5 Best NASCAR Grand National drivers with only 1 career win

The 5 Best Grand National Series drivers with only 1 Career Win
By Brian Cotnoir

Doesn’t matter what you call it, the Sportsman Division, the Grand National Series, the Busch Series, the Nationwide Series, or the Xfinity Series; NASCAR’s second-tier series has helped the develop the careers of some of NASCAR’s best drivers such as Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, and many other outstanding drivers.  Some drivers though in the series only had one career win.

Like with the last time, my biggest determining factor for my ranking was career Top 10’s in the Series, so don’t be surprised that I didn’t include Jimmie Johnson, who despite only have 1 career win in the Xfinity Series, also only ever had 24 career Top-10 finishes.   I’m just focusing on each driver’s performance in the Busch/Nationwide/ Xfinity Series, and Cup Series success did not play a factor in any of these rankings

5.)  Larry Pollard

Our good neighbors to the North in Canada haven’t produced many popular or well-known NASCAR drivers.   Canadian Larry Pollard became the first non-American to win a race in the—then—Busch Series when he won at Langley Speedway in 1987, but unfortunately there’s not much else I could find out about Pollard.  Most if the info I found on him came from Wikipedia and besides that one win, I found out he had 38 career Top10 finishes.  In 1988 he suffered a basilar skull fracture (the same injury that killed Dale Earnhardt Sr, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr., and Tony Roper) from an accident at Dover Speedway.  He miraculously survived and returned to the Busch Series for the following season.


4.)  Bobby Dotter

If you’ve seen a #08 car in the Xfinity or Truck Series there’s a good chance it’s associated with Owner-Driver Bobby Dotter.  This driver from Illinois is known most famously for jumping out of a moving—albeit on fire—race car at Daytona International Speedway.  Three years later Dotter would score his only Busch Series win at the Dublin Speedway; like Langley Speedway, it is a short track in Virginia.   Bobby Dotter is still in NASCAR to this day as he is a co-owner of the SS-Green Light team.


3.)  Brad Teague

Brad Teague—for lack of better term—has been a grid-filler in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the better part of two decades.  I knew nothing of him other than the fact that he ran Start & Park in the Xfinity Series before doing this research.  In the late 1980’s he was running consistently in the Top 10 for Henderson Motorsports—who have been involved in NASCAR in some shape or form since 1982—and helped the team get their first Xfinity win when his only race at Martinsville.  Around the 1990’s he began running part-time or driving Start & Park for Jimmy Means Racing, Henderson Motorsports., JD Motorsports, and MBM Motorsports.  His last Top 10 Finish in NASCAR came in 1995, and he finished his Cup Series Career with 43 career Top 10 finishes.


2.)  Tracy Leslie

Tracy Leslie was the 1988 ARCA Series Champion.  He raced in the Busch Series for most of the 1990’s and had some moderate success.  He finished in the Top 10 an impressive 45 times.  He won is only race at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1993.  Still he wasn’t really competing for wins most weekends and was never a threat in to take the Points Championship.   He was out of NASCAR by 1998 and returned to run part-time in ARCA, other than that I couldn’t find out much about Tracy Leslie.


1.)  David Reutimann

 Both Waltrip Brothers really believed in David Reutimann and for a while he seemed like he was going to blossom into a Cup Series Superstar someday.   In 2007 season, Reutimann actually finished 2nd in the Final Xfinity—then Nationwide—Series.  That is impressive considering this was during a time when the lower-tier series point’s championships were being dominated and won by Full-time Cup Regulars.   Reutimann’s only win in the series came at Memphis in 2007, while driving for Michael Waltrip Racing, but he should have won so many more races.  I wouldn’t go as far as to call Reutimann a “Bust”, because he did pretty decent driving for MWR, but I would say his career could be defined as unreached potential. 

5 Best NASCAR Cup Series driver with only 1 career win

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