Saturday, March 22, 2008, 10:58 PM
I like stats.
So here are the ones I worked up.
Starts Wins Top 5 Winning % Top 5 % Name
927 200 543 .215 .585 Petty
505 105 295 .207 .584 Pearson
112 26 61 .232 .544 Lorenzen
526 84 253 .159 .480 Waltrip
666 76 280 .114 .420 Earnhardt
464 83 246 .178 .530 Yarborough
478 81 227 .169 .474 Gordon
These numbers are not career totals, but from their prime driving years, for which I used the year of their first win, through the year of their last win.
I included Lorenzen because of his winning percentage per start (and he was, in my mind, certainly one of the best Nascar ever produced).
But the most telling stats? How about these two. Petty and Pearson's careers, forever linked as two of the finest the series has ever produced, started and ended very close together, as far as first and last wins. During those years (roughly 1961 - 1984) Nascar ran 966 races. Pearson and Petty won 305 of those, or fully 31% of the races run! The second stat? If you were a betting man, you wouldn't have done badly to put your money on one of them placing in the Top Five during those same 966 events. How often? 838 times... or an incredible 86% of the time!!!
So here are the ones I worked up.
Starts Wins Top 5 Winning % Top 5 % Name
927 200 543 .215 .585 Petty
505 105 295 .207 .584 Pearson
112 26 61 .232 .544 Lorenzen
526 84 253 .159 .480 Waltrip
666 76 280 .114 .420 Earnhardt
464 83 246 .178 .530 Yarborough
478 81 227 .169 .474 Gordon
These numbers are not career totals, but from their prime driving years, for which I used the year of their first win, through the year of their last win.
I included Lorenzen because of his winning percentage per start (and he was, in my mind, certainly one of the best Nascar ever produced).
But the most telling stats? How about these two. Petty and Pearson's careers, forever linked as two of the finest the series has ever produced, started and ended very close together, as far as first and last wins. During those years (roughly 1961 - 1984) Nascar ran 966 races. Pearson and Petty won 305 of those, or fully 31% of the races run! The second stat? If you were a betting man, you wouldn't have done badly to put your money on one of them placing in the Top Five during those same 966 events. How often? 838 times... or an incredible 86% of the time!!!
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