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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Top 10 Most Iconic Paint Schemes in NASCAR Cup History

Image
The Top 10 Most Iconic Paint Schemes in NASCAR Cup History An Article by Brian Cotnoir I’ve talked about the Best Paint Schemes in Cup History, I’ve talked about the Best Paint Schemes in Xfinity History, and now today I’d like to present you the 10 Most Iconic Paint Schemes in NASCAR Cup History. 10.) Citgo, Wood Brothers Racing The Wood Brothers are one of the oldest teams in NASCAR, and in the late 80’s early 90’s they left quite the impression on NASCAR fans with the Citgo Paint Scheme which was piloted by drivers Dale Jarret, Morgan Shepherd, and Michael Waltrip.   Citgo eventually left the wood brothers and sponsored Jeff Burton at Roush Racing, but it was a truly iconic sponsor with that famous number twenty-one 9.)    Skoal Bandit, Harry Gant Harry Gant earned the nickname “Mr. September” when he won 4 straight Winston Cup Races (and two Busch Series) races in September of 1991, and he did it all behind the wheel of the Iconic Skoal Bandit race car.
Read more

Top 10 Ugliest Paint Schemes in NASCAR History

Image
Top 10 Ugliest Paint Schemes in NASCAR History By: Brian Cotnoir I’ve talked about the Best Paint Schemes in NASCAR, and now I’m here to talk about the Ugliest.   Sometimes a paint scheme looks bad because of whose sponsoring the car, and other times it’s a real bad color combination, but whatever the reason these are some of the most hideous Paint Schemes to have ever graced a NASCAR track. 10.)   Dave Marcis, Prodigy paint scheme This one is so ugly, that it’s kind of cool.   For me the big issue is the combination of Purple & Green, and the Neon Orange numbers make it a little better, but this car is still looks like a disaster. 9.)     Joey Logano, AAA Insurance paint scheme Joey Logano has had a number of awesome paint schemes while driving for Roger Penske, however this red, white, and blue monstrosity is not one of them.    I think Logano and Penske should call AAA Insurance and see if they can use their policy to give this paint scheme a complete
Read more

Top 10 NASCAR drivers who never won a Cup Series Championship

Image
Top 10 NASCAR drivers who never won a Cup Series championship By: Brian Cotnoir           NASCAR has been around for over 70 Years now and over those seven decades we’ve had many fantastic drivers.    Petty, Earnhardt, Waltrip, Yarborough, Gordon, and Johnson are all great drivers and all have won multiple championships in their illustrious careers,   Just between Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon they have won more than 1/3 of all NASCAR Cup Series Championships, but there are dozens of NASCAR drivers who came close to scoring that illusive title, but just couldn’t pull it off.   These are the Top 10 NASCAR drivers who never won a Cup Series Championship. 10.)   Ernie Irvan Ernie “Swirvin” Irvan was my first favorite driver in NASCAR.   He was one of the best drivers of the early 1990’s driving for top tier teams like Morgan-McClure and Robert Yates Racing.    Irvan even won the 1991 Daytona 500, but as the decade went on his career suff
Read more