1. Richard Petty
Known as the King, “I never claimed to be the best driver,” he has said often, differentiating between pure talent and being “a racer”–that is, a superb strategist throughout his career. “I just want to be remembered as a winner.” He will be. Nobody else has come close to his total race victories, and only Dale Earnhardt equaled Petty’s seven career Winston Cup championships. His seven Daytona 500 victories are unequaled and unapproached. And no driver has equaled Petty in accessibility to the public and media. In his prime, Petty was known as “NASCAR’s Arnold Palmer,” a goodwill ambassador who brought stock car racing out of the backwaters and onto national television, beginning with ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” in the 1960s.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Richard Petty 200 7 July 2, 1937 Still living
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2. David Pearson
By consensus, “the Silver Fox” was the best pure driver ever in NASCAR–smooth, calculating, with a sixth sense for staying out of trouble. Never rode in an ambulance his entire career–never suffered so much as a broken bone. Petty invariably names Pearson as the best, saying: “Pearson could beat you on a dirt track, he could beat you on a paved track, he could beat you on a road course, he could beat you on a superspeedway, he could beat you on a short track. I never felt as bad about losing to Pearson as I did some of the others because I knew how good he was.” Voted NASCAR driver of the century by a panel of 40 experts–longtime NASCAR drivers, executives and crew chiefs–polled by Sports Illustrated in 1999.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
David Pearson 105 3 Dec. 12, 1934 Still living
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3. Bobby Allison
Most independent-minded man in NASCAR won for 16 different teams, spending most of his career in conflicts with team owners and NASCAR officials. “Bobby was his own worst enemy,” says his brother Donnie. Perhaps NASCAR’s most brilliant self-taught engineer, he introduced chassis concepts that were 30 years ahead of their time. Holds third-highest total of Daytona 500 victories with three. Remains the sport’s most tragic figure–nearly died of head injuries suffered at Pocono in 1988, made miraculous recovery but still suffers lingering effects. Son Clifford died in a crash at Michigan International Speedway in 1992; son Davey, just as he was peaking as a NASCAR driver, died of injuries suffered in a helicopter crash at Talladega, Ala., in 1993. Bobby and a few historians claim he actually has 85 career victories–the dispute centers on his victory driving a Grand American class car against Grand National (now Winston Cup) cars at Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1971.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Bobby Allison 84 1 Dec. 3, 1937 Still living
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4. Darrell Waltrip
Took NASCAR by storm in the 1970s with his aggressive driving and more aggressive tongue. Nicknamed “Jaws” by 1977 for running his mouth and running over other cars. Showed early promise of becoming the best stock car driver ever. Until he suffered a concussion in a bad crash in the 1983 Daytona 500, which tempered his driving style, was every bit as aggressive as Dale Earnhardt and twice as smooth. Intelligent, sophisticated, articulate and outspoken, he questioned the status of–and often poked fun at–established icons Petty and Pearson. For this he suffered with the fans, becoming the first NASCAR driver to be regularly and thunderously booed at tracks. Finally became a fan favorite after he suffered a dose of his own medicine, a spinout at the hands of Rusty Wallace at Charlotte in 1989. Now, as the glib and colorful broadcast analyst for Fox television, Waltrip is building a reputation as “the John Madden of NASCAR.”
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Darrell Waltrip 84 3 Feb. 5, 1947 Still living
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5. Cale Yarborough
The little bulldog of a man was arguably the gutsiest, and toughest physically, ever. Remains only driver to win three consecutive Winston Cups, in 1976, ’77 and ’78, driving for legendary owner Junior Johnson. Second in career Daytona 500 victories with four. Remembered by fans for brawling with Donnie and Bobby Allison after he and Donnie crashed on the final lap while dueling for victory in the 1979 Daytona 500. Known among his peers for never yielding an inch to another driver, even if he was several laps down. Still rated by TV commentator and former driver Buddy Baker as the toughest competitor Baker ever raced against–and Baker saw plenty of action against Petty, Pearson, Allison and Waltrip. Some of Yarborough’s earliest memories involve brushes with death. As a child he was struck by lightning and later bitten by rattlesnake. As a young man he was shot while admonishing some rowdies to behave themselves. Once, while he was skydiving, his parachute failed to open until he was a few hundred feet from the ground and he fortunately landed in a soft bedding of dense, tall weeds.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Cale Yarborough 83 3 March 27, 1939 Still living
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6. Dale Earnhardt
“NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever,” Chairman Bill France Jr. said hours after Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Though tied with Petty for most career championships, Earnhardt’s race wins total is relatively unspectacular. It does not adequately reflect his charismatic grip on fans as “the Intimidator,” an enthralling entertainer in a race car, fully aggressive, with almost metaphysical car control, lap in, lap out. “Dale fought for every position, every second he was on the track. Even when you passed him, it wasn’t over,” says the man whom Earnhardt’s passing has left alone at the top of NASCAR, four-time champion Jeff Gordon. Most of all there was “Dale’s persona–his larger-than-life status,” Gordon says of the Man in Black. Earnhardt was so tough, so skilled, so talented that his peers felt he simply couldn’t die in a race car. “It could never happen to Superman,” says three-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Jarrett. When it did, it purged all the denial out of all other drivers. Earnhardt’s death spurred the most massive and high-tech revolution in safety enhancement in the history of NASCAR. And so, “Dale is still having an impact on this sport,” says Jarrett.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Dale Earnhardt 76 7 April 29, 1951 Feb. 18, 2001
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7. Jeff Gordon
Now the winningest active driver, in terms of races and championships, he’s approaching status as the new king of NASCAR. Far more accomplished than any of his predecessors were at 30, Gordon should win an eighth championship easily, breaking the Petty-Earnhardt record. For him, challenging Petty’s record of 200 race victories isn’t out of the question if he competes into his 50s, as most other NASCAR stars have. He probably hasn’t even peaked. He is still booed at traditional NASCAR venues such as Charlotte and Darlington but is cheered roundly at hipper, more mainstream tracks such as Las Vegas, California Speedway and Indy. He’s the embodiment of the massive invasion by mainstream America of a NASCAR that was once almost a cult sport, limited to the Southeast. But whether the traditionalists like it or not, he is simply brilliant on the track–precise, smooth, superb at setting up and executing passes, gentle on equipment until time for a showdown, entirely capable of slamming and banging when the need arises. Yet he has a knack for avoiding wrecks. It’s too early to say Gordon is the best NASCAR driver of all time. But it’s also too early to say he isn’t.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Jeff Gordon 58 4 Aug. 4, 1971 Still living
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8. Lee Petty
Patriarch of a driving dynasty that would span four generations if his great-grandson Adam had not been killed in a crash in 2000. Father of Richard Petty and grandfather of Kyle, “Papa Lee” was the first NASCAR driver with great business savvy, able to secure “factory backing” from Detroit manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler. Gave his son a launching pad for 200 victories by establishing what was, by the 1960s, the strongest, most technologically advanced, best-financed team in NASCAR–the fabled Petty Enterprises. He won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 by inches over Johnny Beauchamp, but wasn’t declared the official winner until three days of controversy examining photos and film clips of the finish. The uproar was part of what launched the Daytona 500 to recognition as NASCAR’s showcase event. And ever since, NASCAR has used high-speed cameras in case of photo finishes. Lee’s next big protest of a race came in Atlanta in 1960, when he overturned what would have been Richard’s first NASCAR victory and claimed the victory for himself.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Lee Petty 52 3 March 14, 1914 April 5, 2000
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9. Ned Jarrett
Now known primarily as NASCAR’s first top television color analyst on CBS and ESPN who retired from broadcasting after the 2000 season, Ned Jarrett was and is one of the few true gentlemen of the sport. But he could be a slam-bang driver when the need arose. Was a pioneer of being media-friendly and fan-accessible as a driver. Would sit in his truck and talk with reporters for hours, when others of his generation “thought you were a sissy if you talked to the press,” as the late Bob Welborn once recalled. Never really needed the money he won from racing–was financially independent, running a family building-supply business. But he always was grateful for what the sport gave him and always tried to give something back. Quietly but devoutly religious Lutheran. All of the admirable Jarrett traits now show clearly in Ned’s son Dale, who remains an impeccable gentleman off the track–but also knows how to slam and bang at the right times. Jarrett and Junior Johnson are actually tied in career wins, but Jarrett won two season championships, Johnson none.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Ned Jarrett 50 2 Oct. 12, 1932 Still living
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10. Junior Johnson
Still unquestionably the most all-out driver, on every lap, in the history of NASCAR. Many old-timers consider him the most exciting ever. Never won a season championship–or cared to–because of his win, wreck or blow philosophy. Always found racing quite boring, compared with his notorious background as a moonshine runner who was never caught on the roads by the law. “It was a race to win or go to prison,” he has said of the chases with federal revenuers and local sheriffs. “That was a lot more exciting than driving any race car ever got.” Caught by the feds while stoking his father’s whiskey still in 1954, Johnson served a year in federal prison, and that, he believes, damaged his racing career, even though he returned to race until 1966. Retired young, at 35, because “I just plain got tired of it.” Became a national legend with Tom Wolfe’s 1965 story in Esquire magazine, “Junior Johnson is the Last American Hero, Yes.” Later portrayed by Beau Bridges in the Hollywood film “The Last American Hero.” Even greater success came as a car owner (1967-95), when he won 139 races with an all-star list of drivers, including LeeRoy Yarbrough, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip.
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DRIVER WINS CUPS BORN DIED
Junior Johnson 50 0 June 28, 1931 Still living
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