The NASCAR Lightning Round

The last 81 NASCAR winners summarized in one sentence each.

I know I was talking about writing five different NASCAR and IndyCar posts, but I figured it would be more efficient to do everything all at once especially since I needed to save time on my paid work/housework/visiting Mom/preparing for my colonoscopy so I’m gonna skimp on the long career summaries and just do all the remaining NASCAR drivers in one post and all the remaining IndyCar drivers in one post. I had calculated these season grades several days ago but just finished short one-sentence writeups for each today, and I’ve already started going through all the remaining IndyCar winners.

Most of these one and two-time winners who I haven’t covered yet are completely unworthy of consideration anyway, so I thought summarizing them in one sentence each could allow me to do them all at once as well as force me to learn some concision. My mom’s phone was fixed so that’s good, but the blanket I brought in was apparently lost for good.

Norm Nelson

1950: C
1951: C
1955: C
1958: C+
1960: E-
1961: C+
1962: E-
1963: C+
1964: C+
1965: E
1966: E
1967: C+
1968: C+
1970: C+
1971: C-
1973: C-
1974: C+

Cumulative points: 62

His Cup career was a blip, but he later won three USAC Stock Car titles including back-to-back titles in 1965-1966; at his peak in 1965, he was even frequently outperforming A.J. Foyt, Paul Goldsmith, Bobby Isaac, Parnelli Jones, and David Pearson in their starts there.

Frankie Schneider

1951: E-
1952: E
1953: E
1954: E-
1957: C+
1958: C
1959: C-

Cumulative points: 36

From 1951-54, Schneider won at least 125 modified races and 29 Late Model Sportsman wins; I almost rated his 1952 fifth place when he had a 44-win Modified title season while Joe Weatherly won 37 times and Speedy Thompson won 17 (all exact win counts unknown), but I talked myself out of it and gave Troy Ruttman that spot instead.

Red Byron

1947: E
1948: E
1949: E

Cumulative points: 30

His 1949 Cup title isn’t enough by itself, but when you consider he also had an 11-win Modified championship season and a series-high nine wins on the NSCRA Tour the year before against all the future Cup drivers, he’s a lock.

Johnny Beauchamp

1955: C-
1956: E
1957: E
1958: C-
1959: C
1960: C-

Cumulative points: 25

Beauchamp is mainly a lock for his success in the IMCA Stock Car Series, where he won 83 races including 75 in his 1956-57 title seasons alone; everything he did in NASCAR later was only a bonus.

Johnny Mantz

1948: C+
1949: E-
1950: C+
1953: C
1954: C
1956: E-
1957: C-
1958: C-

Cumulative points: 22

Mantz was far more than just the first Southern 500 winner as he was also a AAA Big Car (Sprint Car) and USAC Stock Car champion and an IndyCar winner as well.

James Hylton

1966: C+
1967: C+
1968: C-
1969: C+
1970: C+
1971: C+
1972: C+
1973: C-
1975: C-

Cumulative points: 21

Maybe this is overrating him especially when you consider where I placed Elmo Langley and Wendell Scott, but I do think his consistency and dominance were both greater than what all the other non-factory owner-drivers achieved in this era combined.

Ray Elder

1968: C-
1969: C
1970: C
1971: C+
1972: C+
1973: C-
1974: C
1975: C

Cumulative points: 16

He was definitely a lot better than Hershel McGriff as he won 6 NASCAR West titles to McGriff’s 1, but McGriff actually wasn’t a full-timer during Elder’s heyday very often and those fields weren’t great, so I’m not gonna make Elder a lock.

John Andretti

1986: C-
1987: C-
1989: C
1990: C
1991: C
1992: C
1997: C-
1998: C
1999: C

Cumulative points: 15

Kind of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, I don’t think he was great at anything but like A.J. Allmendinger, he was good at a lot of things so I guess I should at least take him over his Petty Enterprises predecessor Bobby Hamilton, even though I absolutely think Hamilton was a better NASCAR driver.

