Countdown to Daytona

We are counting down the days to the 2009 season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. Each day highlights a number that corresponds to the countdown number.

• Feb. 15 -- 0: Daytona 500 victories for Rusty Wallace, making the driver with the most Cup victories, 55, without a victory in the 500. In fact, Wallace never won a Cup or Nationwide series race at the track. He was winless in 47 Cup starts and four Nationwide starts. The active driver with the most Cup wins without a victory in the 500 is Mark Martin (35 wins).

• Feb. 14 -- 1: Drivers whose only Cup victory came in the Daytona 500. In his seventh Cup start, Mario Andretti won the 1967 Daytona 500 (two of those starts were qualifying races for the 500; those races counted through 1971). All told, Andretti started 14 Cup races from 1966 to 1969.

• Feb. 13 -- 2: Career Truck Series victories for Kasey Kahne. Why is that significant? Because Kahne is 2-for-2 in Truck races. His two starts in 2004 remain his only starts in the series. He won the final two races of the season, at Darlington and at Homestead.

• Feb. 12 -- 3: Dale Earnhardt's car number for 67 of his 76 Cup victories. Earnhardt's first six victories came in Rod Osterlund's No. 2 Chevrolet. In 1982 and 1983, Earnhardt picked up three victories in Bud Moore's No. 15 Ford before he moved on to Richard Childress Racing in 1984 and the car number the Intimidator made famous.

• Feb. 11 -- 4: Consecutive years Kyle Busch has won at least one race in each of NASCAR's top national series. Busch finished 2008 with eight wins in the Cup Series, 10 wins in the Nationwide Series and three wins in the Truck Series. Two other drivers have won in all three series in the same year -- Kevin Harvick in 2003 and Terry Labonte in 1995.

• Feb. 10 -- 5: Mark Martin's car number in the Cup Series. It is Martin's ninth number in a Cup career that began in 1981, with seven of those numbers under 10. The numbers: 01 (25 races), 02 (39), 2 (7), 4 (6), 6 (619), 8 (24), 12 (1) and 37 (1). His first points race in the No. 5 is Sunday's Daytona 500.

• Feb. 9 -- 6: Number of Cup tracks on which David Pearson did not have at least one top-10 finish. Pearson competed on 63 tracks from 1960 to 1986. The six are Augusta (Ga.) International Raceway; Montgomery (Ala.) Speedway; Texas World Speedway in College Station; Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla.; West Virginia International Speedway in Huntington; and Harris (N.C.) Speedway. He had two starts at College Station and Jacksonville, and one at the others. Lest you think we are being unfair to Pearson, he had top-10 finishes at 10 other tracks he raced on twice and 12 other tracks he raced on once.

• Feb. 8 -- 7: Lead-lap finishes for James Hylton in 601 Cup races. His final LLF came August 1972 in his 297th race when he won the Talladega 500 by one car length on Ramo Scott. Hylton and Scott were the only cars on the lead lap. Bobby Allison finished third, five laps back, and Red Farmer was fourth, eight laps behind Hylton.

• Feb. 7 -- 8: Career Cup victories for Kyle Petty in 829 starts. Petty's victories rank 60th all time. Petty, 48, broke into NASCAR at 19 with five races in 1979. He competed in the Cup Series every season through 2008. He does not have a 2009 ride. Petty's last win was June 4, 1995, at Dover. He won the Miller Genuine Draft 500 by .22 seconds in front of Bobby Labonte.

• Feb. 6 -- 9: Cup victories for the No. 40. The last driver to take the No. 40 to Victory Lane in the Cup Series was Jamie McMurray in 2002 in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte. The victory came in McMurray's second Cup start, the earliest in a career a driver has won a race in the modern era. Tommy Thompson, Pete Hamilton (three wins) and Sterling Marlin (four) combined for the other eight wins.

