Welcome to the second installment of Sportscasting’s 10-part series, “The Top 101 NASCAR Cup Series Drivers By Car Number.”
The goal here is quite simple. As we’ve done in the past with our “101 Best in the NFL by Uniform Number” series, we’re doing the same thing here by listing the best drivers to run numbers 00, 0 and 1-99 in NASCAR’s premier series.
We start with a list of 11 for numbers 00-9 and continue here with the next 10 for numbers 10-19. Enjoy.
No. 10: Ricky Rudd
The easy call to kick off this part of the list is Ricky Rudd, who owns precisely half of the No. 10’s 12 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The 1977 Rookie of the Year took six different numbers to Victory Lane over the course of his 32-year career, and his six wins at No. 10 are tied with his six at No. 15 at the top of his career. staff list. Rudd made 196 starts in the No. 10, the most of any of the dozen numbers he managed, and recorded 31 top fives and 69 top 10s.
No. 11: Cale Yarborough
Rank 11 might be the toughest of the 101 on this list. But that makes sense since it’s the winningest number in NASCAR Cup Series history. Just look who didn’t get the thumbs up here.
Darrell Waltrip won 43 races and three Cup titles in it. Denny Hamlin has more than 600 stars, the most of any driver, and has taken 48 checkered flags. Ned Jarrett racked up 49 wins with him, winning a pair of championships.
In the end, however, we opted for Cale Yarborough. The South Carolina native won 55 times at No. 11 in 237 starts, giving him a winning percentage of 23.2%. More than half of those wins, 28 to be exact, came from 1976-78, the stretch in which he won three straight Cup Series titles.
Yarborough also earned his second of four Daytona 500 victories during this period. The NASCAR Hall of Famer finished in the top five in exactly two-thirds of his starts in the No. 11.
No. 12: Bobby Allison
With that out of the way, back to another easy decision in No. 12. Ryan Newman came in a distant second, but the clear choice here is three-time Daytona 500 champion Bobby Allison.
Allison not only owns more wins at No. 12 than Newman, 25-13, but also won more in fewer starts. While Newman’s 13 wins came in 252 starts, Allison’s 25 checkers came in 170, giving her a winning percentage of 14.7%.
In those 170 starts at No. 12, one of only three numbers in which he started 100 or more races, the 1983 Cup Series champion posted 89 top-five finishes and 111 top-10 finishes.
No. 13: Casey Mears
Number 13 is a tough call with no clear favourite. If we were going solely on wins, it would be pretty simple as only one driver took the unlucky number to Victory Lane in a Cup Series race, that would be Johnny Rutherford.
But it was just a qualifier for the 1963 Daytona 500, and it was one of only two times he wore the No. 13. But it’s pretty sweet that it was Rutherford’s first Cup Series race. He finished ninth in the actual Daytona 500 that year.
But many others are more closely associated with the No. 13, namely Casey Mears, who somehow wins by default as the California native has run more races with him than anyone else, 227 to be exact, which is nearly the 35% of its history.
No. 14: Fonty’s Flock
Some probably feel that Tony Stewart deserves the No. 14 spot. And there’s certainly an argument there, since the 2011 Cup Series champion has the most wins with a number of 16. But those 16 flags to frames were in 262 starts, giving him a winning percentage of 6.1%.
And that’s why we give Fonty Flock a thumbs up. While he’s not the most famous driver, not even in his own family, the brother of Tim and Bob Flock and NASCAR’s second female driver, Ethel Mobley, Fonty drove the No. 14 to 14 wins.
And he did it in just 103 starts for a winning percentage of 13.6%.
No. 15: Bobby Allison
Remember how we told you that Bobby Allison started 100 or more races with three different numbers? Well, No. 15 wasn’t really one of them, as he came up short at 92.
However, the seven-time Most Popular Driver award winner made the most of those 92 starts, winning 14 times with 44 top-fives and 62 top-10s. Allison is the only driver with double-digit wins in the No. 15, the next closest is Ricky Rudd with six.
Some may not know that Dale Earnhardt Sr. won three Cup Series races in the No. 15, which ties him for fifth with Benny Parsons, Geoff Bodine and Clint Bowyer.
No. 16: Greg Biffle
The single call at No. 16 is Greg Biffle.
Before the Washington native’s victory in the summer race at Daytona in 2003, the No. 16 hadn’t seen Victory Lane in nearly 28 years. If he hasn’t heard his name enough, Bobby Allison was the last to take a checkered flag number at Darlington in 1975.
Biffle won all 19 Cup Series races in the No. 16 and made 504 of his 515 starts in the number. The other six to win at No. 16 combined for 14 wins. Darel Dieringer is second with five wins.
No. 17: David Pearson
Slot No. 17 had several great options to choose from. There was Darrell Waltrip and his 15 wins in 344 starts. And there was Matt Kenseth and his 24 wins in 471 starts.
But joining Bobby Allison as a two-time roster is David Pearson, who took 30 checkered flags in the No. 17. And he won those 30 races in just 140 starts, giving him an incredible 21.4 winning percentage. %. Of the 107 top 10s the Hall of Famer recorded using the number, 100 were also top 5s.
What’s amazing is that of all the numbers Pearson wore throughout his storied career, we still haven’t gotten to the one that won the most. However, it is still an entry twice. That’s how good this guy was.
No. 18: Kyle Busch
Before Joe Gibbs Racing took over the number full-time, the No. 18 only went to Victory Lane once in the NASCAR Cup Series, a win at Oakland in 1951 by Marvin Burke.
Dale Jarrett eventually snapped the streak and recorded a pair of wins at the number before Bobby Labonte took over and took him to Victory Lane 21 times.
But the easy call here is Kyle Busch, who took over the No. 18 in 2008 and has taken 56 checkered flags and two Cup titles since then. He also recorded 300 top 10 finishes and more than 200 top 5 finishes.
No. 19: Martin Truex Jr.
While one of the 25 most used numbers in NASCAR Cup Series history, No. 19 hasn’t been at Victory Lane as often as one might think. In fact, he only visited Victory Lane 20 times over the years.
If this list had been built before 2019, Carl Edwards’ five wins might have been enough to give him this spot. But Martin Truex Jr. took over the No. 19 that season and won seven races. He has now won a dozen races wearing the number, easily the most of all time.
Jeremy Mayfield and John Rostek are the only other drivers to win in the No. 19.
Stats courtesy of Racing Reference
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