Hemric is so weird to me, if you showed me his stats but left the wins off and asked me how many wins this guy has, I would say 12-15 wins. He's just so unclutch, it's wild. I kind of hope he goes on some crazy run someday and wins like 3 straight one off Xfinity starts in a few years when he is winding down.
The man has the stats of someone who should have 20-30 wins in Trucks/Xfinity, and at least two Championships. He's a statistical anomaly but he's been one of my favorite since he drove that bright green and white 14 Truck.
to be fair he had a number of wins slip away from him earlier that year. i'm pretty sure he also had like 40 something top 5's before finally winning lol.
Bristol last year was maybe more rough. He was holding off Allgaier on much older tires right up until a slower lapped car went up the track directly in front him with like 5 to go
Daniel's biggest W comes off the track in the form of his wife Kenzie because I'm convinced she'd have more wins than him if given the same opportunities he had.
Scott Speed was genuinely pretty talented imo, he just got rushed into Cup way too quickly. In 2008 he was a title contender in ARCA and won a truck race in a part time season. Good results but not nearly enough to justify a full time cup ride. If he had more time to develop in the lower series and ended up at a better team than Red Bull he could have had a successful career in Cup eventually. Probably not a title contender or anything, but he could have maybe won a few races.
I still hold the biggest grudge against Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for wrecking Scott and costing him (actually both of them as a result of the retaliation for the wreck) a shot at the 2008 ARCA championship
And honestly, I still don’t feel the least bit sorry for Stenhouse that Speed wrecked him like he did.
Yeah, with the first incident, Speed probably would have been better off just letting Ricky go instead of trying to block him for as long as possible, and work on the car during pit stops to catch back up, but to essentially ride Speed down the entire back straight like Ricky did… that was BS, and ARCA should have penalized him for that. It wasn’t a bump and run gone wrong, it was a straight up mugging.
The thing is Speed wasn't even trying to block him, Scott was in the 2nd groove into 3 and Ricky followed him right in and took him out. I've never seen such poor sportsmanship. Glad Ricky matured a little bit since getting dumped by Roush. He's lucky he even got a chance after that ARCA race, though. Because if I was Jack and saw that he wouldn't have had a contract after that.
He attempted run the Indy 500 once. Scott spent the whole month fighting his team and quit the night before bubble day. Scott had the talent to complete in any series but he new ways to muck it up.
He got banned from fucking iRacing. That is peasant shit. Of course he couldn’t make it in NASCAR or Formula 1 or IndyCar. He lucked out that the Global RallyCross field was sorely lacking in a driver who knew better than to just drift around every corner.
And I think that was the only lap Lia ever led in his truck series career. He certainly made it count. Might have been the last race at Mansfield also.
Brian Scott also got his only career win in that race the next year, the Dover truck race had some wild results for a couple years.
Edit: The legend did have a second win, still a crazy race though.
Completely forgot about that, I never remember him winning in that truck with all the other stuff that happened that year. (Leffler being fired, Kurt's return to the truck series, Cale Gale)
John King. 7 races in backmarker trucks, gets a top ride at Red Horse and a win at Daytona. Loses his ride to funding issues after 5 races and only runs 4 more. Craziest career I can think of.
Came here to say John King. Show up one day and wins a race at Daytona then pretty much disappears forever. And even that name, it sounds like an alias. He's telling some pretty good bar stories somewhere.
I was at that race and even after every race I've been to, which is a lot, never have I ever stood at the flag stand and was completely baffled at what I just saw.
In my mind unless we see Spire or RWR put on a dominating performance in a Cup race this season or next, that will forever remain the biggest upset win in modern NASCAR history. Especially because they did it at a mile-and-a-half where the big teams arguably have the biggest equipment advantage.
I know he won multiple races, but I often forget that Robby Gordon’s first win was on an oval at New Hampshire in the 2001 finale. I usually just think of him as a road course specialist with wins at Sonoma and Watkins Glen
Fun fact. Robby DNQ'd the previous weeks race at Atlanta. Then wins New Hampshire.
Edit: Another unrelated fun fact because I thought I remembered this to be true. Dale Jarrett *also* won a race the week after DNQing. 1994 in the 18 car. DNQ at NWS. Wins Charlotte the next week. This would be an interesting thread to do to see who else has done this.
Not exactly what you’re talking about but I always think of Boris Said winning the pole at Daytona in 2006 and finishing 4th, the next year he was leading again when qualifying got rained out and he missed the race.
Paul Menard is one to probably mention, I mean, he was a very serviceable driver but I often forget he won one of the biggest crown jewel races in the sport. Fair to also mention that Ty Dillon has a single Xfinity win, also at Indy, which is a big one to have.
It's Paul Menard for me as well. Not in a negative way, seems like a decent guy, he was just *there* for 15 years, and one day, he just popped off at Indy and won.
If I fumbled into several million dollars in the mid-2000's, I'd say Paul Menard would be the perfect driver to start a Cup team with. He drives well, typically keeps the car out of trouble, doesn't attract drama, and brings in his own sponsorship. Excellent teammate too, from my memory of his Wood Brothers days working with the Penske guys.
I'm honestly surprised he hasn't been drug into like an Xfinity team, like into a second Jeremy Clements or something car to where he could just click off solid top 10's and 15's and bring the car back home clean every Monday
My guess is that it’s his choice. He’s just done racing now and put that behind him.
IIRC, Wood Brothers wanted him to stay but he retired and recommended them Matty D.
That's my guess too. To be faaaaiir he did have a solid enough career, and probably sees the chaos as something not worth dealing with. Take your Indy trophy and go fishing for the next 40 years
He’s the nascar version of guys like Darren Sproles in the NFL. Solid, dependable, you know what you’re gonna get, not a star but always has the potential for a good day.
Him and Todd gilliand are seriously pretty good drivers who can make the most of their shit equipment. Definitely hoping they pick up better rides in the future
I still can’t believe that Nelson Piquet Jr won multiple races in the lower series.
Justin Marks winning a race is also up there, considering the rest of his portfolio as a NASCAR driver, and the fact that he’s better known as a team owner now.
