December 30, 2011
By Rebecca Gladden
While perusing NASCAR news this week, I came across something interesting at Jayski.com.
Among the various tables there showing statistical data was one entitled, "Active Driver Wins/Percentage."
The table lists current Sprint Cup Series drivers, their total number of wins, date and location of their most recent win, total number of starts, and the number of races since each driver last scored a victory.
One other column, labeled "Win %," shows the percentage of races that each driver won compared to his total number of starts. In the case of Kurt Busch, for example, the ratio of Busch's 24 Cup wins to his 400 total Cup starts yields a winning percentage of 6%.
Which active Cup driver has the highest percentage of wins compared to his total Cup starts?
Perhaps not surprisingly, it's Jimmie Johnson, the recent five-time Cup champion. Johnson has 55 wins in 363 Cup starts, providing a winning percentage of just over 15%.
Only one other active Cup driver is in double digits in this statistical category. It's Jeff Gordon, whose 85 wins in 653 starts provides a winning percentage of 13%.
Third on the list is current Cup champion Tony Stewart, with a total of 44 wins in 464 Cup starts, for a winning percentage of roughly 9.5%. Stewart's win percentage received a big boost in the latter part of last season, when he scored five wins in the final ten races during the 2011 Chase.
Coming in fourth on the list at just under 9% (8.9%) is still relatively-young racer Kyle Busch, who has scored 23 wins in 258 Cup starts. Compare that to brother Kurt's statistics, shown above.
Rounding out the top-five in this category, and perhaps the most surprising driver on the list thus far, is Denny Hamlin, whose 17 wins in 223 Cup starts give him a winning percentage of 7.6%.
Using the figures from Jayski.com, below is a list of the top 15 current Cup drivers, ranked in order of their winning percentage.
Rank(Win%) Driver Wins Starts Winning %
1 Johnson, Jimmie 55 363 15.152%
2 Gordon, Jeff 85 653 13.017%
3 Stewart, Tony 44 464 9.48%
4 Busch, Kyle 23 258 8.91%
5 Hamlin, Denny 17 223 7.62%
6 Edwards, Carl 19 265 7.17%
7 Busch, Kurt 24 400 6.00%
8 Biffle, Greg 16 330 4.85%
9 Kenseth, Matt 21 436 4.82%
10 Martin, Mark 40 830 4.82%
11 Harvick, Kevin 18 394 4.57%
12 Kahne, Kasey 12 288 4.17%
13 Earnhardt, Dale Jr. 18 435 4.14%
14 Newman, Ryan 15 364 4.12%
15 Burton, Jeff 21 619 3.39%
In terms of historical perspective, the Jayski.com website also maintains a list of the overall leaders in this category, including all drivers with more than 100 Cup starts.
Leading the all-time list is Herb Thomas, whose 48 wins in 228 starts provides a winning percentage of just over 21%. Thomas raced primarily in the 1950s.
Among active drivers, only Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon rank in the top 10 on the all-time list - Johnson at 8th and Gordon and 10th. Cale Yarborough separates the two current Cup stars.
Perhaps it is a reflection of the increased parity among top Cup teams in modern-day NASCAR that no current driver is able to approach Thomas's winning percentage of 21%.
Here is a list of the top-10 drivers in all-time winning percentage:
Rank(Win%) Driver Wins Starts Winning %
1 Herb Thomas 48 228 21.053%
2 Tim Flock 39 187 20.856%
3 David Pearson 105 574 18.293%
4 Richard Petty 200 1184 16.892%
5 Fred Lorenzen 26 158 16.456%
6 Fireball Roberts 33 206 16.019%
7 Junior Johnson 50 313 15.974%
8 Jimmie Johnson 55 363 15.152%
9 Cale Yarborough 83 560 14.821%
10 Jeff Gordon 85 653 13.017%
What, if anything, surprised you about this statistical data? Email me and let me know.
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