Justin Haley’s win today at Daytona made me think: what are the biggest upsets in NASCAR history? A lot of races immediately came to mind and I knew I had to list them because it is a very fun topic to discuss. Who doesn’t love when the underdog wins? So without further ado, here are the biggest upsets in NASCAR history.

Johnny Mantz: 1950 Southern 500

The Southern 500 is one of NASCAR’s oldest and most prestigious races. Nowadays, it is host of NASCAR’s popular retro weekend where drivers run throwback paint schemes. Back in the day, it was known as the Labor Day classic and has been run on Labor Day weekend from 1950-2004 and again from 2015-present. So this was the first incarnation of the Southern 500 and the first 500 mile race in NASCAR history. 75 cars were entered into the race, a field full of drivers who had experience running on dirt, but not asphalt. The results were pretty chaotic: all the star drivers suffered from multiple blown tires as they had trouble adjusting to the asphalt. The tire situation was so bad that teams went into the parking lot and stole tires off of spectator’s vehicles because they ran out of spare sets of tires. In the end, one driver ended up having no tire problems. This driver was Johnny Mantz, an open wheel driver who only ran 12 Cup races in his career. He won by 9 laps over the second place driver, mainly due to the fact that he never had to stop for tires. The reason? Mantz put a set of truck tires on his car and coasted around the track at an average speed of 75 mph. This was Mantz’s only career win.

Junior Johnson: 1960 Daytona 500

Junior Johnson is a hall of fame driver with 50 career wins to his name. So why is he on this list? Because the Chevy he brought to Daytona in 1960 was so slow, Junior doubted he’d even be able to make the race on speed. The Pontiacs were the dominant cars of Speedweeks and very few were able to keep up with them. But during the race, Johnson made a discovery out of sheer desperation; when the Pontiac of Cotton Owens was going by, Johnson swung behind him and was able to keep up. He had discovered the aerodynamic draft that is a staple today in racing at Daytona and Talladega. Johnson used the draft to keep up with the field and took the lead late for the biggest win of his career in a car that probably had no business being in the field.

Wendell Scott: 1964 race at Jacksonville

Wendell Scott had a lot of things going against him. He was an owner-driver with a low budget and no major sponsors. He didn’t have a lot of backing from the sanctioning bodies either. Oh, and he was a black driver during the 1950s and 60s when racism against African Americans was still very prevalent, especially in the South where NASCAR was almost exclusively based at the time. Scott dealt with racism from other drivers and fans, but he was able to shrug it off and by this time, he was starting to become a solid driver. In 1964, Scott crossed the line first for the first time in his career. However, he was not initially declared the winner, Buck Baker was declared the winner with Scott being scored in 3rd place two laps down. There was a protest on Scott’s behalf and well after the race ended and all the fans were gone, Scott was declared the winner. Popular belief is NASCAR didn’t want to initially declare Scott the winner due to the racist culture of the time. Scott got the win but it was an ugly affair and a black eye on NASCAR’s behalf. Scott’s family didn’t even receive the trophy until 2010, 20 years after Scott’s passing. Wendell Scott remains the only African American driver to win a Cup series race.

Earl Ross: 1974 Old Dominion 500

Last year, the NASCAR Cup series was dominated by the “Big 3” of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. In 1974, there was a very similar thing going on with the big 4 of Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison. Those 4 have a combined 473 career wins and 14 championships and are all hall of fame drivers. Of the 30 races on the 1974 schedule, only 1 of them wasn’t won by this big 4. That race was at Martinsville Speedway and won by Canadian rookie Earl Ross. He is the only Canadian to win in the Cup series and it was his only career win, and he only made 5 more starts after the win.

Ron Bouchard: 1981 Talladega 500

Rookies winning in the Cup series was kind of rare back around this time. The previous two were Earl Ross as mentioned above, and Dale Earnhardt in 1979, and we all know how good he was. So when Ron Bouchard made a 3 wide pass on Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte in the Talladega tri-oval on the last lap, everyone was shocked. Waltrip summed it up best when he exclaimed “where the hell did he come from?”, thinking Bouchard wasn’t on the lead lap. Bouchard was driving for the small Race Hill Farm team owned by Jack Beebe, while Waltrip and Labonte drove for Junior Johnson and Billy Hagan respectively, two of the top car owners of the 1980s. Bouchard’s win helped him win the 1981 Rookie of the Year award. It was his only career win, although he was a competitive driver until the mid 80s.

