Top 5 NASCAR Cup Series drivers with only 1 career win


The Top 5 NASCAR Cup Series drivers with only 1 Career Win
By Brian Cotnoir

My first article on this blog was where I stated who I thought was the best NASCAR driver without a win (there’s a link at the bottom of the page), and recently I started thinking…what about the drivers who only had 1-2 career wins, how would they rank against each other, so this is going to be a part of a new series here where I rank the best NASCAR drivers who only have 1 win in the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Gander Outdoor Series based on win totals. If you’re wondering how I determined the ranking, I looked at average finish, and points average points finish, but the biggest determining factor, was career Top 10 finishes. 

To be included on these lists you have to be a retired from Full-Time Cup Series racing, so no active drivers with just one win will appear on this list as they have the potential to score more wins.  Let’s not waste any more time here are the best career Cup Series drivers with only 1 career win.

5.)  Johnny Benson

The 1995 Busch (Xfinity) Series and later the 2008 Craftsman (Gander Outdoor) Truck Series Champion, Johnny Benson seemed destined for great things in the Cup Series.   After a decent start to his career with Bahari Racing, Benson would jump ship to drive the Cheerios Ford Taurus at Roush Racing.  Unluckily for Benson this was at a time when Roush was entering 5 Full-Time Cup cars a race, and there was no way he could compete for wins when he had NASCAR greats like Mark Martin and Jeff Burton for teammates.  For the longest time it appeared Benson’s only Cup Highlight would be almost winning the 2000 Daytona 500, but after coming close to that first win a few more times, Benson would finally score his only career cup series win at Rockingham in 2002, beating his old teammate Mark Martin.


4.)  Brett Bodine

Albeit a highly controversial win, Brett Bodine won his only career Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro in 1990.  I won’t go into the details about it as it’s a well-known & infamous race amongst NASCAR fans, but I will say I’m glad Brett Bodine got this win.  He would never have the same success as his brothers Geoff and Todd, and this win while driving the #26 Quaker State Buick sticks out as one of the craziest races in NASCAR History.




3.)  Paul Menard

If you’re going to get your 1st win in NASCAR Cup Series, you can’t pick a better track then the Historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  For most of his career, Wisconsin’s Paul Menard was viewed as a “pay driver”, someone who didn’t really pay his dues in the sport and was only in the Cup Series because of his family’s sponsorship dollars.  Menard did get better with each season he ran in NASCAR, and was quite popular with fans when he retired from Full-Time racing at the end of the 2019 season.  Menard’s only Cup Series victory came at the 2011 Brickyard 400; Menard had grown up around the track with his father John Menard being a long time IndyCar owner & sponsor.  John Menard never won the Indy 500, but when Paul won at Indy; Father & Son shared a great moment together and kissed the bricks together.




2.)  Lake Speed

I’m always a huge fan of Owner-Driver wins.  Mississippi’s Lake Speed won the 1978 World Karting Championship (the biggest go-kart race in the world) before jumping ship to NASCAR.   For good portion of his career he drove for his own team, and he won his only career race at Darlington in 1988, where he gave an emotional speech in victory lane.




1.)  Wendell Scott

If you don’t know the story of Wendell Scott, I highly recommend you go ahead and learn as much as you can about him.  He was the first Black driver in NASCAR and the only Black driver to win a race in NASCAR.  Scott overcame financial hardships as an Owner-driver and horrendous racial prejudice to become a force to be reckoned with on the track.  Scott’s only win happened in 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida.  Despite having a 2-lap lead over the rest of the field, Scott was originally credited as finishing 2nd; it is said that this won done to avoid angering the white Southern spectators that might express outrage of a black driver beating all the white drivers.   Scott was eventually declared winner, but never received his trophy.  He retired after a career ending wreck at Talladega. 


In his 13-year career, Scott had finished in the Top 10 an astounding 147 times!   By Comparison Lake Speed only had 75 career Top 10’s in his career; almost half as many!  Let’s not forget that Scott was an Owner-Driver!  His team was mostly made up of him and his two sons!   Wendell Scott was—posthumously—inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, and deservingly so.   He is without any doubt the greatest NASCAR driver to ever win a single race.



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