| 50 | Victories by Bobby Allison on superspeedways in the modern era (after 1971), the most by any driver. |
| 49 | Winston Cup championships awarded since 1949, NASCAR's inaugural season. |
| 48 | Wins in 1965 by Fords, the most by any one manufacturer in a single season. |
| 47 | Short-track victories by Darrell Waltrip, who has won 18 more races on short tracks than anyone else in the modern era. |
| 46 | Career wins by Elzie Wylie (Buck) Baker. Baker, who drove from 1949 to '76, and his son Buddy, who drove from '59 to '92, are third behind two pairs of Pettys on the list of career starts by a f
ather and son: Richard and Kyle Petty started a total of 1,685 races; Lee and Richard Petty, 1,611; and the Bakers, 1,355. |
| 45 | Times the most popular driver award has been handed out. Seventeen men have received the honor; Bill Elliott has won it more than anyone else (12 times). |
| 44 | Kyle Petty's car number. How did he choose 44? The same way his dad, Richard, chose 43: natural progression. Richard's father, Lee, drove 42. So how did Lee choose 42? He saw it on a license pla
te in his garage. |
| 43 | Years that have passed since a foreign car won a NASCAR race (it has happened only once). On June 13, 1954, Al Keller, in a Jaguar, took the checkered flag in a 100-mile race on a paved roa
d course at Linden Airport in New Jersey. (Foreign cars are prohibited from NASCAR.) |
| 42 | Drivers with 10 or more career victories. Dale Jarrett was the latest to join the 10 club when he won at Darlington in March 1997. |
| 41 | Starts Jeff Gordon made before winning his first race—the Coca-Cola 600, in May 1994. Since then the longest drought he has endured between victories was 13 starts in 1994 and '95. |
| 40 | Drivers who have been named rookie of the year. The 1997 honoree, Mike Skinner, joined an illustrious group. Previous winners include Richard Petty (1959), David Pearson (1960), Donnie Allison (
1967), Dale Earnhardt (1979), Rusty Wallace (1984) and Jeff Gordon (1993). |
| 39 | Consecutive races that were led by Bobby Allison in the early 1970s. His streak, which started with the Southern 500 in 1971 and ended with the American 500 in 1972, is a Winston Cup re
cord. Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough are tied for second—each led in 25 straight races. |
| 38 | The worst starting position of a driver who went on to win a race. Bill Elliott started there in the 1988 Firecracker 400 at Daytona but eventually took the checkered flag. |
| 37 | Races won by David Pearson from the pole position, putting him second on the alltime list. Richard Petty won 61 races from the pole. |
| 36 | The total number of states (35) and Canadian provinces (one) that have hosted a Winston Cup race. |
| 35 | Consecutive years, from 1958 to '92, that Richard Petty competed on the Winston Cup circuit, an alltime record. Buddy Baker, Dave Marcis and Cale Yarborough, each of whom drove 30 straight
seasons, are next on the list. |
| 34 | Races into the 1952 season when Tim Flock won the series championship. On the 164th lap of the 34th and final race of the year, at West Palm Beach, Fla., Flock's Hudson crashed into the wall and
rolled. He had already amassed enough points to win the title by starting the race, and when he emerged from his overturned car he said, "I bet I'm the only driver who has won the championship on his head." |
| 33 | Career victories by Fireball Roberts. In 15 seasons of racing, Roberts finished in the top 10 in 59.2% of his races and won 16.0%. |
| 32 | Straight races won by Fords in 1965. Only three other manufacturers won races that year: Dodge (with David Pearson behind the wheel), Mercury (Darrell Dieringer) and Plymouth (Richard Petty). |
| 31 | Races run by Richard Petty and Bobby Allison in 1972; each led in 30 of them. Their percentage of races led to starts (96.8%) is a Winston Cup record. Jeff Gordon's 93.5% (29 of 31) in 1995
is next; Cale Yarborough, with three straight seasons of 93.3% (28 of 30), is fourth. |
| 30 | Victories in a single season by one team—a Winston Cup record. Nine drivers, including Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Herb Thomas, Speedy Thompson and Fonty and Tim Flock, helped owner Carl Ki
ekhaefer also set the mark for top-10 finishes that year, 1956, with 92. |
| 29 | Years of Winston Cup racing at Dover Downs International Speedway in Delaware. The Monster Mile is one of only two concrete tracks remaining on the Winston Cup circuit. Bristol is the other. |
| 28 | Number of tracks in North Carolina that have hosted Winston Cup races. One quarter of all Winston Cup races—473 of 1,821—have been run in the Tar Heels state. |
| 27 | Victories in 1967 by Richard Petty, the most in a single season by any driver in NASCAR history. Second most? Petty's 21 in 1971. |
| 26 | Consecutive years of racing by Elmo Langley. In 536 career starts, from 1954 to '81, Langley drove his Ford into the winner's circle only twice, and those two victories came five weeks apart in
1966 (on June 4 and July 7). |
