Nominee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2020
Jim Paschal holds a rare distinction in that he competed in the very first race in what is now the NASCAR Cup Series. Quickly and regularly, the North Carolina native became a force to be reckoned with – winning 25 races in a career that spanned more than two decades.
All but two of his 25 victories came on short tracks. The two “big track” wins both came in the Coca-Cola 600, including the 1967 race in which he led a dominating 335 of the 400 laps. That laps-led mark held nearly five decades — until 2016, when Martin Truex Jr. led 392 laps to win that race. Five times in his career Paschal led at least 300 laps in claiming a race victory.
Born: Dec. 5, 1926
Died: July 5, 2004
Hometown: High Point, NC
Cup Series Stats
Competed:1949-72
Starts: 421
Wins: 25
Poles: 12
Years on Ballot: 1
The most productive stretch of his career came in the 1969-72 seasons when he won 16 of the 73 races he competed in — a 22 percent winning percentage. For the entirety of his career he averaged an impressive 11th place on short-track venues.
RELATED: Jim Paschal’s career stats
| Members of the Hall of Fame
He boasts a remarkable statistic in finishing top 10 in more than 50 percent of the races he competed — 230 of 421 races. Six times he won multiple races in a season and yet he never ran a full schedule in his 23-year NASCAR career.