Top 10: Ranking the track’s greatest drivers

David Smith, the Talladega-born founder of MotorsportsAnalytics.com, studied Talladega Superspeedway's most pertinent counting stats and considered the different generations of cars to provide his definitive ranking of the track's 10 greatest drivers.

10. Cale Yarborough

Yarborough won three times at Talladega -- in 1978, 1984 and 1985 -- across two generations of race cars. His first two wins, for owners Junior Johnson and Harry Ranier, respectively, were the results of last-lap passes while his third contained a 0.7-second margin of victory over Neil Bonnett.

9. Joey Logano

Logano finished inside Talladega's top five just twice in his first 13 starts, but thanks to a recent tear that includes victories in 2015, 2016 and 2018, he is now tied for the most Talladega wins during the Gen-6 era and has a better winning percentage (15 percent) than Jeff Gordon (13 percent).

8. Davey Allison

Allison only made 15 Cup Series starts at his home track, but he won three times -- twice in the Gen-3 era and his final win, in 1992, in the Gen-4 era. He is one of two drivers with at least three victories at the track to have won races with and without a restrictor plate.

7. Buddy Baker

Baker provided the heavy right foot in three years of Talladega dominance by Bud Moore's Ford. From 1974 through 1976, Baker led 490 laps out of a possible 940 in Moore's No. 15 and won three times. He won a fourth time -- the most of any driver in a Gen-2 car -- for owner Harry Ranier in 1980.

6. Darrell Waltrip

Considering 13 of his first 17 Talladega attempts ended early due to mechanical malfunction, Waltrip's record is remarkable. He won four times, twice for DiGard Racing in the Gen-2 era and a 1982 season sweep driving Gen-3 cars for Junior Johnson, for whom he finished third or better in five of his first six starts.

5. Bobby Allison

Allison's first Talladega win came at age 33 in 1971, while his fourth and final triumph came in 1986 at age 48. Only the top driver on this list rivals the longevity, but Allison's versatility -- his four wins across the Gen-2 and Gen-3 eras were on behalf of four different race teams -- is unmatched.

4. Brad Keselowski

Keselowski's initial Talladega win came in 2009, a surprise for his small-budget Phoenix Racing team and whose winning tactic gave birth to the polarizing tandem-drafting era. Since then, he added four more victories to his tally in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017, earning him a better winning percentage (25 percent) than Dale Earnhardt (23 percent).

3. Jeff Gordon

Gordon led at least one lap in 38 of his 46 Talladega starts, but more importantly, won six times -- five of them during the Gen-4 era -- and finished second on three occasions. He also led 902 total laps at the track. In his final win in 2007, he only led the final lap after averaging a 28th-place running position.

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt Jr. is the only driver to have won four consecutive Talladega races, part of a seven-race stretch from 2001 to 2004 in which he didn't finish worse than second. He tied Jeff Gordon with six wins overall and five during the Gen-4 era specifically, but topped Gordon in runner-up finishes (five) and laps led (967).

1. Dale Earnhardt

Talladega's best is inarguably Earnhardt, with 10 wins over an 18-year stretch pre-dating and including restrictor plates. No driver scored more wins in the Gen-3 or Gen-4 eras and his 23-percent win rate over 44 starts may never be duplicated. He led at least 100 laps in four consecutive races from 1991 to 1992, contributing to his 1,377 total laps led.