Top 5 Defunct NASCAR Cup Series Teams

Top 5 Defunct NASCAR Cup Series teams

By Brian Cotnoir

NASCAR has been around for more than 70 years, and in those years they have seen many teams come and go in the sport.  Some teams have lasted more than 5 decades in the sport, while others have shut down after less than a season.  Today, I will be talking about the 5 Best NASCAR teams who no longer competing in the Cup Series.

5.)  Melling Racing

Melling Racing’s most successful seasons came with NASCAR Hall of Famer, Bill Elliott.  Elliott is responsible for all 34 of Melling’s wins in the NASCAR Cup Series as well as winning the teams only drivers’ championship in 1988.  After Elliott left the team in the early 1990’s, the team went into a downward spiral of sorts, and following the sudden and tragic death of the team’s owner and found, Harry Melling, the writing was on the wall.  Melling’s son, Mark, took over the team following his father’s death, but he would end up selling the team after the 2002 season.  

In all Melling was an integral part of NASCAR for two decades and is fondly remembered as being the first team to win the Winston Million, making Bill Elliott and that #9 car famous, and in the 1990’s the iconic Cartoon Network paint schemes.

4.)  DiGard Motorsports

DiGard was a great team that race in the 1970s and 1980s and they competed with the likes of Junior Johnson, Petty Enterprises, the Wood Brothers, and many others.   The team debuted in 1973 with driver Donnie Allison at the Richmond Fairgrounds, Allison finished 3^rd and was a sign of great things to come.  Wins and success came with drivers Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison, and in 1983, Bobby Allison won his only championship driving for DiGard Motorsports.  Greg Sacks scored one of the biggest upsets in racing history when he won for DiGard in a sponsor less R&D car for the team (keep in mind at this time, there were no-restrictor plate racing at Daytona).    The team suffered some struggles in the late 1980’s, losing driver Bobby Allison and engine builder Robert Yates, and the team was eventually sold off to Bob Whitcomb in 1988, and he would continue the DiGard winning ways, by winning the 1990 Daytona 500 with driver. Derrike Cope, but only two years later, Whitcomb would be forced to shut the team down.

3.)  Robert Yates Racing

Robert Yates left his job as an engine builder for the previously mentioned DiGard Motorsports to purchase the Rainier Racing team and start Robert Yates Racing.  Like at DiGard Motorsports, Robert Yates first driver was an Allison; Davey—son of Bobby—and showed promise early on.   In the team’s first race ever Davey Allison would finish 2^nd to his father Bobby at the 1988 Daytona 500.  While driving for Yates, Davey Allison won 15 races and nearly won the 1992 championship, before tragically losing his life in a helicopter accident in 1993.

Ernie Irvan would eventually be hired as Davey’s permanent replacement, and continue to win with Yates in the famous #28 Texaco Ford, before he suffered a near fatal accident at Michigan and would be out for more than a year.   Dale Jarrett, son of former NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett, was brought in to fill in for Irvan.  Upon Irvan’s return, Yates racing expanded to a two car operation.  Dale Jarret won two more Daytona 500’s while driving for Robert Yates and in 1999 he his and the team’s only drivers’ championship.  Ricky Rudd and Elliot Sadler would also win races driving for Yates, but after losing sponsorship and drivers to more competitive teams, Yates Racing was forced to shut down in 2009.

  

Robert Yates Racing finished with 58 career wins in NASCAR’s Cup Series, and the name Yates is still associated with the development of Ford Racing Engines in NASCAR.   Robert Yates would pass away in 2017 from complications due to liver cancer.

2.)  Bud Moore Engineering

Bud Moore Engineering was a NASCAR team based out of Spartanburg, South Carolina and was a part of NASCAR for 40 seasons.  In the 1960’s and 1980’s many of the Greatest drivers in NASCAR history drove for Bud Moore, such as Joe Weatherly, Cotton Owens, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Geoff Bodine, and many other legends of the sport.  Moore wasn’t just the team owner; he severed as crew chief on the team and chief mechanic.  As an owner Bud Moore’s iconic #15 won all the Crown Jewel events in NASCAR, and he and driver Joe Weatherly won back-to-back championships in 1962 & 1963 in only the teams second year of existence.

In the early 1990’s the team began to lose some of its prestige and inconsistent finishes paired with rising costs in the sport caused Bud Moore to shut down his team after the 2001 season.  In total, Bud Moore Engineering won 2 drivers championships and 63 races, and in 2011 Bud Moore was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

1.)  Junior Johnson & Associates

I’ll never understand how or why Junior Johnson just sold his NASCAR team.  The Hall of Fame driver & owner established his own team in 1965 and in 31 seasons of NASCAR saw a ridiculous amount of success.   Junior Johnsons teams won an amazing 132 races; that’s an average of 4 race wins a season.   Junior Johnson & Associates is still 6^th All-Time winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series History; they’re even ahead of Richard Childress Racing and Team Penske.  Not only that, but the team won a 6 drivers championships as well.

Junior Johnson’s team won more than twice as many races as Bud Moore Engineering, and won more championships than the other 4 teams on this list combined.  Now the one thing that really set’s Junior Johnson & Associates apart from the other teams was they didn’t just have a lot of success and then just fizzle out.  Junior Johnson’s team was still winning races the year before he sold the team (they won 3 actually), but in 1995 Johnson sold his team off.  He sold the #11 to one of his former drivers, Brett Bodine, and he sold his #27 team to David Blair, neither of these teams would ever win a race in NASCAR.