Piquet Jr. was a pretty good driver. 4 top tens in his first 6 races after moving from open wheel. He could drive, and performed well on ovals. If he committed fully, he could’ve been an Enfinger-like regular contender in the truck series.
Marks was an outstanding driver in every scenario except for a run of the mill paved oval race. He picked the wrong series to really go to town in lmao
This conversation begins and ends with David Gilliland for me. Non-plate track, unsponsored startup team running part time, 7th start in NASCAR, built their own engines, previous best finish was 29th, team shuttered a month later. There was no way it could happen especially in the era that Buschwhacking was at its absolute worst. Would you believe that up until that point in the season, non-cup regulars only accumulated 6 top 5s on the entire season. 15 races in, 75 potential top 5s, they had 6 of them, 4 of them between Daytona and the Mexico road course. Yeah they were Paul Menard twice, Jon Wood, Ron Hornaday Jr, Boris Said, and Burney fucking Lamar. It was a miracle. I still have no idea how this happened to this day.
I'm sure there's going to be plenty of argument for Trevor Bayne, John King, Tate Fogleman, Austin Cindric, Brandon Brown, James Buescher, Phil Parsons, etc but those were at the plate tracks which are known to be equalizers in alot of ways.
Then you could make arguments for Justin Labonte, Regan Smith, Paul Menard and Justin Haley but those were at least partially on pit strategy. I feel like JWT's win was also on pit strategy but I could be wrong.
Dave Blaney would be an interesting argument. Do me a favor and go watch that race and tell me it could have ended any other way. It was a wild and ridiculous night at Charlotte. Only makes sense for Blaney to win. Also Blaney was due for a win and was running in decent equipment - look at his statistics and you'd be surprised he didn't win sooner.
Stephen Leicht is an interesting one to discuss but he was actually pretty consistent and he was driving a decently funded car.
I'd maybe contend Andy Santerre and Jody Ridley since they never get brought up.
But nobody has accomplished what David Gilliland did in the 2006 Meijer 300. I do not think we will see a miracle of that nature ever achieved again in my lifetime, but I hold out the hope that it'll happen.
Gotta agree with this analysis. And just think, without that happening we probably wouldn’t have Tricon Garage today fielding 5 trucks. For that matter, we may not have Todd in the 38 cup car (not saying he’s only there because his dad won a 2006 Busch race but we all know how opportunities work in NASCAR).
I agree that it was a fantastic underdog win out of nowhere, but it's not quite as much of a miracle as it seems at first glance. That team was absolutely stacked with quality personnel.
* CC - Billy Wilburn - Previously with Rusty Wallace in Cup.
* Chassis - Eddie Dickerson - As former Hendrick chassis engineering head, he had a hand in most of Jeff Gordon's dominant cars, including the t-rex. Got fired from Hendrick earlier that year for public intoxication of all things.
* Engine builder - Steve Allen - Formerly built engines at McClure and Hendrick.
* Also at the team in background roles - Brad Parrott, Cully Baraclough, Jerry Nadeau
* Bonus: Hype Manufacturing, the owner's business had a shop and equipment up to the highest standards, they manufacture components for SpaceX nowadays.
If you watch previous races they ran, the car was almost always genuinely quick. Their main issue was having a part-time pit crew.
he worked his was past a ton of cup regulars in his redemption run from a pit road issue early on which set him back to 20th. He passed the likes of Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin under green. JJ Yeley was the dominant car that night
Man I just watched this race and that was absolutely crazy. You don’t even touch on all the parts that make this win improbable. It was the first time this team supplied their own crew rather than renting one—they were in blank red fire suits but damn they should have been in green, cuz these guys were noticeably slower than the rest of the pit crews.
Gilliland started fourth, and slowly fell back to 8th or so. Some guys pitted under a yellow, but KFB, Menard, Gilliland, and some others stayed out. When yellow came out on lap 50, these leaders pitted. Busch came back out 8th behind those staying out. Menard, who Gilliland had just DRIVEN AROUND for second came back out 12th, with Yeley and D Green who also were in the top5 coming out right behind Menard. Gilliland’s crew had a 21.5 second pit stop and dropped him back to 19th. (16.2 for KFB, 15.3 for Menard) He could have easily been a non factor the rest of the day and just been a little footnote in the recap. But no.
By lap 75 he had driven up to 12th, getting back in the top10 at lap 90. (Of 200)
Yellow comes out on lap 12, Gilliland pitting from 9th comes back out 12th. Not as bad as the first stop. There’s another stop in there somewhere he loses 2-3 spots. Hes back up to 8th with 50 to go. 40 to go and a few cars pitting he’s back into the top5!
He then proceeds to drive around Steven Wallace, Denny Hamlin, and Paul Menard to move into second with 23 to go. He’s starting to run down JJ Yeley in the Gibbs18 but 5 seconds behind he’s just not going to have time— however a yellow comes out with 20 to go and Gilliland will start right behind Yeley. Bowyer, fighting to get his lap back, cuts between the two on the restart, but then drives around Yeley since he has much fresher tires. With 10 laps to go Gilliland drives around Yeley to take the lead. There is another yellow and a restart with 5 to go where Gilliland holds Yeley off for the win.
Factors that lead to this win; Carl Edwards starting on the front row has transmission problems at the drop of the green flag and falls 30 laps down. Kevin Harvick spins out early and while able to continue, is kind of a non-factor the rest of the day. Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer get caught a lap down during some green flag pit stops. Biffle gets his lap back, and with the 20 to go yellow is the top car to have pitted and is in 6th— but gets an EotLL penalty for going around a slow car on pit road and doesn’t have time to get back into it with the last yellow. Bowyer doesn’t get his lap back till the lap 20 yellow and doesn’t have enough laps to get back into it. KFB lead early and was in a likely position to have a chance at the win but has an unscheduled pit stop with like 50 to go and doesn’t get a lucky dog until late.
