today's drivers. Do you KNOW how many wins 115 IS? How about - one more than Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon's career totals COMBINED? Do you really think Jeff Gordon - who will be 37 in August - has 34 wins left? Even if you give him a longer timeline - say you give him Tony Stewart's career, starting NOW, that's winning at least two races EVERY year until he's 46 and STILL needing two more wins. Johnson and Stewart aren't even ONE-THIRD of the way there yet. I can't believe anyone will get to 115 career Cup-level wins.
OTOH, if the record wasn't some ridiculously unattainable number, like *200*, maybe Gordon would have it in his *kind of* in his sights, like a baseball player with 450 home runs, and he might adjust his thinking to try and shoot for the record instead of cutting out at 40 like he's thinking about. (Although, frankly, for the money Jeff makes I'd imagine you would have to pry him out of the race car, no matter what he says today.) I'd just like for someone to point out when you just automatically say "200 wins" that they aren't quite the same winning them THEN as they would be if you started winning them NOW.
Finally, that isn't to say there isn't a place for the King's record. If you just count all of the drivers' wins in Busch/Nationwide and Trucks to go along with their Cup wins, you can at least say they have the same number of opportunities to win as the guys in the '50s and '60s did when they ran up to 60 races per year, and you STILL have Richard Petty alone with almost DOUBLE the wins of any other driver - David Pearson would be second with 106, and no one else has hit 100. NASCAR fans are just like any other sports' fans - give us a statistic and we'll use it for or against our favorite driver and beat it to death (OK, maybe *I* will beat it to death) - so they should take a look at making these numbers work out a little smarter. I guarantee they aren't going back to running 50-lap races on Tuesdays with one-third of the normal field, so let's make the numbers reflect that thing.
On that note, here's my OFFICIAL ADJUSTED NASCAR GRAND NATIONAL/WINSTON CUP/NEXTEL CUP/SPRINT CUP ALL-TIME WINS LIST. The LAST column is the total combined wins in any OFFICIAL NASCAR race - so, for example, Dale Earnhardt's total of 97 includes his 76 OFFICIAL Cup wins (but NOT the Daytona qualifiers or exhibition races) AND his 21 Busch Series wins. I cut the list off at five adjusted-Cup wins, so it's about the top-50. Active drivers are in RED, including Dale Jarrett until I'm completely convinced he's not running next year's Daytona 500.
ADJ.
CUP TOTAL
Richard Petty 115 200
Darrell Waltrip 84 97
Jeff Gordon 81 86
Cale Yarborough 80 83
Dale Earnhardt 76 97
Bobby Allison 73 87
David Pearson 64 106
Rusty Wallace 55 55
Bill Elliott 44 45
Mark Martin 35 90
Jimmie Johnson 33 34
Dale Jarrett 32 43
Tony Stewart 32 38
Ricky Rudd 23 24
Terry Labonte 22 34
Fred Lorenzen 22 26
Bobby Labonte 21 32
Jeff Burton 20 47
Benny Parsons 20 21
Buddy Baker 19 19
Davey Allison 19 19
Harry Gant 18 39
Geoff Bodine 18 24
Neil Bonnett 18 19
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 17 39
Kurt Busch 17 23
Matt Kenseth 16 40
Ernie Irvan 15 18
Fireball Roberts 14 33
Ryan Newman 13 20
Tim Richmond 13 15
Greg Biffle 12 46
Junior Johnson 11 50
Kevin Harvick 11 45
LeeRoy Yarbrough 11 14
Sterling Marlin 10 12
Donnie Allison 10 10
Bobby Isaac 9 37
Carl Edwards 9 28
Jim Paschal 9 25
Rex White 8 28
Kyle Petty 8 8
Kasey Kahne 7 16
A.J. Foyt 7 7
Marvin Panch 6 17
Buck Baker 5 46
Joe Weatherly 5 25
Kyle Busch 5 24
Ward Burton 5 9
Dan Gurney 5 5
Alan Kulwicki 5 5
Dave Marcis 5 5
Jeremy Mayfield 5 5
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