Al Keller

1951: C-
1952: C
1953: E-
1954: C+
1956: C
1961: C

Cumulative points: 15

Primarily known for earning the first NASCAR win for a non-American manufacturer (Jaguar), he was actually pretty eclectic with at least 66 modified wins, 3 sprint car wins, a win in NASCAR’s short-lived open wheel Speedway Division, and a 5th-place IndyCar points finish despite never winning an IndyCar race.

Dick Brooks

1970: C
1973: C-
1975: C
1976: C
1977: C
1978: C
1983: C
1984: C-

Cumulative points: 14

A lot of people consider him the best one-time Cup winner; I definitely don’t but Brooks giving Junie Donlavey his first four top ten points finishes all in a row from 1975-1978 is pretty impressive.

Buddy Shuman

1947: C
1948: C+
1950: E-
1951: C
1952: C

Cumulative points: 14

Shuman won two NSCRA titles in 1948 and 1950 when that series was one of the main challengers to NASCAR; this is a blind spot for me as I’m not sure how strong the competition was so I could change some of his grades around later.

Billy Myers

1951: C
1953: C+
1955: C+
1956: C+
1957: C

Cumulative points: 13

In addition to two Cup wins in 1956, he won at least 56 Late Model Sportsman wins, 4 Modified wins, and 2 Convertible wins.

Bob Burdick

1956: C-
1957: E-
1958: C+
1959: C-
1961: C-

Cumulative points: 11

Burdick was one of the closest things to a rival to Johnny Beauchamp in his IMCA heyday, as he won 39 IMCA races from 1956-58 as a young pup of 19-21 years old before winning the third Cup race at Atlanta in 1961 then inexplicably disappearing.

Tom Pistone

1956: C-
1958: C-
1959: C+
1960: C
1966: C+

Cumulative points: 10

He actually outperformed Richard Petty when they were both rookies in 1959 but I guess Pistone was disqualified from ROTY eligibility because he competed in the USAC Stock Car Series the year before.

Lake Speed

1984: C
1985: C
1988: C+
1994: C
1995: C-

Cumulative points: 10

David Smith once argued that Speed was as talented as Jamie McMurray; given what he did with the cars he had, I can kind of see it but it’s too theoretical an argument for me.

Lennie Pond

1971: C-
1972: C-
1975: C
1976: C
1978: C+

Cumulative points: 9

His beating Darrell Waltrip for Rookie of the Year did not age well, but he was pretty solid with at least 23 Late Model Sportsman wins, 3 Modified wins, and an ARCA win in addition to his Cup win at Talladega.

Jimmy Spencer

1984: C+
1985: C
1991: C-
1993: C-
1996: C-
2001: C-

Cumulative points: 9

I like his modified career (where he ran closer to Richie Evans than you might guess in ‘84 and ‘85) better than anything he did in Cup, but he won a lot less in his actual Modified title seasons after Evans died, so I didn’t rate those.

Bill Amick

1955: C-
1956: C-
1964: C+
1965: C+

Cumulative points: 8

He was better than most of the other interchangeable NASCAR West Coast drivers as he won 10 races in 1964 and 8 in his title season of 1965; I really don’t think his career is much worse than McGriff’s.

Ron Bouchard

1973: C
1981: C-
1982: C
1984: C
1985: C-

Cumulative points: 8

I actually think what he did for that Jack Beebe team was pretty solid, albeit too short-lived, but it was ridiculous that NASCAR gave him Rookie of the Year over Morgan Shepherd even though Shepherd had led the rookie points all year and had a more impressive rookie win.

Joe Eubanks

1951: C-
1952: C-
1953: C
1954: C-
1956: C
1958: C-

Cumulative points: 8

I didn’t have a clue what to do with this guy since he was pretty much the only driver for most of the teams in his prime.

