Richard Petty Career Stats

[pmossberg]

In the past couple of months, we've taken a close look at current RPM driver performance over their careers. I thought it would be interesting to see similar statistics for Richard.

Surprisingly, I could not find what I was looking for in any one place. So, what follows is taken in part from StatSheet.com, partially from Nascar.com's history pages and partially from my own research.

The column heads do not align with the statistics, but I think you will be able to figure it out. If anyone can teach me how to better format a table on this forum, please send me a private message and lets talk.

I think the Start-Finish Margin is really interesting.

This measures finishing position against qualifying position. For example, if you qualify 2nd and finish 4th, you get a -2.

Over his career, Richard's average start finish margin is 1.7. I intepret that as being amazingly consistent. Where he qualified, he finished. In other words, relative to his competitors, he could race as consistently fast as he qualified.

Year ~ Place~AvgStart~AvgFinish ~ Start Finish Margin ~ TotalLaps ~ LapsLed ~ Winnings

1992 ~ 26 ~ 22.1 ~ 23.0 ~ 0.9 ~ 7977 ~ 5 ~ $327,620
1991 ~ 24 ~ 26.6 ~ 22.0 ~ -4.5 ~ 8341 ~ 1 ~ $255,935
1990 ~ 26 ~ 26.3 ~ 25.0 ~ -1.2 ~ 7438 ~ 5 ~ $158,715
1989 ~ 29 ~ 27.6 ~ 25.8 ~ -1.8 ~ 5567 ~ 9 ~ $117,300
1988 ~ 22 ~ 23.8 ~ 24.4 ~ 0.7 ~ 6207 ~ 11 ~ $187,055
1987 ~ 8 ~ 20.2 ~ 13.3 ~ -6.9 ~ 8306 ~ 38 ~ $363,850
1986 ~ 14 ~ 15.5 ~ 17.4 ~ 2.0 ~ 7639 ~ 153 ~ $235,405
1985 ~ 14 ~ 17.0 ~ 17.9 ~ 1.0 ~ 7767 ~ 105 ~ $268,585
1984 ~ 10 ~ 14.8 ~ 15.2 ~ 0.4 ~ 8835 ~ 275 ~ $232,520
1983 ~ 4 ~ 14.6 ~ 10.7 ~ -3.9 ~ 9439 ~ 279 ~ $389,060
1982 ~ 5 ~ 13.4 ~ 14.4 ~ 1.1 ~ 7834 ~ 355 ~ $390,870
1981 ~ 8 ~ 10.6 ~ 15.4 ~ 4.7 ~ 7276 ~ 546 ~ $369,505
1980 ~ 4 ~ 9.1 ~ 11.7 ~ 2.6 ~ 9314 ~ 713 ~ $338,365
1979 ~ 1 ~ 7.6 ~ 6.4 ~ -1.3 ~ 9367 ~ 1150 ~ $416,470
1978 ~ 6 ~ 8.9 ~ 12.8 ~ 3.9 ~ 8904 ~ 419 ~ $215,410
1977 ~ 2 ~ 4.4 ~ 7.5 ~ 3.1 ~ 8840 ~ 1403 ~ $351,574
1976 ~ 2 ~ 6.1 ~ 9.0 ~ 2.9 ~ 8941 ~ 1269 ~ $319,774
1975 ~ 1 ~ 4.1 ~ 6.6 ~ 2.5 ~ 9082 ~ 3158 ~ $366,580
1974 ~ 1 ~ 4.0 ~ 6.8 ~ 2.8 ~ 9097 ~ 3100 ~ $335,725
1973 ~ 5 ~ 4.9 ~ 10.9 ~ 6.1 ~ 8644 ~ 1815 ~ $206,955
1972 ~ 1 ~ 4.1 ~ 4.7 ~ 0.6 ~ 10282 ~ 2093 ~ $248,275
1971 ~ 1 ~ 3.8 ~ 4.2 ~ 0.5 ~ 13739 ~ 4932 ~ $269,150
1970 ~ 4 ~ 4.5 ~ 6.8 ~ 2.4 ~ 10536 ~ 5007 ~ $139,219
1969 ~ 2 ~ 4.1 ~ 7.9 ~ 3.7 ~ 12589 ~ 2778 ~ $110,155
1968 ~ 3 ~ 3.5 ~ 8.4 ~ 4.9 ~ 12254 ~ 4242 ~ $89,063
1967 ~ 1 ~ 2.4 ~ 5.0 ~ 2.6 ~ 12739 ~ 5537 ~ $129,375
1966 ~ 3 ~ 3.6 ~ 11.0 ~ 7.4 ~ 8737 ~ 2924 ~ $88,130
1965 ~ N/A ~ 2.1 ~ 9.5 ~ 6.7 ~ 3697 ~ 852 ~ $16,400
1964 ~ 1 ~ 4.2 ~ 7.3 ~ 3.1 ~ 14041 ~ 3534 ~ $98,810
1963 ~ 2 ~ 6.5 ~ 7.5 ~ 1.0 ~ 12183 ~ 2121 ~ $47,955
1962 ~ 2 ~ 6.7 ~ 6.9 ~ 0.3 ~ 11551 ~ 1396 ~ $52,825
1961 ~ 8 ~ 8.9 ~ 11.0 ~ 2.1 ~ 7866 ~ 703 ~ $22,672
1960 ~ 2 ~ 7.3 ~ 8.2 ~ 0.8 ~ 8189 ~ 447 ~ $35,180
1959 ~ ? ~ 11.0 ~ 15.4 ~ 4.3 ~ 3648 ~ 7 ~ $7,630.00
1958 ~ ? ~ 14.4 ~ 20.4 ~ 7.4 ~ 977 ~ 0 ~ $760

