How the final seasons of Jeff Gordon’s career compare to other NASCAR greats
As Jeff Gordon prepares for his final full-time Sprint Cup Series season in 2015, he’s got the chance to be an outlier among NASCAR’s greats.
If he wins the 2015 title, Gordon, 44 at the end of the season, has the opportunity to end his career as the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion, something no NASCAR legend in the top 10 in wins can claim.
And even if he doesn’t leave the sport as the 2015 titlist – yes, Gordon isn’t using the word “retirement” but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be back in a Cup race anytime soon, if ever – the final seasons of his career are some of the best of NASCAR’s top-10 winners.
Gordon’s most recent title came in 2001 as a 29-year-old. And while he hasn’t won one in the last 13 seasons, he’s won 34 races and finished in the top 10 of the points standings 12 times. We like his chances to add to the win total and make it 13 top-10s in 14 seasons.
Yes, Gordon is retiring young compared to all of NASCAR’s great winners, but for comparison’s sake, here’s a look at how the retired drivers among NASCAR’s top-10 winningest fared in their final seasons.
1. Richard Petty (200 wins): You know by now that Gordon’s first race was the final race of 1992. That was also Petty’s last race. However, Petty hadn’t been a factor in the Cup Series for a long time. His last win came in 1984 and his last top-10 finish in the standings was in 1987, when he finished 8th as a 50-year-old. Petty’s last Cup title came in 1979 at 42. In his final season, Petty was 26th in the standings and didn’t finish in the top 10.
2. David Pearson (105 wins): Pearson is a bit of an exception throughout his NASCAR career. He hardly ran a full season. Only twice did he compete in all but one of the races on the schedule. However, that didn’t stop him from dominating. Pearson competed in 574 races and won three titles, including a 16-win season in 1968. His last best season came in 1976, when he was 41. He won 10 of the 22 races he entered (the Cup season was 30 races) and finished ninth in the standings. His last races came in 1986, when he made two starts and had one top-10 finish.
3. Gordon (92 wins)
4. Bobby Allison (85 wins): Allison is one of the oldest drivers to win a Sprint Cup Series title. In 1983, at the age of 45, he won six races and had 25 top-10 finishes in 30 races as he won his first and only Cup title. He made his final starts in 1988 as a 50-year-old. He competed in 13 of 29 races that season, winning once and finishing in the top 10 six times. Of all the retired drivers in the top 10, his twilight may be the best. In the five years after he won his title, he won five races and finished in the top 10 three times.
5. Darrell Waltrip (84 wins): Waltrip’s final season was in 2000, when he ran 29 races as a 53-year-old. His last best season came in 1992, when he won three races and finished ninth in the points standings. His win at Darlington in 1992 was his 84th and final win, meaning he went the final eight years of his career without a victory. Waltrip’s last Cup title came in 1985, when he won three races en route to his third title.
6. Cale Yarborough (83 wins): Yarborough made his final Cup start in 1988 as a 49-year-old, though his last full-time season in the Cup Series was in 1980, when he won six races and 14 poles while finishing second in the points standings. After 1980 he ran a part-time schedule the rest of the way and won 14 races through 1985. The final three seasons of his career were winless. Yarborough’s final Cup title came as a 39-year-old in 1978.
7. Dale Earnhardt (76 wins): The end of Earnhardt’s career is truncated and a bit different from the others for obvious reasons. In his final season as a 49-year-old in 2000, he won two races and had 24 top-10 finishes as he finished second in the standings to Bobby Labonte. His last Cup title came in 1994, when he won four races. In the seven seasons (and one race) since his seventh Cup title, he won 13 races.
8. Jimmie Johnson (70 wins): To be determined
9. Rusty Wallace (55 wins): Wallace’s final season was in 2005 as a 48-year-old. While he went winless in his last season, he made the Chase for the first time and finished eighth in the standings. Wallace’s lone Cup title came in 1989 as a 32-year-old. He had a run of 11 consecutive top-10 finishes in the points standings until he finished 14th in 2003.
10. Lee Petty (54 wins): Petty was also 45 when he won his third and final Cup title in 1959. He missed two races that season but won 11 races and had 35 top 10s. After that title, he raced five more seasons, though the 1960 season was his only effort that included more than spot starts. In 39 starts in 1960 he won five races. Over the next four years he made nine starts combined and his last win came in 1961.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
