Top 5 Best NASCAR Grand National Drivers with 2 career wins

Top 5 BEST NASCAR Grand National Drivers with 2 Career wins

By Brian Cotnoir

I talked about the Cup Series, and now it’s time to talk about the Grand National Series, here are the 5 Best Grand National Series drivers with only 2 career wins.   Just a reminder, no active driver’s will appear on this list, as they still have potential to win more races.

5.)  Trevor Bayne

Trevor Bayne early on in his career had backing from Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and Michael Waltrip Racing, and so he was set to be one of NASCAR’s next rising stars, but after 2010, his career mostly faltered.  

He shocked the racing world when he won the 2011 Daytona 500 in a part-time ride with the Wood Brothers Bayne ended up missing a good chunk of the Xfinity Series after being diagnosed with an illness that later turned out to be Multiple Sclerosis.  Despite that Bayne would come back and win his first Xfinity race at Texas later that season.  The following season he would only run a partial schedule as Roush only had enough funding to fun one-full-time Xfinity Program and the team decided to back the 2011 Drivers Champion, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.; who would later go on to repeat as champion. 

Bayne would be back full-time in the Xfinity Series in 2013, taking the seat vacated by Stenhouse.  Although he ran consistently in the Top 10 and Top 5, he only managed to get one more win in the Xfinity Series at Iowa in 2013.   He never finished better than 6^th in the Points Standings.   What’s bad is the previous year his team had won back-to-back championships with Stenhouse and the Roush Xfinity Programs and Owners Titles with Carl Edwards.   After Bayne moved to the Cup Series, the Xfinity team won another title with driver Chris Buescher.  The fact that Bayne could not win a title, or more than 2 races with Roush Fenway, really speaks volumes of how much his driving performance was lacking.  He was just too nice and wasn’t cut out for NASCAR competition.

4.)  Mike Bliss

Mike Bliss was a very likeable driver, and moderately successful in NASCAR.  Although, not as successful as his time in the Truck Series, Bliss did have a few successful runs in the Xfinity Series.   His two career wins both came at Charlotte in 2004 & 2009.    He ran well throughout his career, for multiple teams in fact as recently as 2012 he finished 8^th in the final drivers’ standings while driving for the underfunded Tri-Star Motorsports.  Bliss finished his Xfinity Career with 76 career Top 10 finishes.

3.)  Ronnie Silver

I never heard of driver Ronnie Silver before writing this article, but from my research (aka Wikipedia)  I see that every one of his NASCAR starts came in the—then—Busch Series, and the majority of his starts were for his own team, where he served as an Owner-Driver.  Both of Silver’s win’s came at the historic Hickory Speedway in North Carolina between the years 1985-86.  He consistently ran in the Top 10, but never ran a full-season; a pretty good career in my opinion.

2.)  Phil Parsons

Phil Parson’s is another journeyman of the sport.  He is the younger brother of NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Benny Parsons, and ran in the first season of Busch Series competition.  Parson’s won the 3^rd ever Busch Series race ever at Bristol Motor Speedway and finished 5^th in the final drivers’ standings.   He’d have to wait 12 more years to get that 2^nd win in the series.   Over that time he focused more on a full-time Cup Series ride (where he scored his only Cup win at Talladega) and ran part-time in the Busch Series as well.  That 2^nd win came as an owner-driver when he won at Charlotte.   He’d eventually return to full-time ride in the Busch Series as an owner driver, and came close a few more times, but never did win another race, but all things considered, he had a better series in NASCAR’s Grand National series then most drivers could ever hope for, and is a great NASCAR commentator if I do say so myself.

1.)  Jason Leffler

Yay, I get to talk about Jason Leffler again!  Leffler came into NASCAR during that time when many open wheel & dirt track drivers where making the switch to NASCAR.  Leffler along with other great drivers like Tony Stewart, Mike Bliss, JJ Yeley, and Kasey Kahne were all making the transition to NASCAR, and next to Stewart, Leffler drew the most attention.  He eventually would go on to drive for owners like Chip Ganassi, Joe Gibbs, and Gene Haas.  

While no success really came at the Cup Level he ran decently in the Busch/Nationwide Series.  He picked up his first win driving for Gene Haas at Nashville.  Where he had his most success was driving Braun Racing in that iconic #38 Great Clips Toyota.  In 2007 Leffler would get his 2^nd and final career win in the Nationwide Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park (also scoring Toyota’s 1^st win as a manufacturer in the series).

Unfortunately, Leffler would lose his life in 2013 during a 410 Sprint Car Race in New Jersey; he was only 37-years-old.  He finished his career in the Series with 2 wins, 107 Top-10’s, 8 poles, and a career best finish of 3^rd in the final driver’s standings in 2007.