The ultimate NASCAR race

I'm no gearhead -- I haven't watched a race for more than two minutes in 20 years -- but I keep up with the sport through Sports Illustrated and obviously NASCAR is as major a league as there is in the United States.

With the end of the football season tonight, the next big event on the U.S. calendar is the Daytona 500 so tonight I'll present my ultimate NASCAR race. Racers one through 43, just like the starting Daytona grid.

I based the system a bit on golf but customized it a bit to fit with the Chase in that the top 12 drivers received points. Winning the Grand National or Winston or Nextel Cup was worth 20 points. Second place was 11, third eight 10, etc.

A driver received a bonus point for every race won during the season. And the top three drivers in the Daytona 500 received points as well. The winner received five, second received two and third place was worth one.

I totaled all three to give a driver a yearly score and then ranked drivers based on their best three year, six year, 10 year and career totals.

Let's break down a driver to show how it works. How about Bill Elliott.

Elliott's best year -- in my system -- was 1985 when he finished second in the Winston Cup, won the Daytona 500 and 11 races overall. His score was 11 points for the season series, five for winning Daytona and 11 bonus points for wins (So winning Daytona actually amounts to six points). That's 27 points.

His second best year was 1992 when he actually won the Winston Cup. He got 20 points for that, but he was not in the top three at Daytona and won just five races so his yearly score was 25.

In 1987, he was again second in the Cup, won Daytona and six races for a score of 22.

To figure his top three year score, I added 27, 25 and 22 and divided by three for a score of 24.67. I took his top six scores and divided by that number for that total and the same with 10.

For the career score, I took all of the points he scored in 18 seasons -- 181 -- and divided it by 27. Why 27? That's the number of seasons Richard Petty scored at least one point in my system so he's the one to be measured against.

To reach a final score, I added the 3-year, 6-year, 10-year and career rankings together for a total.

Then I made one little adjustment. Richard Petty's 200 wins were off the charts, but when you look back at NASCAR's season, the King's numbers are a bit inflated. Before 1955, the season had on average about 29 races a season. From 1955 through 1971, NASCAR was running numerous mid-week races to generate cash for the drivers. In that time, the average number of races included in the Cup was just under 50.

In 1972, NASCAR scaled back on the schedule to where between 28 and 36 races are run each year. Since drivers in the '60s had so many more opportunities to pick up bonus points, the wins from 1955 through 1971 were worth 0.67 points.

That changed the standings slightly, but as you'll see the same driver finished on top with or without the adjustment.

So with Daytona two weeks away, here would be the all-time field in an ultimate Daytona 500.

Pole pos., Racer, Years, Total
1. Richard Petty, 1959-1987, 119.68
2. Dale Earnhardt, 1979-2000, 92.16
3. Cale Yarborough, 1965-1985, 86.59
4. Darell Waltrip, 1975-1994, 84.33
5. Jeff Gordon, 1994-2007, 80.00
6. David Pearson, 1961-1980, 76.66
7. Bobby Allison, 1966-1988, 72.36
8. Lee Petty, 1949-1961, 67.11
9. Bill Elliott, 1983-2003, 66.64
10. Herb Thomas, 1950-1956, 65.13
11. Jimmie Johnson, 2002-2007, 61.87
12. Dale Jarrett, 1991-2005, 60.94
13. Buck Baker, 1952-1964, 58.67
14. Ned Jarrett, 1959-1965, 57.72
15. Tim Flock, 1949-1956, 57.47
16. Tony Stewart, 1999-2007, 52.00
17. Terry Labonte, 1979-2003, 50.50
18. Mark Martin, 1989-2007, 49.90
19. Benny Parsons, 1970-1987, 49.75
20. Joe Weatherly, 1958-1963, 42.90
21. Bobby Labonte, 1995-2003, 41.53
22. Bobby Isaac, 1964-1973, 39.26
23. Rex White, 1958-1963, 38.27
24. Fireball Roberts, 1950-1964, 38.00
25. Matt Kenseth, 2000-2007, 37.37
26. Harry Gant, 1980-1992, 36.29
27. Fonty Flock, 1949-1956, 36.23
28. Jeff Burton, 1997-2007, 35.31
29. James Hylton, 1966-1977, 35.22
30. Kurt Busch, 2002-2007, 34.47
31. Ricky Rudd, 1979-2002, 33.77
32. Curtis Turner, 1949-1965, 33.56
33. Junior Johnson, 1955-1965, 33.16
34. Sterling Marlin, 1987-2002, 31.51
35. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2000-2006, 30.61
36. Davey Allison, 1987-1993, 30.29
37. Speedy Thompson, 1953-1960, 28.54
38. Dave Marcis, 1970-1984, 26.25
39. Jim Paschal, 1953-1967, 25.79
40. Ken Schrader, 1987-1998, 24.63
41. Buddy Baker, 1965-1983, 23.88
42. Ernie Irvan, 1990-1997, 23.47
43. Kevin Harvick, 2001-2007, 23.42

A couple of names you don't see on this list are A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. Foyt won a Daytona 500 but neither he nor Andretti spent much time in NASCAR. Foyt won four Indy 500s and a 24 Hours at LeMans in open wheel while Andretti is the last U.S. driver to win the Formula 1 title.

Personally, I'm biased because I grew up when Foyt was winning his last Indy races but I don't see how he can't be the best U.S. born driver ever.

But this is a NASCAR ranking. I'm working on a worldwide all-time ranking I hope to have done by the end of the Daytona 500. So if you're a racing fan, check back then.