13 Most-Winning NASCAR Racers of All Time

With its origins in rum-running and Prohibition-era bootlegging and its history of charismatic champions, such as Richard “The King” Petty and Jeff Gordon, NASCAR is as American of the sport as one could ask for. As such, it’s no surprise that the NASCAR Cup series is also the premier racing circuit in the United States.

At the heart of this motorsport’s popularity is the thrilling need for speed and the spectacle of all-out competition. NASCAR is a sport for those who thrive when competing on the edge. Unsurprisingly, its greatest champions have a certain “it” factor that leads them to victory behind the wheel while enduring them to generations of American racing fans.

While many NASCAR racers have been champions, these 13 drivers stand out as the most successful champions in the history of their sport.

13) Lee Petty - 54 Wins

While his son passed him in the wins column a long time ago, NASCAR would not have achieved its level of popularity in the United States had it not been for Lee Petty. A three-time NASCAR champion in the 1950s, the Petty family patriarch notched 54 NASCAR Cup Series wins during his illustrious career.

Unfortunately, a nasty crash in which Petty sustained a head injury, punctured lung, and chest fractures, among other ailments, effectively derailed his career. He still went on to establish the Petty Enterprises racing team with his sons. That team went on to major success, winning 10 NASCAR championships over the next 30 years.

12) Denny Hamlin - 54 Wins

NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin has won the prestigious Daytona 500, as well as the Southern 500, three times during his storied career. In total, he has amassed 54 Cup Series wins. Unfortunately for Hamlin, he has never won a championship, despite being a strong title contender throughout his career.

An active driver, he currently competes in the number 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is also close friends with NBA legend Michael Jordan, with whom he co-owns 23XI Racing.

11) Rusty Wallace - 55 Wins

Rusty Wallace won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in 1989 and later entered the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2013. In 706 career starts, Wallace notched 55 wins and achieved 36 poles. Although he won only one championship, he experienced many successful seasons behind the wheel of Penske Racing's Fords and Pontiacs.

From 1991 until his retirement in 2005, Wallace won 37 races in Penske cars. In total, he scored 11 top-10 championship rankings with the Penske Racing Team. He currently works as a NASCAR analyst for ESPN.

10) Kevin Harvick - 60 Wins

Kevin Harvick had nothing short of an outstanding career in NASCAR. By the time he retired in 2023, he had achieved 60 career Cup Series wins, 251 top-five finishes, 444 top-10 finishes, and 31 pole positions. He also led 16,058 laps during his NASCAR career. He won the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series championship and was one position shy of winning the title again in 2015. With a career full of memorable moments, arguably one of his greatest came after team owner Richard Childress asked Harvick to drive in the Cup Series full-time in the wake of Dale Earnhardt’s untimely death at the 2001 Daytona 500.

During the final lap of a close battle with Jeff Gordon at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Harvick beat Gordon down the stretch to claim his first Cup Series race win less than a month after Earnhardt’s passing. Harvick went on to win the Cup Series Rookie of the Year honor later that season.

9) Kyle Busch - 63 Wins

The most successful active driver on this list, Kyle Busch, is a 20-year veteran of NASCAR. A multi-time Cup Series champion, Busch broke Richard Petty’s all-time NASCAR record for the most consecutive seasons with a Cup Series victory when he won at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, in February 2023. That race marked the 19th consecutive season that Kyle Busch had won a Cup Series race.

He has also recorded victories at some of NASCAR’s most prestigious races, such as the Coca-Cola 600, the Brickyard 400, and the Southern 500. Busch also achieved one of the most remarkable and improbable comebacks in NASCAR Cup Series history when he won his 2015 title after missing the first 11 races of the season with a broken right leg and a broken left foot.

8) Dale Earnhardt - 76 Wins

Dale Earnhardt was the sport’s most dominant driver in the 1980s and 90s. Known as “the Intimidator,” Earnhardt utilized an aggressive driving style and never backed away from the bumps and spin-outs so common in stock car racing.

His number three, black Chevrolet Monte Carlo, is one of the most iconic machines in NASCAR racing history. Earnhardt won 7 Cup Series championships and 76 races during his illustrious career. Additionally, he also scored more than $40 million in prize money throughout the 676 Cup Series races he competed in.