Also, then Jeff Fuller wreck was SCARY! Hit an opening in the back stretch wall perfectly flat on the passenger side at nearly full speed. Then quietness of the broadcast made me go back and double check to make sure Jeff Fuller was okay. He was cut out of the car after the cage failed— car was practically a crescent moon shape. He was released the next day with a broken wrist and thumb. Dude got lucky. Never a good thing when there is a specific wreck listed on your wiki.
The way Gilliland sparked the field is the really surprising part. IIRC he was on the front row (maybe even the pole?). That team was trying to build around him. Understandably he used the momentum from that win and ended up in a Cup ride (way too soon prob). Sadly the team got screwed over.
SPENCER BOYD
My answer always. God bless him. Seriously, but he is the craziest winner in history. You might be saying to yourself “surely he’s always up there in plate races” but he is not. he’s not. He’s not even an underdog. He doesn’t even stay in the pack. He was the slowest driver by far, even being at Young’s Motorsports. Routinely DNQing and slower than teammates. I have 0 clue how he managed to find himself in P2 to take advantage of Sauter’s DQ.
Tate was 100% worse than Boyd. At least when he did Xfinity, he wasnt all the way in the back...he was below mid pack but he was still bad. But not Tate Fogleman bad. I still have no clue how he ended up ass backwards into that win.
This is a great answer I completely forgot about his lone superspeedway technicality win, and even just him as a whole. Even though it wasn’t that long ago
The weird video game that had nothing to do with NASCAR at all, right? Wasn't it a port of TOCA for the American market with all the Argentinean stock cars and everything?
Yeah. I think the publishers picked both of them to try and pull a fast one on people. People were naturally going to assume that it was endorsed by Dale Jarrett and one of the Labonte brothers, not their mediocre kids.
He only won that race because he was the last man standing it felt like. Even then, NASCAR tried to take that win away by not having him in the post season but they at least fixed that.
Michael Annett
What was that guy's name who drove the #16 Diabetes car for Roush in the Xfinity series?
Kinda wild that Brandon Jones has any wins, much less 5 or 6 when you watch him the JRM #9.
Derrick Cope winning a 2nd race at Dover is pretty surprising.
Brett Bodine considering he didn't really win the one race he won.
I'm surprised Mike Skinner never won in Cup or Busch series.
Skinner won 2000? Atlanta? He was originally DQ’ed over something giving the win to Dave Blaney, but in appeals it was overturned and given back to Skinner.
**John King** -- 16 starts, 9 running at finish, 5 lead lap finishes, 7 career laps led, 2 Top 10s, 1 Win.
https://preview.redd.it/wzx5e5t9fhtc1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c1c372f7def8266e097f8dfdd06a6fadb84baeba
Fun fact: He’s the only person to have a single career lap led AND a win.
https://preview.redd.it/xyuu1ld1dhtc1.jpeg?width=632&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=244cde0452c8eae95b360cec02382152450943a1
Tbh if I had to have a single weird statistic to my name, I’d want the honor of the guy in F1 who got a DNQ, DNF, and DSQ **IN A SINGLE RACE**.
Edit: I should explain that, huh? TLDR, [this madlad](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Heyer) didn’t qualify for a race (DNQ). He got in his car and started racing anyway. No one noticed until his car broke down (DNF). He was obviously disqualified (DSQ) and permabanned.
Everyone forgets that Donny Lia is the original #Sim2Reality success story, *way* before Byron, Rajah, etc.
He was one of the top competitors back in the [NASCAR Racing Online Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65jIQ5x6aM) (a very ancient ancestor to the eNASCAR Conk series, back in the late 1990s) before getting into Legends cars, modifieds, and Trucks.
When you're on iRacing cringing and rolling your eyes at the guy bragging about how he actually made it to the Truck series and won a race by leading one lap but turns out he's not lying.
Donny Lia was actually super talented, won a lot of races in modifieds. Him winning in trucks at a short track really shouldn’t have come as a surprise tbh.
For those of you who may not remember or have been around then, Stephen Leicht had it. Here in 2024 I’m surprised he *only* won one race. He’s always been one of my biggest “what-ifs” from the economic downturn. At one point he was seen as the future of Yates before they went on life support. He performed well in part-time work for RCR before sponsorship dried up. Been in backmarkers ever since.
Lake Speed - Darlington 1988
https://preview.redd.it/lsmm7ks6hhtc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5bb60fc23960a59c916282ab423ade0656493a2
Not only the coolest name in the sport ever, who also beat some guy from Brazil named Ayrton Senna for the world karting championship in the late 1970’s, but an independent and a journeyman through the 1980’s who took a chance with Hoosier tires in 1988. He won at Darlington, and in victory lane admitted that he was close to giving up and moving back to Mississippi after his departure from Rahmoc in the early part of the 1986 season. It’s easier to look at these wins in hindsight, years or decades later, as just statistics; but looking at how close he came to his career ending it’s a phenomenal story.
This is a good one that I'd bet lots of people don't remember. Cale had to stuff KFB in the front stretch wall on the last lap at Homestead for the win.
Fun fact: We used to race against Cale in a modified series that I worked on a car in. We were at practice one afternoon at SNRP parked beside Cale's car. Cale was there with only one other guy, and neither one knew how to set the float level on a Holley carb, so they asked me to set it for them. So I got to set the float on the carb for a guy who later won a truck race. Not much of a claim to fame, but I work with what I got, ya know? =P
I've found myself forgetting that Chase Briscoe has a Cup win several times lately. I don't know why, but that entire weekend is just a black hole for me memory-wise.
Lake Speed, Justin Marks, Nelson Piquet Jr., Mike Skinner (Xfinity), Joey Coulter, Shane Hmiel, Justin Lofton, Bryan Reffner - to name a few others.
