Ricky Rudd, the “Iron Man” of NASCAR, holds the record for most consecutive starts in NASCAR racing with 788. Rudd is the driver with the second most starts, 906, behind the King Richard Petty who has 1185. In 1984 Rudd was involved in a horrific crash in the Busch Clash at Daytona. Rudd’s car became airborne, and he suffered a concussion. His eyes were swollen so badly, that he taped his eyes open in order to be able to race in the Daytona 500.

The other day on Sirius NASCAR radio Chocolate Myers was talking about how many drivers had raced in the top-level of NASCAR since the Series was created in 1949.

The answer (that can be found on my Historical NASCAR Cup Series Driver Database page) is 2,858 drivers have started at least one NASCAR Grand National, Winston Cup and/or Sprint Cup race.

As of 15 races into the 2012 season there have been 30 drivers that have started all 15 races. 33 drivers have started 14 races. 36 have started 13 races. 38 have started 12 races.

65 drivers have started at least one race this season.

How Does That Compare To Other Sports?

• Major League Baseball: 1280 active players this year.
• National Football League: 1696 active players this year.
• National Basketball Association: 432 active players this year.
• National Hockey League: 690 active players this year.

This Is Where It Gets Really Interesting

Chocolate started breaking down the numbers of how many drivers started more than one race. The number changes by a large amount. It was about this time in listening to him that I thought, “My page doesn’t let you do that! I need to do something about that.”

Well, the extra programming is in place and you can now filter by number of races. Go try it out!

Here are some numbers using the new filter to see just how few drivers have made it to the elite level and raced in several races.

• 1832 (2+ races)
• 1440 (3+ races)
• 1087 (5+ races)
• 702 (10+ races)
• 407 (25+ races)
• 332 (36+ races)
• 275 (50+ races)
• 189 (100+ races)
• 116 (200+ races)
• 79 (300+ races)
• 50 (400+ races)
• 30 (500+ races)
• 23 (600+ races)
• 14 (700+ races)
• 8 (800+ races)
• 2 (900+ races)

Being able to race at the top-level of the NASCAR Series is truly an honor and a distinction.