Johnny Benson

1995: C-
1996: C-
1997: C-
2000: C-
2001: C
2002: C-

Cumulative points: 7

Although his 1995 isn’t as dominant as I’d like, I did rate it since he did launch BACE Motorsports’s dynasty run of three consecutive Busch Series titles.

Ricky Craven

1991: C-
1996: C-
1997: C-
2001: C-
2002: C
2003: C-

Cumulative points: 7

I cut him a break for ‘96 and ‘97 ‘cause of the injuries and ‘03 because of the iconic nature of the win; I also felt his 1991 should be rated since he set the records for wins (10) and laps led (1,177) in the Busch North (now ARCA East) series.

Gober Sosebee

1949: C-
1950: C
1952: C
1954: C

Cumulative points: 7

In addition to his two Cup wins, Sosebee won four races in the NASCAR rival NSCRA, four Modified wins, four Late Model Sportsman wins, and one proto-ARCA win.

Bobby Johns

1960: C+
1962: C+

Cumulative points: 6

Johns was one of the few NASCAR drivers of his era who made a successful crossover to IndyCar racing, where he earned two top ten finishes in the Indy 500, but he wasn’t actually competitive there.

Elmo Langley

1966: C
1968: C-
1969: C-
1971: C-
1972: C-

Cumulative points: 6

You might think the gap between Hylton and Langley seems too stark (and ditto for Wendell Scott), but Hylton had 140 top fives, 301 top tens, 1,021 laps led, and 8 top five points finishes, to Langley’s 63, 193, 386, and 1 and Scott’s 20, 147, 27, and 0.

Jimmy Pardue

1962: C+
1963: C-
1964: C

Cumulative points: 6

Although both of his wins came against terrible fields, his first win came as an owner-driver, he did have multiple seasons with 200+ laps led and he led 119 laps for himself in the World 600 before crashing in 1962.

Steve Park

1999: C-
2000: C
2001: C+

Cumulative points: 6

Speaking of David Smith, he thought Park was better than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at DEI before his injury; I definitely don’t because Junior replaced him in Busch and did significantly better in addition to winning first in Cup despite starting two years later, but I do think they were relatively equal.

Marvin Porter

1957: C-
1959: C-
1960: C
1965: C-
1966: C-

Cumulative points: 6

Porter won both the NASCAR Short Track title in 1959 as well as the NASCAR West title the next year.

Danny Graves

1954: C+
1957: C

Cumulative points: 5

Graves won the Late Model Sportsman title in 1954 with an estimated 17 wins, then he won 3 NASCAR West series races in 1957 (one of which also counted as a Cup win).

Danny Letner

1954: C-
1955: C
1956: C-
1957: C-

Cumulative points: 5

Letner won 10 NASCAR West Series races and the 1955 championship as well as a convertible race in 1956.

Jody Ridley

1980: C
1981: C+

Cumulative points: 5

I used to rate him higher than I now do because after he gave Junie Donlavey his first win and two of his best three points finishes in his first two seasons, he then went on to win six ALL PRO titles from 1987-1993 and a Snowball Derby in 1985; however, he hardly ever led in Cup, his win was extremely lucky and the result of a scoring error, and I decided the ALL PRO series was too minor to recognize.

Wendell Scott

1962: C-
1963: C-
1964: C-
1965: C-
1966: C-

Cumulative points: 5

I’m not unhappy NASCAR inducted Scott into the Hall of Fame as a rebuke to their history of institutional racism, but even though he was one of the 1,000 most important drivers for sure, he wasn’t one of the 1,000 greatest.

Bubba Wallace

2021: C-
2022: C
2023: C

Cumulative points: 5

I’m pretty sure if he makes the playoffs this year I’ll list him and if he neither makes the playoffs nor wins, I won’t.

Johnny Allen

1957: C-
1959: C-
1962: C

Cumulative points: 4

He had a dominant win at Bowman Gray in 1962 along with at least 11 Late Model Sportsman wins, 6 Grand American wins, and one proto-ARCA win.

