![]() Fireball Roberts Roberts, who got his legendary nickname from his days as a hard-throwing pitcher in high school, is perhaps the greatest driver never to win a NASCAR title. He was arguably stock-car racing's first superstar, an immensely popular prototype for some of today's competitors who are stars on and off the track. During his career he often came up big in the biggest events, winning the Daytona 500 in 1962 and the Southern 500 in 1958 and '63. Overall he won seven races at Daytona International Speedway, starting with the Firecracker 250 in the summer of 1959 -- the year the speedway opened.
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| YEAR | RANK | RACES | POLES | WINS | TOP 5 | TOP 10 | AVG. START | AVG. FIN | LED | LAPS | LLF | RAF | DNQ | DRIVER RATING | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 4 | 9 of 19 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 13.9 | 7.3 | 60 | 1009 | 2 | 5 | 2 | -- | |
| 1951 | 24 | 9 of 41 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9.9 | 17.8 | 0 | 825 | 1 | 2 | 1 | -- | |
| 1952 | 71 | 7 of 34 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15.0 | 28.6 | 15 | 384 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -- | |
| 1953 | 244 | 2 of 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.0 | 45.0 | 41 | 198 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -- | |
| 1954 | 51 | 5 of 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 0 | 381 | 0 | 2 | 3 | -- | |
| 1955 | 190 | 2 of 45 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 | 57.0 | 4 | 69 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | |
| 1956 | 4 | 33 of 56 | 3 | 5 | 16 | 21 | 9.8 | 11.8 | 475 | 5496 | 10 | 21 | 1 | -- | |
| 1957 | 2 | 42 of 53 | 4 | 8 | 21 | 27 | 5.8 | 9.2 | 1107 | 6891 | 16 | 31 | 0 | -- | |
| 1958 | 14 | 10 of 51 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 877 | 2491 | 8 | 9 | 0 | -- | |
| 1959 | 31 | 8 of 44 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 15.5 | 19.4 | 147 | 1445 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -- | |
| 1960 | 29 | 9 of 44 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1.4 | 23.4 | 578 | 1338 | 2 | 2 | 0 | -- | |
| 1961 | 5 | 22 of 52 | 6 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 8.1 | 11.0 | 1002 | 5075 | 4 | 14 | 0 | -- | |
| 1962 | 8 | 19 of 53 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 5.2 | 12.4 | 960 | 4312 | 4 | 13 | 0 | -- | |
| 1963 | 8 | 20 of 55 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 14 | 4.3 | 10.2 | 692 | 4643 | 5 | 14 | 0 | -- | |
| 1964 | 27 | 10 of 62 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 9.1 | 12.4 | 17 | 1702 | 4 | 6 | 1 | -- | |
| TOTALS | 207 of 683 | 36 | 33 | 92 | 121 | 7.7 | 12.9 | 5975 | 36259 | 58 | 123 | 11 | -- |