Double-digit wins is pretty incredible at NASCAR’s top level.
Of the over 3,000 drivers who have taken a green flag in the NASCAR Cup Series, only 63 have recorded 10 or more wins. Very few have had the consistency it takes over time to score 10 or more wins at any track.
Ten or more wins in a single season? Considering the number of drivers who don’t have that many in their entire careers, it’s a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
Surprisingly, at least in 2023 context, in NASCAR’s early days, double-digit wins in a year was a fairly common experience. In 1969, not one, but three drivers recorded at least 10 in the W column.
Pre-Modern Era
Prior to 1972, the start of NASCAR’s Modern Era, the feat was accomplished 20 times.
Like just about anything in the sport, comparisons over time aren’t necessarily accurate. Most of the time in the early days, drivers had more races on the schedule to try to win, though most didn’t run every single race. The schedule ballooned to 56 races in 1956, for example, 20 more than on today’s Cup slate, and the number changed from year to year.
Herb Thomas had just one more race than today’s stars do in the two years he claimed a dozen victories; Ned Jarrett’s 15 wins in 59 starts in 1964 make for a lower win percentage than Thomas’ two 12-win seasons because of the sheer number of events. Some events featured more local drivers, and many drivers running for a title didn’t race every week, so a well-chosen schedule could set up a few more wins. Granted, the locals were far from pushovers. It wasn’t easier to win, but the approach to the seasons was entirely different than in the Modern Era — there are several double-digit winners who did not win titles.
While they had more races in this era, drivers had to race on widely varied tracks: dirt and asphalt ovals with configurations from a quarter-mile to Talladega Superspeedway (one, Langhorne Speedway, was a circle, with what amounted to one continuous turn), plus road courses. The quality of the surfaces varied even more than it does today.
Richard Petty set the all-time single-season win mark at 27 in 48 races, an eye-popping total no matter how you slice it, winning over half of the races he entered.
The following year, Petty won another 10, combining with David Pearson (11 wins) and Bobby Isaac (17 wins) to take 41 of the 54 races run. The number of opportunities combined with the wide variety of…
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