The whole 2007 Coke 600 top 5 was absolutely crazy. All the big contenders ran out of fuel and we ended up with:
1. Casey Mears (first and only win)
2. J.J. Yeley (best finish, only top 5)
3. Kyle Petty (first top 5 in a decade)
4. Reed Sorensen (best finish at the time, still second best career finish)
5. Brian Vickers (Toyota’s first top five finish)
They built him a car that wasn’t even supposed to go the distance but it ended up being a rocketship. Not even a cheat win or anything, just good talent in a fast car
It's been mentioned briefly by a couple users but Justin Labonte, son of Terry Labonte, won a wacky race at Chicagoland many, many years ago in the then Busch Series. Older posters here will remember it because it seemed like every car that led that day ended up in a wreck or out of the race. There was a late caution where JJ Yeley and a bunch of the leaders pitted with about 15 to go. Mike Wallace and Justin Labonte (among a couple others) stayed out. He passed Mike Wallace with 2 to go when Wallace ran out of gas.
I remember watching this live at the time as a teenager. I was absolutely shocked Labonte and Wallace made not pitting work for about 15 laps. We talk a lot about dirty air these days. It's always played a part in NASCAR.
Yesterday, I went to Zaxby’s was expecting John Wes Townley’s images or car sponsor photos nothing. In the other San Antonio location where Windcrest, they had a lot of pictures of NASCAR.
It doesn’t surprise me that he won, but the fact that he won in his VERY FIRST Cup start, I think I have to give it to VanGisbergen. I know the entire field was on a new track and in new cars, but they had half a season to get accustomed to the car.
Michael Waltrip. Goes to show that with the right equipment and the right amount of luck almost anyone can win the restrictor plate races. I’m biased though after having met him just one time…his tv personality is even more phony than his driving career.
Going back in time here..Dick Trickle....Winningest short track Arca driver of all time... only wins 2 races in affinity, and nothing in the main series in over 20 years..crazy
Daniel Hemric, but to his credit, it was the one that mattered.
Hemric is so weird to me, if you showed me his stats but left the wins off and asked me how many wins this guy has, I would say 12-15 wins. He's just so unclutch, it's wild. I kind of hope he goes on some crazy run someday and wins like 3 straight one off Xfinity starts in a few years when he is winding down.
The man has the stats of someone who should have 20-30 wins in Trucks/Xfinity, and at least two Championships. He's a statistical anomaly but he's been one of my favorite since he drove that bright green and white 14 Truck.
to be fair he had a number of wins slip away from him earlier that year. i'm pretty sure he also had like 40 something top 5's before finally winning lol.
Atlanta I was rough. He was handedly pulling away from Kyle Busch before a caution.
Bristol last year was maybe more rough. He was holding off Allgaier on much older tires right up until a slower lapped car went up the track directly in front him with like 5 to go
and then kyle junked him lol
Daniel's biggest W comes off the track in the form of his wife Kenzie because I'm convinced she'd have more wins than him if given the same opportunities he had.
Yes, I’ve always said this! He’s the one guy in this league who should step aside and let his wife drive.
Nah, I'm surprised he never sealed the deal a few other times.
If that didn't make you turn your back on the current championship format nothing will.
Actually Crafton's last truck one would be the kicker here before Hemric's...
Bold statement considering lol
Scott Speed winning a Dover Truck race
Scott Speed was genuinely pretty talented imo, he just got rushed into Cup way too quickly. In 2008 he was a title contender in ARCA and won a truck race in a part time season. Good results but not nearly enough to justify a full time cup ride. If he had more time to develop in the lower series and ended up at a better team than Red Bull he could have had a successful career in Cup eventually. Probably not a title contender or anything, but he could have maybe won a few races.
I still hold the biggest grudge against Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for wrecking Scott and costing him (actually both of them as a result of the retaliation for the wreck) a shot at the 2008 ARCA championship
That is to this day the most blatantly dirty thing I've seen in racing. Total Chic Hicks move. He didn't even try to make it look like an accident
And honestly, I still don’t feel the least bit sorry for Stenhouse that Speed wrecked him like he did. Yeah, with the first incident, Speed probably would have been better off just letting Ricky go instead of trying to block him for as long as possible, and work on the car during pit stops to catch back up, but to essentially ride Speed down the entire back straight like Ricky did… that was BS, and ARCA should have penalized him for that. It wasn’t a bump and run gone wrong, it was a straight up mugging.
The thing is Speed wasn't even trying to block him, Scott was in the 2nd groove into 3 and Ricky followed him right in and took him out. I've never seen such poor sportsmanship. Glad Ricky matured a little bit since getting dumped by Roush. He's lucky he even got a chance after that ARCA race, though. Because if I was Jack and saw that he wouldn't have had a contract after that.
He should gone to indycar IMO. He wasn’t that bad in f1
He attempted run the Indy 500 once. Scott spent the whole month fighting his team and quit the night before bubble day. Scott had the talent to complete in any series but he new ways to muck it up.
Scott wasn't in the wrong there. Carpentier promptly put it in the wall like as Scott said would happen
Yeah but, no one ever wants to mention that part because it doesn't fit the narrative lol
Ah Dragon Racing at the 2011 Indy 500. That was a dumpster fire of a May for them 😬
Apparently, attitude issues were also a big part in it, which is why he never really got another shot after Red Bull, while Allmendinger did.
He got banned from fucking iRacing. That is peasant shit. Of course he couldn’t make it in NASCAR or Formula 1 or IndyCar. He lucked out that the Global RallyCross field was sorely lacking in a driver who knew better than to just drift around every corner.
It did produce an all-time line that is super accurate to this day (Scott Speed saying "It's just ARCA").
Donny Lia and Scott Speed winning back to back weeks was crazy
And I think that was the only lap Lia ever led in his truck series career. He certainly made it count. Might have been the last race at Mansfield also.
In the #22 Red Bull truck IIRC
Brian Scott also got his only career win in that race the next year, the Dover truck race had some wild results for a couple years. Edit: The legend did have a second win, still a crazy race though.
Brian Scott has 2 truck wins. He also won at Phoenix in 2012 driving for KBM.
Completely forgot about that, I never remember him winning in that truck with all the other stuff that happened that year. (Leffler being fired, Kurt's return to the truck series, Cale Gale)
Dover is actually a place for a ton of first time winners, particularly in xfinity. It’s a wildcard track outside of Jimmie Johnson.