Greg Sacks: 1985 Pepsi Firecracker 400

Greg Sacks was a journeyman driver throughout his entire career who only ran the full Cup Series schedule twice in his career. He was never able to secure a top ride and bounced around from team to team which were usually struggling to stay afloat, or needed a substitute driver. In fact, Sacks was probably the 1980s-90s version of Regan Smith, an ace substitute driver. At this point in time, Sacks was running from team to team when DiGard Motorsports offered him a one race deal to drive their R&D car at Daytona. DiGard was one of the top teams in NASCAR from 1975-1983, with the team winning multiple races and being in championship contention almost every year. They won the 1983 championship with Bobby Allison driving, but the team began to struggle in 1984. A year later, the team was still struggling and for Daytona, they brought a second unsponsored car for Sacks to drive. The purpose was for Sacks to run around the track and collect data for the team and eventually pull out of the race, but the car was running so well that they let Sacks continue to run the race. Sacks held on to beat Bill Elliott, the king of the superspeedways in 1985 for his first career win. It was a massive upset, and it led to Sacks driving for the team the rest of the year after Allison left the team following the race. This was the only career win for Sacks, as he didn’t stay with a team consistently long enough to be consistent.

Derrike Cope: 1990 Daytona 500

The 1990 Daytona 500 was dominated by Dale Earnhardt. He had a 35 second lead and seemed to be cruising to his first Daytona 500 win. A late caution erased his lead, but he still held onto the top spot as the laps continued to tick away. On the last lap, Earnhardt had Derrike Cope, Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott in tow. As they headed down the back stretch, Earnhardt’s car started to wiggle and in turn 3, he suddenly shot up to the top of the track, a tire going down. Cope slipped on by and held off Labonte and Elliott for an unlikely win. This was Cope and owner Bob Whitcomb’s first career win. It helped launch the most successful season of Cope’s career as he also won at Dover later in the year, his only other career win. This was the most unlikely Daytona 500 win until 2011.

Alan Kulwicki: 1992 NASCAR Champion

This is the only instance on this list where the driver didn’t win the race that is being discussed. However, Alan Kulwucki’s championship triumph in the season finale of the 1992 Hooters 500 is one of the best championship upsets in sports history in my opinion. Kulwicki was one of the few owner/drivers remaining in NASCAR, a throwback to the early days of the sport. He always ran well in his own equipment and won his first race at Phoenix in 1988, debuting the “polish victory lap” where the driver does his victory lap backwards so he can see the fans. Many car owners tried to recruit Kulwicki to drive for them, including Junior Johnson, who’s team was considered one of the best in NASCAR at the time. Kulwicki always turned these offers down because he wanted to win in his own equipment. In 1992, Kulwicki only won twice but was consistent enough to be right in the middle of the championship race heading into the season finale. Kulwicki was 10 points behind Bill Elliott, driving the Junior Johnson owned ride that was offered to him a couple years prior, as well as 40 behind Davey Allison of Robert Yates Racing. Kulwicki knew he was the underdog in this battle, which also included veteran drivers Harry Gant, Kyle Petty and Mark Martin all within 150 points of Allison. So Kulwicki went to Ford and NASCAR and got approval to change the “Thunderbird” lettering on the front of the car to “Underbird” to signify his underdog status. Heading into the Hooters 500, there was clearly a lot going on. Not only were these 6 drivers competing for the title, but it was Richard Petty’s final career race and Jeff Gordon’s first career race. During the race, Kulwicki and Elliott traded the lead multiple times throughout the day with Allison not too far behind. Allison crashed with about 30 to go, bringing the battle down to two. Kulwicki led 103 laps and relinquished the lead to Elliott for a pit stop when they knew they led enough laps to ensure they collected the bonus points for most laps led. This made the difference as Elliott won the race and led 102 laps, but Kulwicki finished second and led one more lap to give him the 10 point bonus to shoot him ahead in the standings. Had Elliott led more laps, the two would have tied in the standings and the tiebreaker would have gone to Elliott due to him winning 5 races in 1992 compared to Kulwicki’s 2. But alas, Elliott won the battle and Kulwicki won the war. Driving his own equipment, Alan Kulwicki beat all the top teams for the championship. He celebrated with his second and final career polish victory lap. Kulwicki didn’t get to fully defend his title; he ran the first 5 races of 1993 before dying in a plane crash. But his unlikely championship cemented his legendary legacy and he was elected into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019.

