Top 10 Most Successful NASCAR Teams


As with most motorsports events, the success of individual NASCAR drivers only provides us with a single dimension of knowledge and insight into the world of this sport. Another key factor to look at is the success of NASCAR teams in each series. A driver is only as good as the team behind them, and over the 70 plus years there have been some great and very successful Nascar Teams.

Hendrick Motorsports is the most successful NASCAR Cup Series Team with 291 race wins to date. However across all 3 National NASCAR Race Series Joe Gibbs racing with 200 cup and 173 Xfinity wins is the most overall successful team for a total of 373 NASCAR National Wins.

*Updated as of February 2023

In this Article we are taking a closer look at the 10 most successful NASCAR teams overall. We’ll start by looking at the Top 6 teams with the most total race wins across three different NASCAR Series: Cup, Xfinity, and Truck.

Table 1: Most Victories across all NASCAR National Series.

TeamCup Series WinsXfinity WinsTruck WinsTotal Wins
1. Joe Gibbs Racing2001730373
2. Hendrick Motorsports2912626335
3. Roush Fenway Racing13813750325
4. Petty Enterprises26802270
5. Richard Childress Racing1138939241
6. Team Penske138740212
updated February 2023

What Is The Most Successful NASCAR Cup Series Team?

Team Penske

One of the most eclectic teams anywhere in American Motorsports, Team Penske has interests in NTT IndyCar, NASCAR, and FIA World Endurance. While the team was dominated by America drivers from 1968 to 1984 — with the exception of British driver, David Hobbs in 1971 — the team started welcoming a wider range of world drivers from the 1980s and 1990s, including drivers from New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, canada, Denmark, Uruguay, Italy and more. One can learn more about this team and its achievements at the Penske Racing Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona, which opened in 2002.

Team Penske’s top winning driver is Rusty Wallace.

Richard Childress Racing

Based in North Carolina, Richard Childress Racing (RCR) takes part in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series. Childress himself is a former NASCAR driver and owns the team entirely. Their team currently consists of 2 Chevy Camaro ZL1s for the Cup series, and another pair of Camaros for the Xfinity series. The team has had at least 1 of its cars qualify successfully for every Cup race without failure since 1972.

RCR’s top winning driver is Dale Earnhardt.

Petty Enterprises

Petty Enterprises was a NASCAR team with some serious heritage behind it. The name Petty is synonymous with NASCAR greatness, having produced multiple generations of great drivers, including the team’s top winning driver, “The King” himself, Richard Petty. In 2008 at the onset of the financial crisis, the team was struggling to find sponsorship and ultimately closed and was absorbed into Gillett Evernham Motorsports. The team had previously held the title of “winningest team” in the NASCAR Cup Series for an astonishing 61 years before finally being dethroned by Hendrick Motorsports.

Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing

RFK was originally known as Roush Racing when it was founded back in 1988, but since then has been renamed Roush Fenway Racing in 2007, and then RFK in 2022 when Brad Keselowski joined the ownership team. Known for its connection to the Ford brand, the RFK team races 2  Ford Mustang GT models for its 2 key drivers Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher.

RFK’s top Cup Series driver is Mark Martin.

Hendrick Motorsports

The Hendrick team traces its roots back to the mid-1980s when it was originally founded as “All Star Racing” by owner Rick Hendrick. As mentioned above, it was the team that finally eclipsed Petty Enterprises as the winningest team of the NASCAR Cup Series, a record they’d held for 6 decades. Hendrick has held onto that record to this day, despite other teams winning more races across the 3 main series in total (see below).

Despite the superstardom of Kyle Larson and the like, the team’s top Cup Series driver is actually Hall of Famer, Jeff Gordon.

Joe Gibbs Racing

Founded back in 1992, Joe Gibbs racing has boasted an impressive record in both the Cup and Xfinity Series of racing. They even manage to edge out Hendrick overall when you take into account their combined Cup and Xfinity Series wins. They’re top driver is Kyle Busch, and the team races Toyota cars in the NASCAR series. To be more precise, their Cup Series team includes 4 Toyota Camry vehicles, and 2 Toyota Supra cars for the Xfinity Series.

4 More Cup Series Winners

For the remainder of our Top 10, we’d like to focus more on the Cup Series. The following are the next most successful teams for the Cup Series besides those mentioned above:

Junior Johnson & Associates — 132 wins

A long-running NASCAR team that operated from 1953 to 1995 in what was then the Winston Cup Series, Junior Johnson & Associates was founded by Junior Johnson, a NASCAR driver himself in the 1950s. Driving talent who raced for the team included Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Geoffrey Bodine and Sterling Marlin, among others. By the end of it all, Junior Johnson ended up selling his team as he prepared to retire in full from the sport.

Wood Brothers Racing — 99 wins

Another long-running team, Wood Brothers Racing was founded by Leaonard and Glen Wood back in 1950. The team was known for its association with Ford, fielding Ford Mustangs on race day. They also maintain a technical alliance with Team Penske. Leonard Wood is credited with being the main innovator behind the modern pit stop, and under his stewardship, Wood Brothers recorded the first-eve 4-tire full swap done in just 25 seconds. The team continues today, with its flagship Mustang driver Harrison Burton, son of former NASCAR driver and now NASCAR analyst for NBC, Jeff Burton.

Holman-Moody — 96 wins

Holmany-Moody is primarily an automotive manufacturer supplying NASCAR more broadly, but also had a racing team in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Even though their last Cup Series win was back in 1971, and the team was shut down in 1973, they still place in the top 10 for their total number of overall Cup Series wins. As a manufacturer, they are known for their use of vintage parts and traditional techniques in Ford machines.

Stewart-Haas Racing — 67 wins

Stewart-Haas is a relatively new addition to the NASCAR racing team scene, having been founded in 2002 by Gene Haas. It has 4 drivers in the Cup Series, and just 1 more in the Xfinity Series. It’s yet another team that races under the Ford manufacturer banner, racing Ford Mustang GT models in the Cup Series and Xfinity series.

Conclusion

It is close at the top than a lot of other motor sports team victories which demonstrates that although there is always grumbling about the “stock ” being taken out of “Stock car racing” it still clearly has an effect on the closeness of races, results and seasons.

With just 15 victories separating the top two winningest teams in the Cup series over the 70 plus year history of NASCAR, and the top 6 all being well over 3 figures in terms of wins it shows that everything is still to play for each season and that a NASCAR win really can be taken by any team.

References

https://www.sportskeeda.com/nascar/ranking-top-nascar-teams-hendrick-motorsports-penske-racing#:~:text=Hendrick%20Motorsports%20is%20the%20most,championships%2C%20two%20by%20Kyle%20Busch.

https://www.nascar.com/gallery/team-success-most-nascar-national-series-wins-all-time/#photo-1

https://sportsshow.net/most-valuable-nascar-teams/

Roy

Al lifelong Motor Racing Fan, with a particular love of NASCAR and IndyCar racing. Been in and out of cars of varying speeds since i was a child and sharing what i have learnt here.

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