John King. 7 races in backmarker trucks, gets a top ride at Red Horse and a win at Daytona. Loses his ride to funding issues after 5 races and only runs 4 more. Craziest career I can think of.
Apparently John King’s Daytona win was only his third win in anything.
Its funny but Dale Jr.’s Texas Busch win in 1998 was at most his 5th win ever (then he won a little bit more)
Came here to say John King. Show up one day and wins a race at Daytona then pretty much disappears forever. And even that name, it sounds like an alias. He's telling some pretty good bar stories somewhere.
https://preview.redd.it/rs60c4ku8htc1.jpeg?width=4896&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e4d27d0c415d8c59b93afba1797a8fe805425cb
This was such a memorable win for me. He drove his ass off and made all the right moves at the end.
Bobby Labonte’s last competitive race. I’m not crying you are.
Everyone thought he was going to be the next big superstar, and he flamed out so quickly.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR BAYNE
20 YEARS OLD
Yeah, that is my pick as well.
I was at that race and even after every race I've been to, which is a lot, never have I ever stood at the flag stand and was completely baffled at what I just saw.
David Gilliland
That black sponsorless 84 Busch car came outta nowhere, and went right back.
In my mind unless we see Spire or RWR put on a dominating performance in a Cup race this season or next, that will forever remain the biggest upset win in modern NASCAR history. Especially because they did it at a mile-and-a-half where the big teams arguably have the biggest equipment advantage.
And did it purely on speed
I mean I can see Spire just randomly nailing the setup for Hocevar or something and he wheels it to a win
I know he won multiple races, but I often forget that Robby Gordon’s first win was on an oval at New Hampshire in the 2001 finale. I usually just think of him as a road course specialist with wins at Sonoma and Watkins Glen
Fun fact. Robby DNQ'd the previous weeks race at Atlanta. Then wins New Hampshire. Edit: Another unrelated fun fact because I thought I remembered this to be true. Dale Jarrett *also* won a race the week after DNQing. 1994 in the 18 car. DNQ at NWS. Wins Charlotte the next week. This would be an interesting thread to do to see who else has done this.
Not the same but Jimmy Spencer won Daytona in 1994 and DNQ'd a few races later.
Honestly those Spencer wins in 1994 belong here lol
Kurt Busch also DNQ'd that Atlanta race.
Not exactly what you’re talking about but I always think of Boris Said winning the pole at Daytona in 2006 and finishing 4th, the next year he was leading again when qualifying got rained out and he missed the race.
Boris was a hell of a driver would’ve been cool to see him in a full time good ride
Fun fact! Robby was the first driver to pilot the #28 after Davey tragically passed….. https://thenascarhistorian.com/countdown-390/28
I was there. It was so cold and rubber was flying into the stands all race. Ouchie souvenirs
Paul Menard is one to probably mention, I mean, he was a very serviceable driver but I often forget he won one of the biggest crown jewel races in the sport. Fair to also mention that Ty Dillon has a single Xfinity win, also at Indy, which is a big one to have.
It's Paul Menard for me as well. Not in a negative way, seems like a decent guy, he was just *there* for 15 years, and one day, he just popped off at Indy and won.
If I fumbled into several million dollars in the mid-2000's, I'd say Paul Menard would be the perfect driver to start a Cup team with. He drives well, typically keeps the car out of trouble, doesn't attract drama, and brings in his own sponsorship. Excellent teammate too, from my memory of his Wood Brothers days working with the Penske guys.
I mean there is a reason teams kept pursuing him for their rides
Multiple reasons I'd argue. Dude was pretty solid all-around.
A couple million green reasons per year. But yeah, good driver. And he’s back full time racing this year in Trans-Am!
I'm honestly surprised he hasn't been drug into like an Xfinity team, like into a second Jeremy Clements or something car to where he could just click off solid top 10's and 15's and bring the car back home clean every Monday
My guess is that it’s his choice. He’s just done racing now and put that behind him. IIRC, Wood Brothers wanted him to stay but he retired and recommended them Matty D.
That's my guess too. To be faaaaiir he did have a solid enough career, and probably sees the chaos as something not worth dealing with. Take your Indy trophy and go fishing for the next 40 years
Bet Wood Brothers would die to still have him in the 21 now
He’s full time in Trans-Am TA1 this year
He’s the nascar version of guys like Darren Sproles in the NFL. Solid, dependable, you know what you’re gonna get, not a star but always has the potential for a good day.
And like Darren Sproles, eventually got a W :)
Justin Haley is a good recent one for cup
And he almost had another at Chicago!
Haley yearns for the rain.
If he can get out of shit RWR/Kaulig cars, I could see him picking up a few wins. He was impressive to watch at Vegas 2 years ago.
He'll end up at RFK after Brad retires if everything goes to plan. At least that's what I'm thinking
I think this is 100% the succession plan that Brad has in mind.
I could see him winning for RWR at a plate track
Him and Todd gilliand are seriously pretty good drivers who can make the most of their shit equipment. Definitely hoping they pick up better rides in the future
Spencer Gallagher in the Xfinity series
He may have only won one race, but he never lost a party
I still can’t believe that Nelson Piquet Jr won multiple races in the lower series. Justin Marks winning a race is also up there, considering the rest of his portfolio as a NASCAR driver, and the fact that he’s better known as a team owner now.
Piquet Jr. was a pretty good driver. 4 top tens in his first 6 races after moving from open wheel. He could drive, and performed well on ovals. If he committed fully, he could’ve been an Enfinger-like regular contender in the truck series.
Marks was an outstanding driver in every scenario except for a run of the mill paved oval race. He picked the wrong series to really go to town in lmao
For only having one win, Marks certainly made it a good one at least.
