Kyle Busch's 200 wins are not inferior to Richard Petty's 200
Richard Petty will forever be “The King.” Petty was the first driver to win seven Cup Series titles and will likely end up being the only driver in the history of NASCAR to have 200 wins in the Cup Series.
Until Sunday, Petty was the only driver with 200 NASCAR wins. But with a strong performance in the Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway, Kyle Busch became the second driver in series history to accrue 200 wins.
“All I do is win, win, win no matter what,” Busch sang on his radio after the checkered flag flew.
Unlike Petty, Busch’s wins come across different series. He’s won 94 Xfinity Series races, 53 Truck Series races and 53 Cup Series races. Those 53 race wins put Busch 11th all-time. He’s just over 25 percent of the way to Petty’s total in the Cup Series.
But what Busch has done in NASCAR shouldn’t automatically be discounted against Petty’s accomplishment because his 200 wins have come across all three series. What Busch has done to the competition in this new millennium should be appreciated just as much as Petty’s 200 wins.
Petty’s 200 wins came across 1,184 Cup Series starts. His 200th win came in his 943rd Cup Series start. Saturday’s race was Busch’s 997th start. His win rate is better than Petty’s over Petty’s entire career and just shy of Petty’s win rate at the time of 200.
It’s entirely fair to say that Busch has dominated lesser competition in the Xfinity and Truck Series. Both series are populated with teams that have limited funding and drivers who are less talented than those in the Cup Series. All but one of Busch’s Xfinity Series wins has come with a Cup Series team. And over half of his Truck Series wins have come while driving for his own Toyota-backed team that has the best equipment in the series.
Petty had the best stuff in NASCAR too. Especially at the beginning of his career. Petty Enterprises was the class of NASCAR’s early days. Lee Petty, Richard’s father, won 54 Cup Series races from 1949-61. In the eight years after Lee Petty’s last win, Richard Petty won 96 races, including 27 victories in 48 starts in 1967.
Many of Petty’s wins came against thin and inferior competition too. He had over 100 starts against fields with 19 or fewer competitors and scored 22 wins against fields of 20 cars or smaller. The smallest starting lineup in a win of Busch’s was 31 trucks in a 2014 race at Kansas.
Over half of Petty’s victories came before NASCAR’s modern era began in 1972, as well. The 1972 season shortened the yearly schedule to roughly 30 races and all Cup Series fields had at least 28 cars. The patchwork circus that Petty dominated in the 1960s changed a lot in the 1970s.
It’s important to remember that Petty was a badass in the modern era too. Four of his seven titles came between 1972-79 and he was running against some of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history like David Pearson and Cale Yarborough.
Pearson is No. 2 on the all-time Cup Series wins list. Yarborough is at No. 7.
Busch’s competition has been just as stout, even if he’s scored over a quarter of his 200 wins in the Truck Series. Jeff Gordon is a NASCAR Hall of Famer and Tony Stewart will be next year. Jimmie Johnson has a claim along with Petty and Dale Earnhardt to be the greatest NASCAR driver of all time. Many of Busch’s Xfinity Series wins have come against guys like Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards. Each of them will get into the Hall of Fame someday.
Ron Hornaday’s presence in the NASCAR Hall of Fame is an endorsement of Busch’s accomplishment too. Busch recently passed Hornaday as the winningest driver in Truck Series history. Hornaday never won a Cup Series race while pre-modern era guys like Jim Paschal (25 wins) and Marvin Panch (17) are still on the Hall of Fame’s nomination list.
If all Cup Series wins were really so much more important than Truck Series success in the eyes of NASCAR Hall of Fame voters, Hornaday would be in the Hall of Fame after Panch and Paschal.
But NASCAR is just like any other series and sport. The longer it exists, the better the competition gets. Mediocre baseball pitchers today would consistently strike out some of the best hitters in the game 50 years ago. Modern offensive and defensive linemen in football would destroy their counterparts from the 1970s.
It’s no longer good enough to simply have a car that’s reliable and can make it to the finish of a race. You need a car that’s reliable and super fast. And you need a good pit crew; pit stops weren’t an important part of racing 40-plus years ago.
Busch sped on pit road at the beginning of the third stage of Sunday’s race. But he worked his way to the front and, thanks to a well-timed caution, passed Joey Logano for the lead with 25 laps to go. Logano, a champion himself, is also a future Hall of Famer.
What Petty did throughout his Cup Series career won’t be matched on an exact scale. But what Busch has done in the first 19 years of his is something that rivals Petty’s achievement. And, when his career is over, Busch could end up eclipsing The King.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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