Here’s one of NASCAR’s greatest oddities: Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson are the only drivers to win seven NASCAR Cup championships apiece. And while all three drivers have a combined 359 Cup wins, how many came on a road course?
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Believe it or not, Petty never earned even one road course win among his record 200 career Cup wins.
As for Earnhardt and Johnson, they won only once each on a road course in their respective careers, both on the same track: Sonoma Raceway.
What is particularly unusual about Earnhardt is he actually was one of the better road course drivers of his era. But Sonoma in 1995 is the only road course win on his overall 76-win career ledger.
In fact, The Intimidator made a total of 47 career starts on a road course, with his greatest success at the now defunct Riverside International Raceway in California, where he made 20 starts and came away with 13 top 5 finishes — but alas, no wins.
As for Sonoma, in addition to his lone career road course win there in 1995, he also had four top 5 and nine top 10 finishes in 12 starts at the twisting track north of San Francisco.
Earnhardt won the 1995 race living up to his nickname of The Intimidator. Mark Martin led 64 of the first 70 laps of the 74-lap event.
With two laps to go, Martin got into some oil in Sonoma’s famed Carousel and Earnhardt took advantage of the mishap to take the lead and never yield it in the final two circuits around the track.
“I was as careful as I could be the last lap without giving Mark a chance to get back to me,” Earnhardt said. “I knew I was close to getting my first win on a road course and I didn’t want to blow it after trying for so long.”
As for the other road course on the NASCAR schedule that Earnhardt raced upon, Watkins Glen, he made 15 starts with zero wins, three top 5 and eight top 10 finishes.
