Which NASCAR Driver was able to win the championship the soonest upon entering the series?
December 4, 2009 by
Filed under nascar
In other words, who was able to win a championship whether it Winston, Nextel Cup, etc. Earliest in their career? For example, Tony Stewart won the Winston Cup in his fourth year in Nascar, did anyone win it sooner ?
I think Dale Earnhardt won it in his second full season.
Dale Earnhardt. He finished 7th in the points in 1979, his rookie season and then went on to win the Cup in 1980 his second full season in cup. He had 5 wins, 19 top 5 and 24 top 10 finishes.
Just for fun.Earnhardt got his first Cup win at Bristol in 1979 after only 16 total Cup starts.
Just in case this is a trick question, The first NASCAR sanctioned race was in 1948. Red Byron won the Cup that year so it would be safe to say that Red Byron won the Championship in his Rookie season in NASCAR.
To go a little farther back. In 1947 Bill France announced he would direct a series of stock car races under the national Championship Stock Car Circuit banner. This would change to NASCAR in 1948. Fonty Flock won the championship that year. Since that was the prelude to NASCAR it would almost be as safe to say that Fonty won it in his Rookie season.
I hope I covered all the bases. lol
I thought it may be Earnhardt. Great question!
Dale Earnhardt Sr. ran his first race in the Winston Cup Series in 1975 but did not run ALL the races in a season until 1980 (he only ran 27 of 31 races in 1979, his rookie season) and won his first championship that year. Jeff Gordon won the Winston Cup after just his 3rd full season (1995) but did have his first cup race (the King’s last one ironically) at the end of 1992. Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch won it after their 4th full season as well. I just looked at the modern era and didn’t go all the way back to the beginning of NASCAR.
Dale Earnhardt Sr did it quickest and Jeff Gordon did it 2nd Quickest. Of course this is not Including the 1st season Champion of Nascar so it would have been his and the other drivers entering Season!!!!!
The answer to this question is Red Byron, who won in NASCAR’s inaugural year of 1948 and again in 1949. Thus he won in his first two years of NASCAR competition.