Kyle Busch is truly on an incredible roll. Last night at Darlington, he won his eighth race of the season - BEFORE MOTHER'S DAY. He also had two earlier Nationwide races in the bag before suffering mechanical problems, and he could have easily won last week's Cup race at Richmond had he and Dale Earnhardt Jr. not tangled with three laps to go.
Obviously, Busch's success is not only a result of his considerable driving talent. Joe Gibbs Racing has been the dominant team in NASCAR in 2008, with the kind of combined dominance of the Cup and Nationwide Series that we saw from Hendrick Motorsports at the Cup level in 2007. If Kyle keeps it up, could he make a run, albeit an unofficial one, at THE most unbreakable of NASCAR records - Richard Petty's 27-win season?
I already broke down the King's 1967 season here to distill how many wins that year were comparable to today's NASCAR, but I would say the King's record still holds up when you look at the entire body of a NASCAR season. During 1967 season, Petty was the only driver to run more than 46 races, and while the King was running the maximum of 48, only nine other drivers ran more than 40, which means in several races he was one of only a handful of top-level drivers competing. (David Pearson and Cale Yarborough won four races in only 39 COMBINED starts that year.)
What that tells me is that, while it isn't considered THE highest level, today's Nationwide and even Truck Series races are comparable to some of those old races the King gets credit for. Wouldn't you say that Tony Stewart's Nationwide win Friday night - beating plenty of Cup drivers including Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and others - is just as impressive (moreso, actually) than, say, winning the 1967 Columbia 200 - which had five or six top drivers in the field among its whopping NINETEEN competitors, in a race that was shorter than any Nationwide Series race today?
Over the years, there have been several Cup racers who have run enough to put together impressive win total in the Nationwide/Busch Series. Dale Earnhardt won five Busch races in 1986. Harry Gant won five Busch races in 1991. Mark Martin has won as many as seven Busch races AND six Truck races in a season (although not the same one). And just two years ago Kevin Harvick nearly tied the all-time Busch Series record with nine wins. In fact, that season was the MOST wins in a season since the Busch Series was created in 1982. Here is the list.
YEAR CUP NWS CTS TOTAL Kevin Harvick 2006 5 9 0 14 Jeff Gordon 1998 13 0 0 13 Darrell Waltrip 1982 12 1 0 13 Dale Earnhardt 1987 11 1 0 12 Mark Martin 1993 5 7 0 12 Bill Elliott 1985 11 0 0 11 Dale Earnhardt 1990 9 2 0 11 Jimmie Johnson 2007 10 0 0 10 Jeff Gordon 1997 10 0 0 10 Jeff Gordon 1996 10 0 0 10 Rusty Wallace 1993 10 0 0 10 Harry Gant 1991 5 5 0 10 Dale Earnhardt 1986 5 5 0 10 Mark Martin 1997 4 6 0 10 Sam Ard 1983 0 10 0 10 Mark Martin 1998 7 2 0 9 Darrell Waltrip 1984 7 2 0 9 Carl Edwards 2005 4 5 0 9 Greg Biffle 1999 0 0 9 9 Jimmie Johnson 2004 8 0 0 8 Ryan Newman 2003 8 0 0 8 Rusty Wallace 1994 8 0 0 8 Bobby Allison 1982 8 0 0 8 Jeff Gordon 1999 7 1 0 8 Tim Richmond 1986 7 1 0 8 Kasey Kahne 2006 6 2 0 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2004 6 2 0 8 Dale Earnhardt 1993 6 2 0 8 Jeff Burton 2000 4 4 0 8 Kyle Busch 2008 3 3 2 8 Mark Martin 1999 2 6 0 8 Jack Ingram 1984 0 8 0 8 Sam Ard 1984 0 8 0 8 Mike Skinner 1996 0 0 8 8 Mike Skinner 1995 0 0 8 8
There's Krazy Kyle - and it's worth repeating, but that's before Mother's Day!
Now, I know you're kind of thinking that Harvick "only" won five Cup races, so he doesn't really belong in first, and I would only say you obviously need to put some perspective into it. Would you try to say Bill Elliott's 1985 season somehow wasn't as good? Of course not. BUT, Eliiott could have run some Busch races if he felt like it, right? And think about some of those wins the King got - twelve cars on a track, sixty miles, those count as much as last night's Dodge Challenger 500, in NASCAR's eyes. Shouldn't the reverse be true, at least to some degree?
To try and put Harvick's 2006 win total in some perspective, here is the list of most wins in a season, all-time, including all Busch and Trucks. This is the top-twenty.
