Thoughts on doing a who’s the best driver to have never won the Sprint Cup Title poll

Greg

Greg

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Thoughts on doing a who’s the best driver to have never won the Sprint Cup Title poll



It would work like last season’s off season “who’s the greatest cup driver ever” polls while we have the bye week. Slow news cycle, something to do etc……

It will be simpler (less polls) and completed in two weeks prior to the brickyard event

Please share your thoughts (and I realize newer members are not familier, more details coming soon) .



The beginning seed order would be:

Driver/Wins/Winning percentage

1. Junior Johnson 50 wins, 16%

2. Fred Lorenzen 26 wins, 16.5%

3. Mark Martin 40 wins, 4.8%

4. Fireball Roberts 33 wins, 16%

5. Ricky Rudd 23 wins 2.5%

6. Davey Allison 19 wins, 9.9 %

7. Buddy Baker 19 wins 2.7 %

8. Curtis Turner 17 wins, 9.3%

9. Neil Bonnett 18 wins, 5%

10. LeeRoy Yarborough 14 wins, 7.1%

11. Harry Gant 18 wins 3.8%

12. Tim Richmond 13 wins, 7%

13. Geoff Bodine 18 wins 3.1 %

14. Ernie Irvan 15 wins 4.8%

15. Donnie Allison 10 wins 4.1%

16. Sterling Marlin 10 wins 1.3%



There is a reason for the order, will explain later



 
One thing that strikes me is that several of the drivers listed never Attempted to Win a NASCAR Championship. In the 60's and even early 70's the Championship did'nt hold the prestige or Money that it does now and many of the drivers and teams only ran the races that paid well. Johnson, Lorenzen, Roberts, Turner, Leroy Yarbrough ( no relation to Cale Yarborough ) and Donnie Allison all fall into that catagory. For them racing had to make their living and pay for itself so they natuarly concentrated on the races paying larger purses. ( unlike Richard Petty who went out of his way to race every podunk race ran in the 60's )

Not a dig at the poll or anything just something to think about.
 
Johnson never ran for a championship? o_O

If you throw in a ton of what if, I'll say Davey Allison. IMO, Mark Martin lost a couple, and that isn't a sign of greatness. Waits for ****storm
 
FenderBumper said:
Johnson never ran for a championship? o_O

If you throw in a ton of what if, I'll say Davey Allison. IMO, Mark Martin lost a couple, and that isn't a sign of greatness. Waits for ****storm
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Go check for yourself, he ran A LOT less races than some others and still managed to finish well in the points. You have to remember the economics of the day. There where no Daddy Big Pockets sponsors these guys where doing it for the love of the sport and to provide for their families.
 
FlFlash said:
Go check for yourself, he ran A LOT less races than some others and still managed to finish well in the points. You have to remember the economics of the day. There where no Daddy Big Pockets sponsors these guys where doing it for the love of the sport and to provide for their families.
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Wow, he never even came to close to competing for a full season. 313 races and 50 wins is an amazing stat, especially when you factor in the DNFS!

313 races, 164 dnf's, the fast majority being mechanical failures. Junior Johnson finished 149 races in his career, and won 50 of those. Un-believable.
 
My first hero since I was a kid, wish I coulda watched him race on. Fireball Roberts.
 
Basics

1. Remember this suppose to be fun, and it is semi scientific at best, nothing to get worked up over in the big scheme were just a small group and we will not change the historical record.

2. Mark Martin and Geoff Bodine are still active but they are not pursuing the title and there in the latter stages of their cup careers so there included. If Martin wins a Cup race during these polls I will update his stats.

3. I will answer questions about the contest on the day of the question, but if I am at work the answer may be later in the day (I may need the PC for the answer, rather than my android).

4. I hope folks will enjoy and participate; everyone’s opinion is worth hearing. If you don’t know about a particular driver racingreference.com is your friend.

5. This is a great way imo to learn more about the history and to reconsider the accomplishments of many great drivers.

The Selections and Seeding system.

1. Most wins is the main criteria. The odd number seeds were strictly most wins, the even number seeds are based on win percentage (but some of it overlaps). Note Junior Johnson is seeded first with most wins; Fred Lorenzen is second with highest win percentage.

2. Some worthy drivers are omitted. Frankly they just didn’t have the recognition or their not as well known; I wanted to offer selections with familiarity. But all of the big hitters are included.

The Polls and how it works

The first round polls will only last one day each, hit them while their hot, must finish prior to the brickyard race.
The highest seed is paired against then lowest.

Round one will probably be the least fun.
 
In my mind, there is no question that Mark Martin is the best driver to never win the title. Mark is still driving albeit part time, but he raced against what most people regard the very best of competition and came up short. Probably should have won at least one title, but that would have taken away one of Iron Heads 7. Of course at the time, it wasn't a big deal, but today...well.
 
buckaroo said:
In my mind, there is no question that Mark Martin is the best driver to never win the title. Mark is still driving albeit part time, but he raced against what most people regard the very best of competition and came up short. Probably should have won at least one title, but that would have taken away one of Iron Heads 7. Of course at the time, it wasn't a big deal, but today...well.
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He did finish second what Four Five Times? I remember 1990, 2002 and 2009 there was another in the 90s I think?
 
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