• Feb. 5 -- 10: Record number of Cup Series qualifying sessions canceled because of inclement weather in 2008, including four in the Chase (three in a row). The field was set by the points standings at Fontana, Bristol, Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen and the second races at Richmond, Loudon, Charlotte, Martinsville and Atlanta. Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch each started from the pole five times because of the cancellations with Johnson winning once and Busch twice.

• Feb. 4 -- 11: Bill Elliott's car number for six of his 44 Cup victories. Elliott won six races in the No. 11 for Junior Johnson, five in 1992 and one in 1994. His other 38 wins came in the No. 9, the first in 1983 and the last in 2003.

• Feb. 3 -- 12: The fewest cars to start a Cup race. It has happened seven times, including three times in 1964, the last season a field that small started a Cup race. All seven races were 100 miles on half-mile tracks. Only the 1959 race was on a paved oval. Here are the small seven:

• Feb. 2 -- 13: Number of drivers to lead at least 400 laps in a Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch became the latest when he led 415 laps last August in the Sharpie 500. He didn't win the race, though. Carl Edwards led the final 31 laps for the victory. The record for laps led at Bristol is 500, set by Cale Yarborough, who led the 1973 Southeastern 500 from start to finish. Busch isn't the only driver to lead 400 laps and not win. Richard Petty (442) finished second in July 1964 and Rusty Wallace (409) was second in August 1993.

• Feb. 1 -- 14: Number of drivers to win Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports. Dale Earnhardt Jr. became the 14th when he won at Michigan last June. Every full-time driver for Hendrick Motorsports since 2000 has won at least one race while with HMS -- Jeff Gordon, Jerry Nadeau, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, Joe Nemechek, Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers, Casey Mears and Earnhardt. The other five drivers to win with Hendrick are Geoffrey Bodine, Tim Richmond, Darrell Waltrip, Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd.

• Jan. 31 -- 15: Cup victories for Richard Petty at North Wilkesboro Speedway and at Martinsville Speedway. Those two short tracks were Petty's most successful. In 66 races at North Wilkesboro, Petty had 33 top-fives and 42 top-10s. In 67 races at Martinsville, Petty recorded 30 top-fives and 37 top-10s. All told, 108 of Petty's 200 Cup wins came on short tracks. Both numbers are NASCAR records.

• Jan. 30 -- 16: Consecutive years Jeff Gordon has won at least one pole in the Cup Series. Gordon won four poles in 2008 and is third on the all-time list behind David Pearson (20) and Richard Petty (17).

• Jan. 29 -- 17: Ned Jarrett's first Cup Series victory came in his 17th start. Jarrett lapped the field to win a 200-lap race on the half-mile dirt track of Rambi Speedway in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Aug. 1, 1959. It didn't take long for Jarrett to get win No. 2. The next day at Southern States Fairgrounds in Charlotte, N.C., Jarrett lapped the field again to win another 200-lap race on a half-mile dirt track. Jim Paschal finished second in both races.

• Jan. 28 -- 18: Career Cup Series victories for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch. Each driver won one race in 2008. Busch's victory at Loudon gave him at least one win in seven consecutive seasons; Junior's win snapped a 71-race victory drought.

• Jan. 27 -- 19: Nationwide victories for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, a series record. The previous record was 13 by Richard Childress Racing in 2007. Both Gibbs cars posted wins. The No. 20 car had nine wins (Tony Stewart, 5; Denny Hamlin, 2; Kyle Busch and Joe Logano, 1 each) and the No. 18 had 10 (Busch, 8; Hamlin, 2).

• Jan. 26 -- 20: Fred Lorenzen's first Cup victory came in his 20th start and kicked off a tear in which he won all of his 26 races in a 108-race stretch. The first win came in the 1961 Grand National 200 at Martinsville. The race was scheduled for 500 laps but was shortened to 149 because of rain. Rex White, who finished second, led the first 118 laps; Lorenzen led final 31. Lorenzen, who never ran a full Cup season -- the most races he ran in a season was 29 in the 55-race 1963 season -- finished his career with 75 top-five finishes and 84 top-10s in 158 races.