YEAR WINS Richard Petty 1967 27 Richard Petty 1971 21 Richard Petty 1970 18 Tim Flock 1955 18 Bobby Isaac 1969 17 David Pearson 1968 16 Richard Petty 1968 16 David Pearson 1966 15 Ned Jarrett 1964 15 Kevin Harvick 2006 14 Richard Petty 1963 14 Buck Baker 1956 14 Darrell Waltrip 1982 13 Jeff Gordon 1998 13 Richard Petty 1975 13 Junior Johnson 1965 13 Ned Jarrett 1965 13 Mark Martin 1993 12 Dale Earnhardt 1987 12 Darrell Waltrip 1981 12 Herb Thomas 1954 12 Herb Thomas 1953 12
Now, the BOLD totals all came after NASCAR stopped sanctioning those small field/short distance-races. Kevin Harvick won the most NASCAR races in a season in 36 (!) years in 2006. Kyle Busch is ALREADY over HALF-WAY to Harvick's total, with six months of racing still to come.
I realize Kyle Busch isn't exactly lacking for media coverage lately, but Kyle - and really all of today's drivers - get short-changed the way NASCAR refuses to acknowledge the vastly different landscape of today's NASCAR vs. that of the 1950s and 1960s.
Wow!!! As new NASCAR fan this is exactly the kind of stuff I need. It's not that easy putting things into perspective just reading the NASCAR page and sometimes other long time fans don't have the patience to explain to an #### like me. I really really liked this. More please.
I have my Kyle Busch blog up if you could please take a look.
JJD...NASCAR seems like they would like to distance themselves from the old days. They refer to the 'modern era', 1971-present, for some of their accomplishments. It is ridiculous that a 100 lap race in the 1960s on a 1/4 mile greyhound race track in Moyock, NC counts the same as the Daytona 500 in the win list. But, what would you have NASCAR do? They're not going to just delete all those wins from the 50s and 60s. The Petty fans alone would cry bloody murder.
The NFL, NBA, and MLB all recognize records and stats from before NASCAR's time. Those games have changed unbelievably also. Joe DiMaggio didn't have to face fresh, relief pitchers during his streak. It's a lot easier to hit a pitcher after you've already faced him 3 or 4 times, and he's tired.
I doubt NASCAR will ever count all wins the same in the three national series. I don't think they should. Cup wins should be more respected than NW or CTS.
I doubt NASCAR will ever count all wins the same in the three national series. I don't think they should. Cup wins should be more respected than NW or CTS.
I'm not saying they should count the same in EVERY context - I just think they should count them all sometimes for comparison's sake - your Daytona 500 comparison being a perfect comparison. It's not a black-and-white thing, but there can be at least some equalization there between eras.
The idea that Richard Petty's 27 wins in 1967 is considered the all-time record is a joke, when you look at today's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. However if you open things up, like looking at the King's wins or looking at all of the races today in the three series, it doesn't become any less impressive, but it adds a bunch of context that wasn't there when you just take the record at face value.
So, the last list of total wins is extremely impressive because most of those are pre-72. Except for what, 7 of them?
Let's look at Kevin Harvick's win total of 14 in 2006 ... nine of those are from Busch. Wow. Then, look down at DW's total of 13 in 1982 (first year of Busch) and he only had ONE win. I'd say DW's total is more impressive. Personal opinion. Harvick had years of running in the Busch league to figure out the set ups/tracks/competition.
Are we ever going to settle the fact of putting wins into context? You've written 5 parts of this issue now. How would a TV announcer, reporter, journalist explain the weight of a 'win total' by putting it into context without giving a detailed explanation such as you've done?
I'm really just asking for your opinion. I get the point and agree, but how should it be changed in the media, etc?
I'm really just asking for your opinion. I get the point and agree, but how should it be changed in the media, etc?
Here what I would do (and WILL do, as soon as they pick me to run NASCAR):
- Revise the all-time Cup wins record to 116 to eliminate all of the smaller events the Cup guys of today won't ever run.
- Revise the single-season Cup wins record to 13 for the same reasons.
- Recategorize the King's 200 wins to cover ALL of NASCAR, so that guys who win Nationwide and Truck races are shooting for 200 if they want.
I don't think anyone gets shortchanged on that deal. You can ALWAYS put a guy's career into the right context if you look at ALL of the facts. I guess I'd ask you to give me an example so I can tell you how I'd deal with it.
I'd rather the Nextel Cup champion be decided over the entire season, but I think if you are going to have a Chase for the Nextel Cup, you should break out the twelve guys and have them scored separately, so I'm tracking the points both ways.
I also strongly advocate a NCAA football playoff, so there will be some posts about that showing up here, although I have written this blog for over a year and haven't gone there yet.
I can be reached via e-mail or AIM at jayjaydean at gmail dot com.