Brett Bodine

1983: C-
1990: C-
1991: C-
1992: C-

Cumulative points: 4

He’s not quite as bad as I used to say he was because I overlooked his short track speed in the early ‘90s outside of his goofy win.

Larry Frank

1958: C-
1959: C
1962: C-

Cumulative points: 4

Frank was ruled the 1962 Southern 500 winner after the fact because they had failed to score one of his laps during the race, but that is his only win of significance; I did rate a couple Convertible seasons where he was consistent but winless.

David Reutimann

2008: C-
2009: C-
2010: C

Cumulative points: 4

In retrospect, he was a Rodney Childers creation.

Joe Lee Johnson

1959: C
1960: C-

Cumulative points: 3

Although he has been completely forgotten, Johnson won both the last NASCAR Convertible title and the first World 600.

Shorty Rollins

1958: C
1959: C-

Cumulative points: 3

Rollins was NASCAR’s first Rookie of the Year to earn a top ten points finish and the only driver to win a Convertible race at Daytona.

Greg Sacks

1982: C+

Cumulative points: 3

I actually think his 21-win Modified season is worth rating; too bad about the rest of his career.

Neil Cole

1951: C-
1952: C-

Cumulative points: 2

Cole won NASCAR’s forgotten Short Track championship in 1952, even though Lee Petty won seven races to his one.

Jimmy Florian

1950: C

Cumulative points: 2

Florian famously won a Cup Series race while shirtless and he also won four AAA Midget races and five Late Model Sportsman wins.

Bobby Hillin, Jr.

1986: C-
1988: C-

Cumulative points: 2

After his win at Talladega, the Stavola Brothers’ sponsor Miller promoted him and his teammate Bobby Allison who won the other Talladega race as the youngest and oldest winners in history, erroneously in Hillin’s case.

Harold Kite

1950: C

Cumulative points: 2

Kite won his debut race at the Daytona Beach/Road Course, which was the second-most prestigious race that year.

Paul Lewis

1966: C

Cumulative points: 2

Lewis delivered one of the most iconic underdog wins of the ‘60s winning from 27th at Maryville as a privateer owner-driver with reliability king Herman Beam as his crew chief, but that’s mostly all he did.

Sam McQuagg

1966: C

Cumulative points: 2

That season is good, so it’s kind of surprising how quickly he disappeared.

Casey Mears

2006: C

Cumulative points: 2

I would have rated this C- and not C if not for his 24 Hours of Daytona win where he actually led more laps than his teammates Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, although I’m sure he contributed far less than they did.

Lloyd Moore

1950: C

Cumulative points: 2

The fourth-place finishing teammate of 1950 champion Bill Rexford, Moore was basically just as good, especially when considering he also won four Modified races.

Jerry Nadeau

2000: C-
2001: C-

Cumulative points: 2

I acknowledge he was dreadfully unlucky and also that his 25-15 lead change record is one of the best of all time, but admittedly, he was driving for Hendrick and Jimmie Johnson made him look old real fast.

Phil Parsons

1988: C

Cumulative points: 2

It’s pretty impressive he earned a dominant win at Talladega for the dodgy Jackson Brothers team when Harry Gant never showed that kind of speed even after Andy Petree switched from being Parsons’s to Gant’s crew chief, but Gant was certainly better just about everywhere else.

Bill Rexford

1950: C

Cumulative points: 2

No, kids; not every champion belongs in the Hall of Fame and on the 75 Greatest Drivers list.

Earl Ross

1974: C

Cumulative points: 2

It was a kind of fluky win for the only Canadian winner, but I’ve always been puzzled how anyone could have a win as a rookie and basically never find a ride again.

Daniel Suárez

2019: C-
2022: C-

Cumulative points: 2

In retrospect, he was always pretty overrated when considering he was the worst driver every season he was ever on a multi-car team.