• Jan. 25 -- 21: Cup wins for Jeff Burton in 511 career starts. Burton has 117 finishes in the top five and 212 in the top 10. Burton won two races in 2008, his first multiwin season since he won two in 2001 to close out a stretch of five consecutive years with multiple victories (17 victories).

• Jan. 24 -- 22: Consecutive years there have been first-time pole winners in the Cup Series. Patrick Carpentier kept the streak going in 2008 when he won the pole in June at New Hampshire. Three others became first-time pole winners after Carpentier: Paul Menard (Daytona), Travis Kvapil (Talladega) and David Reutimann (Homestead).

• Jan. 23 -- 23: Dirt track wins for David Pearson and Junior Johnson. Pearson finished his Cup Series career with 105 victories, Johnson with 50. In 90 starts on dirt tracks, Pearson had 48 top-five finishes, 60 top-10s and 18 poles. Johnson's numbers are similar but in 143 races on dirt: 54 top-fives, 67 top-10s and 18 poles.

• Jan. 22 -- 24: Career poles won in the Cup Series by 1992 champion Alan Kulwicki. Kulwicki, who had 207 Cup starts, ranks 15th in the modern era (since 1972). Jeff Gordon is first with 67.

• Jan. 21 -- 25: Times Jimmie Johnson has finished ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon in their 255 common Cup Series races. Johnson has beat Gordon 140-115 in those races. He has finished first 40 times; Gordon has 23 victories.

• Jan. 20 -- 26: The latest race in a season in which the eventual champion won his first race. On June 4, 1961, at Fairgrounds Raceway in Birmingham, Ala., Ned Jarrett won his only race of the 52-race season. Jarrett was the only driver to complete all 200 laps on the half-mile dirt track, winning by two laps in front of Jim Paschal.

• Jan. 19 -- 27: Career Cup Series poles for Terry Labonte, one more than his brother Bobby. Terry also leads his brother in Cup championships by one. Terry won titles in 1984 and 1996, and Bobby won his title in 2000.

• Jan. 18 -- 28: Different drivers to lead the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega last October, setting the all-time Cup Series record for different lap leaders in a race. The previous record, 26, also was set at Talladega -- in July 1986 and tied in April 2001. Tony Stewart led the most laps of the 190-lap race, 24, and took the checkered flag for his only win of the 2008 season.

• Jan. 17 -- 29: Career laps led in Truck Series races by Jimmie Johnson. NASCAR's three-time defending Cup champion has competed in one Truck race in his career, finishing 34th at Bristol last August. It is also the only time a Randy Moss Motorsports entry has led a Truck race in 13 starts.

• Jan. 16 -- 30: Career poles in the Nationwide Series for Mark Martin. In addition to having won the most poles in the series, Martin also holds the record for victories with 48. Of the 169 races in which Martin has been running at the finish (of 230), he has finished in the top 10 147 times and in the top five 110.

• Jan. 15 -- 31: Jimmie Johnson's all-time rank in the Cup Series for top-five finishes. Johnson, the three-time defending series champion, has 101 career top-fives. Richard Petty holds the record with 555. Jeff Gordon is the active leader with 247. Forty of Johnson's top-five finishes are victories.

• Jan. 14 -- 32: Nationwide Series victories for Kevin Harvick, second only to Mark Martin's 48. Harvick, who won Nationwide championships in 2001 and 2006, has 106 top-five finishes and 152 top-10s in 214 starts during 10 seasons. He also has won 17 poles, eighth on the all-time list.

• Jan. 13 -- 33: Cup Series victories for two-time champion Tony Stewart. In 10 years with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart also had 129 top-five finishes and 207 top-10s. Stewart is now an owner/driver with Stewart-Haas Racing and will drive the No. 14 after 356 races in the No. 20.

• Jan. 12 -- 34: The winning car number in the first NASCAR race, June 19, 1949, at Charlotte Speedway. Jim Roper got the win when Glenn Dunnaway in the No. 25 was disqualified for using illegal shocks. Dunnaway took the checkered flag three laps ahead of Roper, which is why records show Roper completing 197 laps on the three-quarter-mile dirt track.

