Winston Cup Winners Increase

If it seems as if there are more winners in Winston Cup racing these days, it’s because there are.

Eleven drivers won during the 34-race 1999 season and, in the first nine events this year, there have already been nine.

No NASCAR season has ever begun with such a diversity of drivers reaching victory circle, and it certainly appears that the modern-era record of 11 different winners in a row (five at the end of 1985 and six at the start of 1986), as well as the all-time record of 13 (in 1961), are in jeopardy.

The mark for the most winners in a season (14 in 1988, 1990 and 1991) also appears reachable.

“All this tells you is what we’ve been saying for the last couple of years--the competition has never been better or deeper than it is right now,” said defending series champion Dale Jarrett.

So how many drivers are capable of winning right now in NASCAR’s top stock car series?

“I wouldn’t be shocked if there were 20 different winners in a season right now,” Jarrett said. “Of course, somebody is going to get hot and win a few races. It’s bound to happen because it always does.”

NASCAR’s modern era--with shorter schedules on mostly bigger tracks--began in 1972. Bobby Allison led with 10 wins that season. In the intervening years, the fewest wins to lead the series is five -- a number reached by Davey Allison and Harry Gant in 1991 and by Allison and Bill Elliott again the next season.

The number of drivers capable of winning has definitely increased since the early years of the modern era.

From 1972 through 1982, the most winners in a season was 10 in 1980. The fewest was five in 1974--a year in which Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough each won 10 times--and the average during that 11-year span was 7.9 winners.

Since 1983, the numbers have really picked up, with an average of 11.65 winners each year. During that span, the nine winners in 1985 is the only time there have been fewer than 10 in a year, and the record of 14 was set in 1988 and matched in 1990 and 1991.

So far this season, the winners have included Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Ward Burton, Rusty Wallace, rookie Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. All had won at least once before except the younger Earnhardt.

Last year’s winners who have yet to break through in 2000 are Tony Stewart, John Andretti, Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek. Bobby Hamilton, Jeremy Mayfield and Rick Rudd each won in 1998.

“We’re seeing more teams stay together,” Jarrett said. “I’m talking about the core part of the team, with the crew chiefs and the people they have surrounded themselves with.

“As those drivers and crew chiefs and teams work together more, they just naturally become better.”

TOP DRIVER: Mark Martin, who leads the Winston Cup points and has dominated in his part-time efforts in NASCAR’s Grand National Series, led the first-quarter voting for the Driver of the Year Award.

Martin beat out Formula One ace Michael Schumacher, winner of the first three F1 races this season, in the balloting by a 16-member panel of national motorsports media representatives and fans.

Both Martin and Schumacher received seven first-place votes, but Martin won the points battle 101-90, thanks to more second-place support.

Fans took part in the quarterly voting for the first time, giving their first-place vote to NHRA Funny Car driver Jerry Toliver. Drag racer Jeg Coughlin received the other first-place ballot.

NASCAR’s Bobby Labonte was third in the voting, followed by CART’s Paul Tracy, Coughlin and World of Outlaws driver Danny Lasoski.

Jarrett, who won the 1999 Driver of the Year Award, was among the other drivers receiving votes.

QUICK TRIP: Johnny Benson enjoyed a busman’s holiday last weekend, taking a four-day trip to Silverstone, England, for the British Grand Prix.

“I was totally a fan all weekend,” the Winston Cup driver said. “I even bought a T-shirt.”

Benson said the experience taught him a little bit about what it’s like being a race fan.

“There are some tough things about going to races, like the rain and traffic but it is also a heck of a lot of fun.”

Unlike most fans, though, Benson had the run of the Formula One paddock and got to hang out with 1961 champion Phil Hill, one of only two Americans (the other was Mario Andretti) to win the F1 crown.

“Just about everybody in the garage recognizes him. We ate lunch and took a tour of the Ferrari garage right before the race and watched the mechanics prepare Michael Schumacher and Reubens Barichello’s Ferraris. We also went around in the Mercedes pace car and man that was cool”

STAT OF THE WEEK: Jeff Gordon, coming off his first win of the 2000 season, is the defending champion of Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway. In fact, in the three Winston Cup races run at the Fontana, Calif., track, Gordon has won twice and finished fourth in the other one.