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NASCAR races are known for being unpredictable, as the fastest car doesn’t always win a race for one reason or another. While most races are still won by the same group of top Cup Series drivers, there have been a few exceptions. What are some of the most random wins in NASCAR history?
Jim Roper is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to have won his only race thanks to a disqualification, and it happened in the first Cup Series race in history. The NASCAR Cup Series was originally called the “Strictly Stock” Series, meaning cars were unaltered from the showroom floor aside from some safety enhancements.
The initial winner of the race, Glenn Dunaway, ran a car that was modified to transport moonshine. NASCAR elected to disqualify Dunaway, giving the win to Roper. Roper only made one more Cup Series start that season, and he never raced in NASCAR again afterward. Talk about random.
David Glliland’s lone Xfinity Series win is an example of a team just nailing the setup. Gilliland made only 9 starts that season for Clay Andrews, and the team qualified a solid 4th at Kentucky. In a field with Cup Series stars like Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Clint Bowyer, that’s quite impressive.
Well, Gilliland took it a step further. he stayed in contention all night, and he took the lead from J.J Yeley with 11 laps to go on a restart. Gilliland would hang on to win the race. A win that absolutely no one saw coming, and it vaulted him into a full-time Cup Series ride for Robert Yates the following season.
Chris Buescher is the first weather-related entry on this list. In 2016 at Pocono, a race already delayed a day by rain, a thick fog bank rolled in over the track, blocking the back of the track. NASCAR red-flagged the race, and Chris Buescher just happened to be in the lead.
The fog never lifted, and NASCAR declared Buescher the winner. While FRM and Buescher winning a race wouldn’t be a surprise today, it was in 2016. It was Buescher’s first career win, and it was only FRM’s 2nd win as a race team.
Greg Sacks entered the 1985 Firecracker 400 for DiGard Racing, but, he was absolutely the number 2 driver to Bobby Allison. No one expected Sacks to do much, even after he qualified 9th. Next thing people knew, Sacks was in the lead in the closing stages.
He beat Bill Elliott, who led 103 laps that day and 11 superspeedway races in 1985, by 25.3 seconds. The win made absolutely no sense, and no one saw it coming. Allison ended up leaving the team just a couple of weeks late, and the number 2 driver winning at Daytona played a role in that exit.
Justin Haley won a race thanks to a literal lightning strike. During the 2019 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, a late caution with rain on the way caused dissension amongst driver strategies. Do you pit and hope the rain stays away, or do not pit and pray for rain?
Haley and Spire Motorsports opted for the latter, as leader Kurt Busch dove into pit road just before the caution was supposed to end. As they were getting ready to restart, lightning struck nearby, starting a lightning delay. The race never got back going, and the race is, to this day, both Haley’s and Spire’s only Cup Series win.
NASCAR races are often won by random individuals through strange means. Will someone add to this list this weekend?