• Jan. 11 -- 35: Cup races run at Hickory (N.C.) Speedway. Tim Flock won the first NASCAR race at the track in May 1953 when the surface was dirt and the length was a half-mile. When Tiny Lund won the final Cup race in August 1971, it was a .363-mile paved track. Seven of Junior Johnson's 50 career wins came at Hickory. NASCAR returned to Hickory in 1982 with the Nationwide Series and ran 42 races. Ed Berrier won the final Nationwide race in April 1998.

• Jan. 10 -- 36: Career Cup poles won by Rusty Wallace, the ninth most in the modern era (since 1972). Wallace, the 1989 Cup champion, is tied with 1960 champ Rex White for 17th on the all-time list. Wallace retired after the 2005 season with 55 wins in 706 starts.

• Jan. 9 -- 37: Career Cup victories for 1970 champion Bobby Isaac. In 308 career races (1961-76), Isaac had 134 top-fives and 170 top-10s. He won 49 poles. In Isaac's championship season, he won 11 races and finished in the top five 32 times and the top 10 38 times. He won 17 races in 1969 when he finished sixth in the standings. In 97 races in those two seasons, Isaac had 61 top-fives, 71 top-10s and 32 poles.

• Jan. 8 -- 38: Tony Stewart's margin of victory on Mark Martin in the 2002 Cup standings. It marked the fourth time in Martin's career he finished second in the standings, and it was the second time he was runner-up by fewer than 40 points. In 1990, Martin finished 26 points behind Dale Earnhardt.

• Jan. 7 -- 39: Ryan Newman's Sprint Cup number in 2009. After 252 races in the No. 12 (his first eight were in the No. 02), Newman switches to the No. 39 in his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing. No. 39 is special to Newman. It was his first Silver Crown number and the number for his first USAC midget win at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Newman's home state of Indiana. In addition, six of his seven Nationwide wins have come in the No. 39.

• Jan. 6 -- 40: Victories for the No. 15 car in 1,137 Cup races. Tim Flock picked up the first win in 1957, and it wasn't until 1975 when the No. 15 returned to Victory Lane, with Buddy Baker. All four of Michael Waltrip's Cup wins have come in the No. 15, the most recent at Talladega in 2003. Drivers to win in the No. 15: Flock, Baker (5), Waltrip (4), Bobby Allison (14), Benny Parsons (3), Dale Earnhardt (3), Ricky Rudd (6), Geoff Bodine (3) and Morgan Shepherd.

• Jan. 5 -- 41: Victories for the No. 99 car in 871 Cup races. Carl Edwards has won the last 16, including nine in 2008. Before Edwards, Jeff Burton won 17 times in the 99 for Jack Roush. The other eight victories came from Curtis Turner (1956), Shorty Rollins (1958), three by Paul Goldsmith (1966), Richard Brickhouse (1969) and two by Charlie Glotzbach (1970). The victories by Rollins and Brickhouse were the only ones in their careers. Brickhouse's came in the first Cup race at Talladega.

• Jan. 4 -- 42: Kyle Busch's victory total in 342 races in NASCAR's top three national series. That's one victory every 8.1 races. Busch, 23, has 12 wins in 150 Sprint Cup starts, 21 in 138 Nationwide starts and nine in 54 Truck races.

• Jan. 3 -- 43: Ryan Newman's career Cup poles. Newman, in 260 races, already ranks 11th all time and sixth in the modern era (since 1972). No one ahead of Newman has started fewer than 300 races.

• Jan. 2 -- 44: Career poles won by Mike Skinner, the most in the 14-year history of the Camping World Truck Series. Skinner, who won the inaugural Truck championship in 1995, has 25 wins in 179 starts in 10 seasons.