Michael Waltrip: 2001 Daytona 500

Michael Waltrip, the younger brother of NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip, was known as a decent driver throughout the late 80s and the 90s but he was never able to visit Victory Lane despite driving for some decent teams like Bahari Racing and the Wood Brothers. After the 2000 season, Waltrip was 0-462 in his Cup career. Dale Earnhardt hired him to drive his #15 NAPA car for DEI for the 2001 season, teaming him with Steve Park and Dale Earnhardt Jr. In his first race with his new team, Waltrip was having the race of his life. He was holding off Dale Jr. in second, his boss Dale Sr. in 3rd and a whole bunch of other cars. No one was able to touch the DEI cars as Waltrip held off Dale Jr. for his first win in his first race with the team. Tragically, Dale Earnhardt wrecked trying to block the pack behind him and lost his life in the accident. For Waltrip, the brightest moment of his career turned into the darkest. The win revived his career though and he won the Daytona 500 again in 2003.

Kevin Harvick: 2001 Cracker Barrel 400

After Dale Earnhardt’s death in the Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick was thrown into an impossible situation: being plucked from his Busch Series (now Xfinity) ride and put into Dale Earnhardt’s car. The paint scheme on the car was reverted from black to white and renumbered from 3 to 29. Harvick made his debut at Rockingham a week after Dale’s death. Two weeks later in his 3rd career start, Harvick found himself up front late in the race. With Jeff Gordon closing in, Harvick was barely able to hang on, beating Gordon to the finish line by 6 one thousandths of a second. This was a massive upset, considering it was Harvic’s third career start, was a lower series driver suddenly thrust into the Cup series and that he held off a 3 time champion in Jeff Gordon to do so. The win was a major morale boost for NASCAR fans as Dale Earnhardt’s car won a race less than a month after his death. Harvick has gone on to have a very successful career, winning the 2014 NASCAR championship and finishing in the top 5 in points many times.

Jamie McMurray: 2002 UAW-GM Quality 500

Jamie McMurray had a pretty successful career in NASCAR, winning 7 races including the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in 2010. But he came out of nowhere to win his first career race in 2002. McMurray was racing in the Busch series and was hired in September 2002 to race full time for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2003. Circumstances led him to make his Cup debut sooner: Sterling Marlin was one of Ganassi’s regular drivers and he suffered a neck injury in a crash at Kansas that led to him having to sit out the rest of the season. McMurray made his debut at Talladega the next week. The following week at Charlotte, McMurray won in his second career start, setting a new NASCAR modern era record. He led 96 of the final 100 laps and held off Bobby Labonte for the win. McMurray began his full time career the next season and won Rookie of the Year. He never won races at a ridiculous clip but winning in his second career start was a massive surprise.

Brad Keselowski: 2009 Aarons 499

Brad Keselowski was a driver for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide (now Xfinity) series in 2009. He had a deal with Phoenix Racing, a small team who had been in NASCAR since 1989 and never won a race, to run select Cup races, as well as some with Hendrick Motorsports. Brad ran two races for Hendrick early in the season and ran his first race with Phoenix at Talladega. Big crashes took out a majority of the field but Keselowski was able to survive and towards the end of the race, he was pushing Carl Edwards for a shot at the win. On the last lap, Brad kept pushing Carl and through the tri-oval, Edwards lost control, got airborne, and hit the catch fence. Keselowski slipped by for his first career win in his 5th career start. This was the first and only race a Phoenix Racing car won in the Cup series. Keselowski has since become one of the best drivers of the 2010s with the 2012 championship and over 30 wins under his belt.