7) Cale Yarborough - 83 Wins

Cale Yarborough was as tough and tenacious a driver as NASCAR has ever seen. He was a four-time Daytona 500 winner and won the Southern 500 five times. He won three consecutive Cup Series championships in the 1970s, a feat that only Jimmie Johnson has surpassed since. He and Johnson are tied in NASCAR’s all-time Cup Series wins list with 83 victories apiece.

According to the townsfolk in Sardis, South Carolina, where he grew up, Yarborough’s toughness was the stuff of legend. His alleged exploits include surviving a lightning strike, grabbing water moccasins out of the water, and winning a wrestling match with an alligator. It’s no wonder Richard Petty once said this guy was as tough as cement.

6) Jimmie Johnson - 83 Wins

Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. That tally ties him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most Cup Series titles in NASCAR history. Most impressive of all, Johnson holds the distinction of being the only NASCAR driver to have won five consecutive Cup Series titles, which he achieved from 2006 to 2010.

Now a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Johnson spent his illustrious career competing for Hendrick Motorsports in the number 48 Chevrolet. His 83 Cup Series wins tie him with Cale Yarborough for sixth all-time in NASCAR history.

5) Darrell Waltrip - 84 Wins

A three-time Cup Series champion in the 1980s, Darrell Waltrip also reached pole position 59 times during his NASCAR career. That tally ranks him as fifth all-time in Cup Series history. During his career, which stretched from 1972 until 2000, Waltrip started 809 races and won 84 of them.

In addition to being one of stock car racing’s winningest drivers, Waltrip is also one of its most outspoken. His gregarious demeanor earned him the nickname “Jaws” during his years on the track. Unsurprisingly, he found success as a NASCAR commentator after retiring from his professional racing career.

4) Bobby Allison - 85 Wins

During his nearly 3-decade racing career, Bobby Allison earned practically every racing accolade imaginable. In addition to winning a NASCAR crown in 1983, Allison also won the Daytona 500 three times, the Southern 500 four times, and the Coca-Cola 600 three times.

His last victory at Daytona in 1988 was particularly remarkable because he won the race at the age of 50, holding off a formidable late-race challenge from his son, Davey, to secure the victory. However, the fight that he and his brother Donnie got into with Cale Yarborough at Daytona a decade earlier is what many NASCAR fans remember him for. Besides notching 85 career Cup Series victories, Allison also received the honor of being NASCAR’s most popular driver six times.

3) Jeff Gordon - 93 Wins

With 93 career Cup Series wins and four Sprint Cup Series titles, Jeff Gordon is one of the most dominant drivers of his era and one of the winningest racers in NASCAR history. The California native employed an aggressive driving style and demonstrated a knack for publicity that helped boost stock car racing’s popularity in the United States during the 1990s and early 2000s.

He also set a NASCAR record during the 2013 season after winning a pole position, marking the 21st consecutive season that Gordon had achieved this feat. He also won Rookie of the Year honors during his first full year racing on the Cup Series circuit and later became the youngest driver to win the Daytona 500.

2) David Pearson - 105 Wins

David Pearson is widely regarded as one of the sport’s finest drivers. In addition to winning three NASCAR Cup Series titles and notching a whopping 105 Cup Series wins, his rivalry with Richard Petty in the 1960s and ‘70s brought the motorsport into the mainstream.

While Pearson significantly trails Petty on NASCAR’s Cup Series all-time wins list, it is worth noting that he never competed in an entire racing season. His win total came after only 574 starts. Meanwhile, Petty had 1,184. The 1976 Daytona 500 winner was known by the nickname “Silver Fox” during his career, due to his sly racing tactics and premature gray hair.

1) Richard Petty - 200 Wins

Richard “The King” Petty is hands down the most successful and iconic driver in NASCAR history. He was the first driver to win seven Cup championships and also took the crown at the sport’s most prestigious race, the Daytona 500, seven times as well.

His 200 Cup Series wins put him 95 victories ahead of his rival David “Silver Fox” Pearson, which is more wins than Jeff Gordon notched in his entire career. Richard Petty is truly in a class all his own. If that were not impressive enough, he also recorded an astounding 27 first-place finishes in 1967. As such, his nickname is arguably the most appropriate in sports history. All hail The King.