• Jan. 1 -- 45: Races in the 1955 season, setting a short-lived record for races in a season. Each of the next three seasons featured more than 50 races. Overall, the 1955 season had the 15th-most races. The most in a season is 64 in 1962; the least is eight in 1949, the inaugural season that began in June. Tim Flock won 18 races in 1955 and his second championship.

• Dec. 31 -- 46: Speedy Thompson's car number when he won his first NASCAR race, a 200-lap event on the half-mile dirt track of Central City Speedway in Macon, Ga., in September 1953. Thompson started 197 races from 1950 to 1971, winning 20. He remains the only NASCAR driver with the nickname Speedy. His given name is Alfred.

• Dec. 30 -- 47: Career Cup top-fives for Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle. The similarity in their statistics doesn't end there. Except for their difference in starts -- Biffle has 222, Busch 150 -- their other major statistics are close. Biffle holds slight advantages in victories (14-12), top-10s (78-72) and poles (6-4).

• Dec. 29 -- 48: Career Cup victories for two-time champion Herb Thomas. In 228 races (1949-62), Thomas had 122 top-fives and 156 top-10s. He won 39 poles. From 1951 to 1956, Thomas won 47 times and finished first or second in the standings five times and fifth once.

• Dec. 28 -- 49: Career Nationwide Series top-five finishes for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 106 races. Earnhardt, who won Nationwide championships in 1998 and 1999, has 22 wins, 68 top-10s and nine poles in the series. He has not competed in more than nine Nationwide races in a season since he won his second title. His title-winning seasons are his only full-time seasons.

• Dec. 27 -- 50: Darrell Waltrip's first Cup victory came in his 50th start. Waltrip won the 1975 Music City USA 420 at .596-mile Nashville Speedway by two laps over Benny Parsons. Waltrip led 147 laps, and Cale Yarborough led the other 273 before he had to retire with engine troubles after 322 laps. Yarborough finished 14th.

• Dec. 26 -- 51: Rowdy Burns' car number in the movie Days of Thunder. It is also the number for six of Kyle Busch's nine Truck Series victories. "Rowdy Busch," not "Kyle Busch," is painted over the driver's side door on his Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 51 truck. For the full story, click here.

• Dec. 25 -- 52: Jimmie Johnson's rank in his first season in the Cup Series. In 2001, the year before he became a full-time Cup driver, Johnson started three races and accumulated 210 points. As a rookie in 2002, Johnson finished fifth in points, beginning an unprecedented modern-era run of seven finishes in the top five to begin a career.

• Dec. 24 -- 53: Ward Burton's first Cup victory came in his 53rd start. Burton won the 1995 AC-Delco 400 at Rockingham by 1.9 seconds on Rusty Wallace. Burton, whose last race was in 2007, has five wins in 375 Cup starts in 13 years.

• Dec. 23 -- 54: Cup wins for Lee Petty, ninth on the all-time list. Petty's career ran from 1949 to 1964, and he won at least one race every year through 1961. In addition to his 54 wins in 427 Cup starts, Petty won two races in the Convertible Series in 28 starts.

• Dec. 22 -- 55: Speedy Thompson won his 10th race in his 55th start. It is a record that still stands. Thompson won his 10th race at Monroe County Fairgrounds in 1956 in Rochester, N.Y., leading 147 of the 200 laps on the half-mile dirt track. Thompson finished his career with 20 wins in 197 races.

• Dec. 21 -- 56: Laps led by Aric Almirola in 12 Cup races in 2008. Almirola led more laps than nine drivers who competed in all 36 Cup races. He ranked 22nd among the 71 drivers who started at least one Cup race.

• Dec. 20 -- 57: Top-10 finishes for Martin Truex Jr. in 95 Nationwide Series races. He recorded 48 of them in 2004-05 when he won consecutive Nationwide titles. Truex is the most recent of five drivers to win consecutive Nationwide titles, following Sam Ard (1983-84), Larry Pearson (1986-87), Randy LaJoie (1996-97) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998-99).