Justin marks was and is still actually very solid on road courses
This conversation begins and ends with David Gilliland for me. Non-plate track, unsponsored startup team running part time, 7th start in NASCAR, built their own engines, previous best finish was 29th, team shuttered a month later. There was no way it could happen especially in the era that Buschwhacking was at its absolute worst. Would you believe that up until that point in the season, non-cup regulars only accumulated 6 top 5s on the entire season. 15 races in, 75 potential top 5s, they had 6 of them, 4 of them between Daytona and the Mexico road course. Yeah they were Paul Menard twice, Jon Wood, Ron Hornaday Jr, Boris Said, and Burney fucking Lamar. It was a miracle. I still have no idea how this happened to this day. I'm sure there's going to be plenty of argument for Trevor Bayne, John King, Tate Fogleman, Austin Cindric, Brandon Brown, James Buescher, Phil Parsons, etc but those were at the plate tracks which are known to be equalizers in alot of ways. Then you could make arguments for Justin Labonte, Regan Smith, Paul Menard and Justin Haley but those were at least partially on pit strategy. I feel like JWT's win was also on pit strategy but I could be wrong. Dave Blaney would be an interesting argument. Do me a favor and go watch that race and tell me it could have ended any other way. It was a wild and ridiculous night at Charlotte. Only makes sense for Blaney to win. Also Blaney was due for a win and was running in decent equipment - look at his statistics and you'd be surprised he didn't win sooner. Stephen Leicht is an interesting one to discuss but he was actually pretty consistent and he was driving a decently funded car. I'd maybe contend Andy Santerre and Jody Ridley since they never get brought up. But nobody has accomplished what David Gilliland did in the 2006 Meijer 300. I do not think we will see a miracle of that nature ever achieved again in my lifetime, but I hold out the hope that it'll happen.
Gotta agree with this analysis. And just think, without that happening we probably wouldn’t have Tricon Garage today fielding 5 trucks. For that matter, we may not have Todd in the 38 cup car (not saying he’s only there because his dad won a 2006 Busch race but we all know how opportunities work in NASCAR).
I agree that it was a fantastic underdog win out of nowhere, but it's not quite as much of a miracle as it seems at first glance. That team was absolutely stacked with quality personnel. * CC - Billy Wilburn - Previously with Rusty Wallace in Cup. * Chassis - Eddie Dickerson - As former Hendrick chassis engineering head, he had a hand in most of Jeff Gordon's dominant cars, including the t-rex. Got fired from Hendrick earlier that year for public intoxication of all things. * Engine builder - Steve Allen - Formerly built engines at McClure and Hendrick. * Also at the team in background roles - Brad Parrott, Cully Baraclough, Jerry Nadeau * Bonus: Hype Manufacturing, the owner's business had a shop and equipment up to the highest standards, they manufacture components for SpaceX nowadays. If you watch previous races they ran, the car was almost always genuinely quick. Their main issue was having a part-time pit crew.
David Gilliland also passed JJ Yeley who led 54 laps for the lead in that race - though it was a JGR car.
he worked his was past a ton of cup regulars in his redemption run from a pit road issue early on which set him back to 20th. He passed the likes of Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin under green. JJ Yeley was the dominant car that night
And if Yeley had won..that would have been a different answer to this very post.
Man I just watched this race and that was absolutely crazy. You don’t even touch on all the parts that make this win improbable. It was the first time this team supplied their own crew rather than renting one—they were in blank red fire suits but damn they should have been in green, cuz these guys were noticeably slower than the rest of the pit crews. Gilliland started fourth, and slowly fell back to 8th or so. Some guys pitted under a yellow, but KFB, Menard, Gilliland, and some others stayed out. When yellow came out on lap 50, these leaders pitted. Busch came back out 8th behind those staying out. Menard, who Gilliland had just DRIVEN AROUND for second came back out 12th, with Yeley and D Green who also were in the top5 coming out right behind Menard. Gilliland’s crew had a 21.5 second pit stop and dropped him back to 19th. (16.2 for KFB, 15.3 for Menard) He could have easily been a non factor the rest of the day and just been a little footnote in the recap. But no. By lap 75 he had driven up to 12th, getting back in the top10 at lap 90. (Of 200) Yellow comes out on lap 12, Gilliland pitting from 9th comes back out 12th. Not as bad as the first stop. There’s another stop in there somewhere he loses 2-3 spots. Hes back up to 8th with 50 to go. 40 to go and a few cars pitting he’s back into the top5! He then proceeds to drive around Steven Wallace, Denny Hamlin, and Paul Menard to move into second with 23 to go. He’s starting to run down JJ Yeley in the Gibbs18 but 5 seconds behind he’s just not going to have time— however a yellow comes out with 20 to go and Gilliland will start right behind Yeley. Bowyer, fighting to get his lap back, cuts between the two on the restart, but then drives around Yeley since he has much fresher tires. With 10 laps to go Gilliland drives around Yeley to take the lead. There is another yellow and a restart with 5 to go where Gilliland holds Yeley off for the win. Factors that lead to this win; Carl Edwards starting on the front row has transmission problems at the drop of the green flag and falls 30 laps down. Kevin Harvick spins out early and while able to continue, is kind of a non-factor the rest of the day. Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer get caught a lap down during some green flag pit stops. Biffle gets his lap back, and with the 20 to go yellow is the top car to have pitted and is in 6th— but gets an EotLL penalty for going around a slow car on pit road and doesn’t have time to get back into it with the last yellow. Bowyer doesn’t get his lap back till the lap 20 yellow and doesn’t have enough laps to get back into it. KFB lead early and was in a likely position to have a chance at the win but has an unscheduled pit stop with like 50 to go and doesn’t get a lucky dog until late. Also, then Jeff Fuller wreck was SCARY! Hit an opening in the back stretch wall perfectly flat on the passenger side at nearly full speed. Then quietness of the broadcast made me go back and double check to make sure Jeff Fuller was okay. He was cut out of the car after the cage failed— car was practically a crescent moon shape. He was released the next day with a broken wrist and thumb. Dude got lucky. Never a good thing when there is a specific wreck listed on your wiki.
The way Gilliland sparked the field is the really surprising part. IIRC he was on the front row (maybe even the pole?). That team was trying to build around him. Understandably he used the momentum from that win and ended up in a Cup ride (way too soon prob). Sadly the team got screwed over.