Trevor Bayne: 2011 Daytona 500

No one knew who Trevor Bayne was coming into 2011. He ran a handful of Nationwide series races in 2010 and made his Cup debut at Texas in the Fall. For 2011, Bayne hooked up with the Wood Brothers on a limited schedule, starting with the Daytona 500. He ran well in the race, and towards the end, he beat Tony Stewart on a restart and then held off a charging Carl Edwards for the win in just his second career start. Bayne became the youngest driver to win the Daytona 500, having turned 20 two days prior. This was also the first win for the Wood Brothers since 2001 adding to the unlikeliness. In my opinion, this is the biggest upset on this list. I had never even heard of Bayne until this race and his career afterward was pretty unremarkable, essentially make him the biggest one hit wonder in NASCAR history. But that win came in the most spectacular fashion in recent memory.

Regan Smith: 2011 Southern 500

Before Furniture Row Racing became a championship winning team in 2017 with Martin Truex Jr., they fell on some hard times. They were based out of Denver, Colorado, they sponsored their own race car and had ran part time for their first 5 years of existence. They went full time in 2010 with Regan Smith as their driver. Smith was a decent driver but was never a weekly contender. At Darlington at the Southern 500, though, they had a decent car running in the top 10. When Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch brought out a late yellow flag, Smith stayed out on old tires while others pitted. With a green-white-checkered following, Smith held off Carl Edwards, who had fresher tires for 2 laps to take his first career win, redeeming himself for a 2008 Talladega loss where a win was taken away when he passed Tony Stewart under the out of bounds line. This was Smith’s only career Cup series win, but he had a lot of success in the Xfinity series, winning 6 races there and competing for championships for JR Motorsports. For Furniture Row Racing, this was their first win. They didn’t win again until Pocono 2015, but the Darlington win likely kept the team afloat and they never would have had the success they had from 2015-18 without this race.

David Ragan: 2013 Aarons 499

David Ragan was a great restrictor plate driver, he won at Daytona in 2011 driving for Roush Racing. But no one thought he’d win a race in a Front Row Motorsports car, even at a plate track like Talladega. But that’s exactly what happened. Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson were all battling for the win, when on the last lap, Ragan pushed through the middle lane with drafting help from his teammate David Gilliland. The two Front Row cars held on for the organization’s first win. Their other career win was at…

Chris Buescher: 2016 Pennsylvania 400

Now I got to witness this one in person. It was a rainy weekend at Pocono and this race was held on a Monday due to weather. The weather was still lousy on Monday and there was a bit of doubt if the race would be completed or not. Towards the end of the race with about 30 to go, green flag pit stops were occurring. The Front Row Motorsports Ford of Chris Buescher was on a different pit cycle and held the lead for multiple laps. Buescher won the Xfinity series championship in 2015 for Roush Racing, but was on loan to Front Row due to Roush having no room for him on their Cup team. So Buescher was stuck with Front Row for now, but their strategy paid off when the caution came out due to fog in turn 1. Then the red flag came out as most of the rest of the track got covered in the thick fog. With storms approaching, the race was called and Buescher got his first win. I left the track that day surprised but happy to see an underdog win.

Justin Haley: 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400

The events of yesterday’s race are pretty amazing. Haley is an Xfinity series regular driving his 3rd career race. His team, Spire Motorsports is a new team for the 2019 season, forming and acquiring the charter from Furniture Row Racing after they disbanded. The team has struggled weekly to finish on the lead lap, although picking Quinn Houff to drive their car doesn’t exaclty inspire confidence. Haley has come in and given the cars their best runs so far and he avoided the big one at Daytona to put himself in the position he needed to be in. With Kurt Busch pitting and turning the lead over to Haley, lightning in the area halted on track activity, and eventually the rain came. That led to the massive upset we just got to witness.