• Dec. 19 -- 58: Drivers with one victory in the Cup series. Casey Mears, Juan Montoya, Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers are the active full-time Cup drivers with only one career win.

• Dec. 18 -- 59: Cup poles won by Darrell Waltrip, the fifth-most all time. Richard Petty leads with 126, followed by David Pearson (112), Cale Yarborough (70) and Jeff Gordon (67). Waltrip won poles in 13 consecutive seasons (1974-86) and won 24 races from the pole in his 29-year career.

• Dec. 17 -- 60: Mark Martin's car number for 39 of his record 48 victories in the Nationwide Series. After picking up three wins in the No. 31, one in the No. 06 and two in the No. 1, Martin won the next 39 in the No. 60. The first was at Rockingham in October 1992; the last was in September 2000 at Darlington. The other three wins came in the Nos. 9 (twice) and 5.

• Dec. 16 -- 61: Cup victories for the No. 17. The first 30 wins were by David Pearson; the next 15 by Darrell Waltrip; and the other 16 are by Matt Kenseth. Pearson (1966, '68-69), Waltrip (1981-82, '85) and Kenseth (2003) all won Cup championships, making the No. 17 one of seven car numbers with all of its victories by drivers who won Cup titles. The other six are Nos. 24, 91, 37, 60, 06 and 86. Those numbers, however, had only one winner, led by Jeff Gordon's 81 wins in the No. 24.

• Dec. 15 -- 62: The field for the 1954 race on Daytona's Beach & Road Course, won by Lee Petty. Herb Thomas led the first two laps on the 4.1-mile course, and Petty led the final 37. The 62-car field is not a record for the 10 races held on the course. Two years later the field was 76 cars.

• Dec. 14 -- 63: Career top-10 finishes in Cup races for Gillett Evernham Motorsports teammates Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne. Sadler, 33, has 357 Cup starts; Kahne, 28, has 180. Sadler has three wins and 18 top-fives; Kahne has nine wins and 35 top-fives.

• Dec. 13 -- 64: Top-five finishes for Ken Schrader in 732 Cup starts. Schrader, who has four wins and 184 top-10s, does not have the fewest top-fives among active drivers with at least 700 starts. Michael Waltrip has 39 in 725, and Kyle Petty has 52 in 829. Waltrip has four wins, and Petty has eight. The active driver with 700 starts and the most top-fives is Mark Martin with 243 in 722 starts.

• Dec. 12 -- 65: The car number with the fewest starts in the Cup series. The No. 65 has been in 94 races. Not surprisingly, it has had the fewest top fives (one) and top 10s (nine) and is tied for last in wins and poles (zero). It is also the only car number to never lead a lap. Jerry O'Neill is the last driver of the No. 65, going 0-for-8 in 1992 and 1993. Carl Adams had the most starts, 19, in 1975. Buck Baker, who ranks 13th all time with 46 victories, drove the No. 65 twice at the end of his career and didn't finish either race.

• Dec. 11 -- 66: Benny Parson's first Cup Series victory came in his 66th race and it also was the last Cup race run at .357-mile South Boston (Va.). Parsons won the 281-lap race (100.3 miles) by more than a lap over Richard Petty on May 9, 1971.

• Dec. 10 -- 67: Cup Series poles won by Jeff Gordon, the most among active drivers and fourth all time. Gordon trails Richard Petty (126), David Pearson (112) and Cale Yarborough (70). Gordon won four poles in 2008 and has won at least one pole every season since his rookie year, 1993.

• Dec. 9 -- 68: The largest field for the running of a Daytona 500. Junior Johnson won the 1960 race, starting ninth and leading a race-high 67 laps. Ned Jarrett and Curtis Turner moved up the most through the field. Jarrett started 54th and finished sixth, and Turner started 53rd and finished seventh.

• Dec. 8 -- 69: Margin of victory for Jimmie Johnson over Carl Edwards in the 2008 Chase, the second-largest spread between first and second since the Chase format was implemented in 2004. The most was in 2007 when Johnson beat Jeff Gordon by 77 points.