Manufacturer loyalty evolving with the times

Ryan Newman's victory in Saturday night's race at Phoenix was his 14th Cup win overall but first in a Chevrolet. And it raises some interesting questions about manufacturer loyalty and how that has evolved over the years.

It's natural to connect Richard Petty with Plymouths, Dale Earnhardt with Chevrolets, and Bill Elliott with Fords, but like Newman, none of those three won exclusively with those manufacturers.

Buck Baker won races driving Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Fords, Chryslers, Dodges, Chevrolets and Pontiacs.

Earnhardt scored three victories in Fords for Bud Moore before landing in the now-iconic No. 3 Chevrolet with owner Richard Childress. Bill Elliott has four wins for Dodge to go with his stellar career in Harry Melling's No. 9 Ford. And Petty won in seven different makes: Plymouth, Ford, Dodge, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Buick and Pontiac.

How rare is company loyalty in NASCAR? Of the top 50 drivers in all-time wins, only 11 can claim victories under the banner of one manufacturer. And of those, only Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Dick Hutcherson have never strapped themselves into a rival manufacturer's car as the official driver of record at the Cup level.

Given that five of those six drivers currently compete for either Rick Hendrick or Jack Roush tells you a lot about the eventual growth and dominance of multi-car super teams over the last decade and a half. Gordon is an interesting case in that he was under a development contract with Ford when he landed the ride with Hendrick at the end of the 1992 season, and since then, has made 588 starts under the Chevrolet banner.

The anomaly is Hutcherson, a native of Iowa, who made 103 starts during a four-year period beginning in 1964. He made his NASCAR debut by winning the pole at South Carolina's Greenville-Pickens Speedway in March of that year, the first of four races as a driver-owner.

Holman-Moody, Ford's flagship team at the time, took notice and signed him to drive the No. 29 Ford the following season, and he responded by winning at Greenville-Pickens in his return, then adding eight more victories on his way to finishing second in the season points to fellow Ford driver Ned Jarrett. But because he had won a pair of International Motor Contest Association championships in 1963 and 1964, he was not eligible for NASCAR's rookie of the year under the rules of the day.

Hutcherson would win five more races during the next two seasons, running a limited schedule as Ford briefly pulled its manufacturer support. He wound up driving sports cars, finishing third as co-driver with Ronnie Bucknum in the 1966 24 Hours of LeMans.

Best known for driving the No. 28 Ford, Davey Allison's first eight races were in Chevrolets.

By 1968, Hutcherson had retired from driving and began working as a crew chief for David Pearson, helping Pearson win back-to-back Cup championships the next two seasons. That led to him being named general manager of Holman-Moody, where he worked until 1971, when he formed a partnership with Eddie Pagan.

Hutcherson-Pagan became one of the preeminent suppliers of racing equipment and parts, and even though Hutcherson died in 2005, the company continues to have a presence in the garage area at every Sprint Cup race.

As for the other drivers who recorded their victories for one manufacturer, all 37 of Bobby Isaac's wins came in a Dodge, although he also drove Pontiacs, Plymouths, Fords and Chevrolets. Rex White won 28 times for Chevrolet, although he also drove for Ford, Pontiac and Mercury. Fred Lorenzen scored 26 wins for Ford, but also drove for Chevy, Dodge and Plymouth.

Davey Allison is most associated with the No. 28 Ford and Robert Yates, for which he won 19 races. But the first eight races of his career were in Chevrolets. And Greg Biffle, who has 14 wins for Roush's Ford operation, had four starts in a Chevrolet and two in a Dodge at the end of 2002.

In case you're wondering, Buck Baker holds the unofficial record for wins in different makes with eight. He won races driving Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Fords, Chryslers, Dodges, Chevrolets and Pontiacs. Tied with Petty at seven is Bobby Allison, who visited Victory Lane with Chevy, Dodge, Ford, Plymouth, Mercury, American Motors and Buick. Jim Paschal, who only won 25 times, did it in six different makes, the same as Cale Yarborough and Herb Thomas.

Given the fact that only four manufacturers are participating in the sport at the present time, it's highly unlikely anyone will surpass Baker's mark.