Tommy Thompson

1951: C

Cumulative points: 2

Thompson randomly won as an owner-driver against a 59-car field at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, but that was about all he did.

Marvin Burke

1951: C-

Cumulative points: 1

Being the only driver to win in his only start is a fun distinction, but the field was not great.

Jim Cook

1960: C-

Cumulative points: 1

Cook won five NASCAR West Series races (one of which counted as a Cup race), but unlike many of these drivers, he never won a West Series title.

Derrike Cope

1990: C-

Cumulative points: 1

This is definitely primarily for the Dover win, although he did run better in his Daytona 500 win than most of the other fluke winners.

Cole Custer

2019: C-

Cumulative points: 1

Given Stewart-Haas’s dominance in 2020, his four-wide pass for the win at Kentucky wasn’t enough for me nor was his Xfinity title, but his more dominant Xfinity season was.

Lou Figaro

1951: C-

Cumulative points: 1

Figaro won one West Coast race flag-to-flag in 1951 before the NASCAR West Series was even introduced.

John Kieper

1956: C-

Cumulative points: 1

It’s iffy, but I rated him because he was an owner-driver and Herb Thomas was in the race.

Michael McDowell

2023: C-

Cumulative points: 1

He definitely improved in later years, but he still only had an above average rating in my model once in 2021 and I didn’t want to award him simply for inheriting a Daytona 500 win.

Paul Menard

2012: C-

Cumulative points: 1

I didn’t really want to rate his Brickyard season, but he did beat Jeff Burton 25-9 in this one and had a very high rating in my model as a result.

Jim Roper

1949: C-

Cumulative points: 1

One point for the historic nature of winning the first race, but he finished three laps down and only inherited the win after Glenn Dunaway was disqualified.

John Rostek

1960: C-

Cumulative points: 1

His one Cup win was one of his only two NASCAR West Coast series wins, but I rated him because he was an owner-driver.

John Soares

1954: C-

Cumulative points: 1

His one Cup win was his only West Coast win also, but he did dominate it and it was almost 500 laps.

Art Watts

1957: C-

Cumulative points: 1

Although he only won once, he did win poles in all five of his Cup/West Series starts that year.

Danny Weinberg

1951: C-

Cumulative points: 1

Probably the only Jewish winner in NASCAR Cup Series history?

Earl Balmer

Cumulative points: 0

One of my subscribers once called him the worst winner in Cup history; given what teams he drove for and how little he did with them, I can see his point.

Trevor Bayne

Cumulative points: 0

I don’t think he sucked or anything, and I might’ve rated him for his Daytona 500 win if he’d made a pass for the lead rather than inheriting it after David Ragan was penalized.

Josh Berry

Cumulative points: 0

I might rate him this year, but I’m even on the fence about that.

Richard Brickhouse

Cumulative points: 0

You could argue he was brave to tackle conditions that the top drivers didn’t want to face; I would argue that field was terrible and that I don’t want to award scabs.

Harrison Burton

Cumulative points: 0

I’m glad he’s still a full-timer even if he never really belonged in Cup.

Royce Haggerty

Cumulative points: 0

I’ve seen his name spelled with both one and two G’s and I can’t figure out which is correct.

Justin Haley

Cumulative points: 0

How bad do you have to be to get Rodney Childers run off?

Bill Norton

Cumulative points: 0

Another generic West Coast winner, this one I left off because he only led 19 laps and wasn’t an owner-driver.

Dick Passwater

Cumulative points: 0

And you thought Dick Trickle’s name was obscene!

David Ragan

Cumulative points: 0

Maybe the 2013 Talladega race was good enough, but I honestly never felt he had a season good enough.

Donald Thomas

Cumulative points: 0

If I recall correctly, Donald’s brother Herb was originally given credit for his win; he might as well have been since Donald did nothing.

Jack White

Cumulative points: 0

A seven nation army couldn’t convince me a driver who won against that field deserves to be rated.