Avg or Total ~ N/A ~ 9.5 ~ 11.3 ~ 1.7 ~ 307843 ~ 51382 ~ $7,202,872


Partially from statsheet.com/nascar/drivers/richard-petty/stats
Partially from Nascar.com
Partially my own research and compilation.

Click the picture below and a picture of the above chart will open.

Attachments:

[donmoos]

1987-88 was that when Robbie left? Major change in performance over night.

[songsmith1950]

I think it is all right here Paul.

www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=pettyri01

[pmossberg]

Well now...that would have saved me some freakin time!

I googled all sorts of petty&nascar&championship searchphrases.
And that site never came up on the results list.

Thanks Tom!

Ah well. I had fun pulling it together.

[songsmith1950]

You will find every driver from that page just by entering name at the search field. But then, I am sure you know that!
Happy Thanksgiving my data loving fried and all of you others as well!

[ricklou]

Racing Reference is a great source of information and I use it quite often.

If I am not mistaken Lee Petty has the best finishing average of any driver who drove for an extended period of time or for that matter all drivers at 7.6

But if you read a recent article that was posted on Fox Sports Online stuff like that does not compare to JJ's run ! Yeah right.

Richard's numbers dropped off after 1987 because he went past his prime more than the car not being good. At Talladega in 87 when Allison tore down the fence Petty ran over some of the junk and opened up a crush panel causing him to be sick by the end of that race. At Charlotte for the 600 he became ill and dizzy late in the race as Kyle took the win, he held on for third place. At Daytona in 1986 Petty hammered the wall in the Daytona 500 and suffered a shoulder injury. At Dover in 1986 he smacked the third turn wall at Dover real hard and broke a rib, I was there and it sounded like a bomb went off when he hit.

1987 was actually a decent year with several very good runs but it was starting to catch up with him. After barrell rolling Daytona in 1988 Petty's competitive days were pretty much behind him except having a third place finish at Richmond following the Daytona accident with several top 10's sprinkled over the next four years. Also he took a vicious hit at Sonoma in 1990.

Richard over the years took a lot of licks but hung in there. He probably should have retired after either 1984 or at least 1987 but when you own the deal you can do what you want at least in those days. Not know.

The FOX Sports Online" Is JJ the best ever" article waters down Richard's titles or accomplishments like others have recently but again the journalist attempts to weaken Petty's accomplishments instead of building a write on Jimmie's.

Is Jimmie Johnson the best ever ? No. He will have to win at least 7 titles and 7 Daytona 500's and that just is not going to happen.

As Richard was not concerned with his numbers in later years nor is Johnson concerned with being the best ever because he knows that there is only on King of Nascar. Jimmie Johnson has done something that no other has done but no one will ever do what Richard Petty has accomplished.

Pauls legwork does tell the Petty story very well with his start/finish ratio. Typically Richard was never concerned about qualifying as he pretty much hit the clock with a race set up and for many years his qualifying speed was the bench mark for race conditions. Of course Petty has the record for most pole positions and has the record for winning from the pole. Richard Petty is the most consistent driver in the history of Nascar.

Great job paul.

[songsmith1950]

So hard they do work to ignore anything before the "modern era". That is something that is so wrong. They try to tear down as you say what Richard did.
Let JJ win 7 Daytonas, 7 Championships, be runner up 6 times, and probably another dozen benchmarks he can not attain.
The reason they tear Richard down is that this is the only way they can truly build Jimmie up.