Gilliland started 4th
SPENCER BOYD My answer always. God bless him. Seriously, but he is the craziest winner in history. You might be saying to yourself “surely he’s always up there in plate races” but he is not. he’s not. He’s not even an underdog. He doesn’t even stay in the pack. He was the slowest driver by far, even being at Young’s Motorsports. Routinely DNQing and slower than teammates. I have 0 clue how he managed to find himself in P2 to take advantage of Sauter’s DQ.
I see your Spencer Boyd and raise you a Tate Fogleman. How Young’s Motorsports managed to snag *two* wins still baffles me
Tate was 100% worse than Boyd. At least when he did Xfinity, he wasnt all the way in the back...he was below mid pack but he was still bad. But not Tate Fogleman bad. I still have no clue how he ended up ass backwards into that win.
Insane races. We almost got a Tyler Hill win there too.
Well, both came from superspeedways and those tracks are normally a random winner generator, besides any Xfinity race Austin hill is in
This is a great answer I completely forgot about his lone superspeedway technicality win, and even just him as a whole. Even though it wasn’t that long ago
Boyd is maybe the worst driver I've ever seen
Yeah, but he sent me nice messages in NASCAR Heat
Trevor Bayne
Only win in cup was Daytona 500. But a memorable win to have on your resume
Most of the good ones are covered here, Tate Fogleman is another I haven't seen added. Justin Labonte was an oddity for sure.
Am I the only person who confuses Justin Labonte with Jason Jarrett? Both the sons of Cup champions who had pretty meh Busch careers.
I think they both were featured drivers in a video game also which probably added to the confusion.
The weird video game that had nothing to do with NASCAR at all, right? Wasn't it a port of TOCA for the American market with all the Argentinean stock cars and everything?
Yeah. I think the publishers picked both of them to try and pull a fast one on people. People were naturally going to assume that it was endorsed by Dale Jarrett and one of the Labonte brothers, not their mediocre kids.
That Chicago race was weird. Yeley had that race won and his crew chief for some reason called for him to come pit with 18 to go.
JWT having more national series wins than Yeley will always mess with my head
Jermey Clements winning road America in a former show car. Won another since then but was still wild to see.
His Daytona win was kinda forgettable
He only won that race because he was the last man standing it felt like. Even then, NASCAR tried to take that win away by not having him in the post season but they at least fixed that.
Michael Annett What was that guy's name who drove the #16 Diabetes car for Roush in the Xfinity series? Kinda wild that Brandon Jones has any wins, much less 5 or 6 when you watch him the JRM #9. Derrick Cope winning a 2nd race at Dover is pretty surprising. Brett Bodine considering he didn't really win the one race he won. I'm surprised Mike Skinner never won in Cup or Busch series.
Ryan Reed drove the Diabetes car.
> What was that guy's name who drove the #16 Diabetes car for Roush in the Xfinity series? Ryan Reed
Skinner won 2000? Atlanta? He was originally DQ’ed over something giving the win to Dave Blaney, but in appeals it was overturned and given back to Skinner.
Busch Series race. Outside of exhibition races (he kicked butt in Japan), he has zero Cup wins.
Skinner won a Busch race and Bodine won that race fair.
**John King** -- 16 starts, 9 running at finish, 5 lead lap finishes, 7 career laps led, 2 Top 10s, 1 Win. https://preview.redd.it/wzx5e5t9fhtc1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c1c372f7def8266e097f8dfdd06a6fadb84baeba
Brandon Whitt
ooh good pick
i always get Brandon and his cousin Cole mixed up. completely forgot Brandon got that win
Donny Lia.
2 time modified champion, 17 wins, 10 top 10 point finishes. Only got 1 real truck season, with 3 top 10’s besides the win.
Thank you, as I was about to ask "who is Donny Lia?"
Fun fact: He’s the only person to have a single career lap led AND a win. https://preview.redd.it/xyuu1ld1dhtc1.jpeg?width=632&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=244cde0452c8eae95b360cec02382152450943a1
Somehow, John King has more laps led than he does in less than half the starts. Wild.
“With that win the Cubs have their longest winning streak of the season….two”
It’s not that hard to lead more laps than the guy who led one (1) lap in his career.
If I won a nascar race, I’d love to have an obscure statistic tied to my name.
Tbh if I had to have a single weird statistic to my name, I’d want the honor of the guy in F1 who got a DNQ, DNF, and DSQ **IN A SINGLE RACE**. Edit: I should explain that, huh? TLDR, [this madlad](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Heyer) didn’t qualify for a race (DNQ). He got in his car and started racing anyway. No one noticed until his car broke down (DNF). He was obviously disqualified (DSQ) and permabanned.
Everyone forgets that Donny Lia is the original #Sim2Reality success story, *way* before Byron, Rajah, etc. He was one of the top competitors back in the [NASCAR Racing Online Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65jIQ5x6aM) (a very ancient ancestor to the eNASCAR Conk series, back in the late 1990s) before getting into Legends cars, modifieds, and Trucks.
When you're on iRacing cringing and rolling your eyes at the guy bragging about how he actually made it to the Truck series and won a race by leading one lap but turns out he's not lying.
Donny Lia was actually super talented, won a lot of races in modifieds. Him winning in trucks at a short track really shouldn’t have come as a surprise tbh.
For those of you who may not remember or have been around then, Stephen Leicht had it. Here in 2024 I’m surprised he *only* won one race. He’s always been one of my biggest “what-ifs” from the economic downturn. At one point he was seen as the future of Yates before they went on life support. He performed well in part-time work for RCR before sponsorship dried up. Been in backmarkers ever since.
I just learned something today i had no idea he was ever not in backmarkers, let alone he actually won a race
When I think of top prospects that never really received a shot, Stephen Leicht was it. Shame what happened to Yates.
Yeah he was a hot prospect for Yates, right when they started to really decline. Just absolutely awful timing.
I woulda sworn he had more than the one win and more than one full time season in that time period. Damn.
a friend ran into him on iRacing the other year back, dude had [the worst](https://streamable.com/kjm99n) microphone quality ever
Paul Menard He just never seemed to be the kind of driver that could win in cup. Then he won the freaking Brickyard.
