What do Harold Kite,
Joe Eubanks, and Frankie Schneider all have in common?
If you are asking yourself,
who? You’d be in good company. The few people I asked this question said the same thing.
Okay, what if I asked…
What do these guys have in common with Dick Brooks, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, and Wendell Scott? The common
answer might be, “Oh, they must be race car drivers.” That is accurate, but beyond that there is a common
thread that binds all these guys together. Every one of these guys has won only once in the top NASCAR series.
There are 174 names
on the all time NASCAR winners list. One hit wonders account for 59 of these victories. There are a few active
drives in this category. Casey Mears and JP Montoya are in good company with the likes of Phil Parsons and Greg Sacks.
I’m not knocking anybodies race career. If winning was easy, everybody would be doing it. I’m simply
pointing out how hard it is to win on the NASCAR circuit in the modern era.
So what’s the dividing
line between race car drivers and racing legends? As I look at this same list, a remarkable thing stands out.
The ten guys sitting on top of this list account for 874 victories. Ten guys have won 40% of all the races ever
run. That’s an amazing number when you consider Jeff Gordon is the only active driver in the top ten with his 81 wins.
Richard and Lee Petty alone account for 254 wins. That explains why Petty Enterprises is the winningest of all owner
organization. In perspective, Hendrick Motorsports’ 164 wins is nearly a full third less than Petty’s 268.
Granted, a lot of those wins were a long time ago on tracks that hasn’t seen a NASCAR race in decades.
There are only eleven
drivers that have won fifty races or more. These men represent thirty four championships led by Richard Petty’s
seven. Junior Johnson is the only driver in this group without a NASCAR Championship as a driver. Does not having a
championship trophy diminish Johnson’s career? Absolutely not! The sport we love today is what it is because
of guys like Junior Johnson. For every driver to raise the championship trophy high above his head, there are a hundred
guys who battled week after week and never took the checkered flag. As an owner, Junior Johnson brought home six
championships, three each for Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip.
Richard Childress got
an opportunity to drive in NASCAR at the inaugural Talladega race in 1969. The race was boycotted by virtually every active NASCAR
driver leaving the Bill France scrambling to find replacement drivers. Childress never won a race as a driver, but owned
the cars that the late Dale Earnhardt drove to six of his seven championships. Beyond that, he’s become one of the wealthiest
men in North Carolina. Not bad for an old motor head from Winston-Salem,
NC.
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In a sport founded on
the heels of winners, it’s okay to be mediocre. There are a lot of guys out there looking for that first win so
they can add their name on that list. Most of them will at least get the chance. There are thousands of
drivers who will never be able to. The window of opportunity has closed.
Without naming names,
here’s some parting food for thought…
Years in Cup
Starts
Wins
Driver X
27
642
0
Driver Y
18
455
0
Driver Z
17
342
0
Sometimes it’s
not about the win. Sometimes it’s about the opportunity to race.
2006 StockCar Review.