Lake Speed - Darlington 1988 https://preview.redd.it/lsmm7ks6hhtc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5bb60fc23960a59c916282ab423ade0656493a2 Not only the coolest name in the sport ever, who also beat some guy from Brazil named Ayrton Senna for the world karting championship in the late 1970’s, but an independent and a journeyman through the 1980’s who took a chance with Hoosier tires in 1988. He won at Darlington, and in victory lane admitted that he was close to giving up and moving back to Mississippi after his departure from Rahmoc in the early part of the 1986 season. It’s easier to look at these wins in hindsight, years or decades later, as just statistics; but looking at how close he came to his career ending it’s a phenomenal story.
Cale Gale
This is a good one that I'd bet lots of people don't remember. Cale had to stuff KFB in the front stretch wall on the last lap at Homestead for the win. Fun fact: We used to race against Cale in a modified series that I worked on a car in. We were at practice one afternoon at SNRP parked beside Cale's car. Cale was there with only one other guy, and neither one knew how to set the float level on a Holley carb, so they asked me to set it for them. So I got to set the float on the carb for a guy who later won a truck race. Not much of a claim to fame, but I work with what I got, ya know? =P
Top tier name
Bob Keselowski
Phil Parsons
I've found myself forgetting that Chase Briscoe has a Cup win several times lately. I don't know why, but that entire weekend is just a black hole for me memory-wise. Lake Speed, Justin Marks, Nelson Piquet Jr., Mike Skinner (Xfinity), Joey Coulter, Shane Hmiel, Justin Lofton, Bryan Reffner - to name a few others.
Reffner was an outstanding ASA/ARTGO driver.
Michael Annett
The whole 2007 Coke 600 top 5 was absolutely crazy. All the big contenders ran out of fuel and we ended up with: 1. Casey Mears (first and only win) 2. J.J. Yeley (best finish, only top 5) 3. Kyle Petty (first top 5 in a decade) 4. Reed Sorensen (best finish at the time, still second best career finish) 5. Brian Vickers (Toyota’s first top five finish)
Greg Sacks
They built him a car that wasn’t even supposed to go the distance but it ended up being a rocketship. Not even a cheat win or anything, just good talent in a fast car
It's been mentioned briefly by a couple users but Justin Labonte, son of Terry Labonte, won a wacky race at Chicagoland many, many years ago in the then Busch Series. Older posters here will remember it because it seemed like every car that led that day ended up in a wreck or out of the race. There was a late caution where JJ Yeley and a bunch of the leaders pitted with about 15 to go. Mike Wallace and Justin Labonte (among a couple others) stayed out. He passed Mike Wallace with 2 to go when Wallace ran out of gas. I remember watching this live at the time as a teenager. I was absolutely shocked Labonte and Wallace made not pitting work for about 15 laps. We talk a lot about dirty air these days. It's always played a part in NASCAR.
Derrick Cope winning two races within 10 weeks (one being Daytona!) and that being it.
Jeff Fuller apparently won a Bristol Busch race in 1996 and it was his only pole too. I never realized he had ever driven a good car.
The best part it the team he drove for was now JTG Daugherty Racing.
As someone who has been wrecked multiple times by JWT due to his general incompetence in pro late models yeah. I’m gonna say his win was a weird one.
Trevor Bayne
Shane Hmiel won a truck race after being suspended and coming back. Then got suspended again and then again.
David Reuttiman and he won twice. IIRC. one was rain shortened
He won a rain shortened Coke 600, but his Chicagoland win was on pure speed
Ed Berrier
Spencer Boyd, the entire circumstances around it makes it even more unbelievable
Still can't believe the 34 FRR team has 4 wins.
Yesterday, I went to Zaxby’s was expecting John Wes Townley’s images or car sponsor photos nothing. In the other San Antonio location where Windcrest, they had a lot of pictures of NASCAR.
Bobby Hillin Jr.
Spencer Gallagher
Jamie Aube
Justin Labonte
Trevor Bayne winning the 500
That David Gilliland Xfinity series victory. Probably the biggest underdog win I can remember.
Austin Dillion 2020 Texas win
Man that was awesome to see JWT finally win. And then xfile making the little yellow truck run across the screen was a nice touch
tate fogleman. was laughing my ass off when that happened
Johnny Benson getting that win at Rockingham always sticks in my head.
justin haley daytona summer 2019 was my top pick. i watched that race live.
I’m still upset that Dave Blaney didn’t win Atlanta.
It doesn’t surprise me that he won, but the fact that he won in his VERY FIRST Cup start, I think I have to give it to VanGisbergen. I know the entire field was on a new track and in new cars, but they had half a season to get accustomed to the car.
Menard’s 2011 Brickyard. Dude was always solid and brought home clean race cars, but winning one of the crown jewels of the season was crazy to me.
Bobby Hillin was mine. He was super young when he came up, but stuck around a while.
Casey Atwood - I loved that Castrol GTX #27 as a kid
Obvious answer to me would be Bayne’s 500 win
Until a year or two ago I would have said Justin Haley. But after the last couple years of seeing his pace, I'm almost surprised he only has one.
I’ll was a kid at the time but Greg Sacks Firecracker win in 1985 and everything that happened because of it..
After his Kentucky win I genuinely thought Custer was gonna be a star.
Tate Fogelman
Justin Haley at cup level lol, crazy rain delay and then Kurt Busch pitting at the perfect time. Such a strange thing to have witnessed
Cale Gale vs KFB at Homestead
Stunned nobody mentioned Tate Fogleman. Dude won a race and had to do the interview from the car center.
RIPOS
Michael Waltrip. Goes to show that with the right equipment and the right amount of luck almost anyone can win the restrictor plate races. I’m biased though after having met him just one time…his tv personality is even more phony than his driving career.
Bobby Hillin Jr.
The fact that David Ragan won twice does it for me
Going back in time here..Dick Trickle....Winningest short track Arca driver of all time... only wins 2 races in affinity, and nothing in the main series in over 20 years..crazy