Rain Showers Bring... Race Winners?

By: Tom Luttermoser (I do not own the right to the Image via NASCAR Twitter) 

Over the years... NASCAR drivers have received gifts from mother Nature in the form of race victories. The two of three of the most recent stand as another form of gift, First Career wins. Justin Haley (Daytona 2) and more notably... Bubba Wallace's win at Talladega being the biggest story of them all. Bubba's for many reason the biggest of which was that he became only the second Black driver to ever win in NASCAR's top series. The third of those being a first win of the season for (at the time) defending Cup Series Champion Chase Elliott at the inaugural NASCAR race at Texas's Circuit of the Americas. 

Some hold rain wins as "not real wins" while some wins are praised (Dale Jr's final win @ Phoenix) and it seams that these wins depend on the popularity of the winner. One of the most popular race wins was (as listed) Dale Earnhardt Jr's 2015 Fall Phoenix win. It signified what very easily could have become the closest to a Cup title he had ever gotten and a HUGE "What if?" moment. After an abysmal round of 12 Jr was eliminated from the Playoffs. If he was not eliminated in that round the win at Phoenix would have locked him into Homestead and a shot at thee title which was what made it so special (No-one knew it would be his last).

On the other hand, overwhelmingly the worst received, probably in the whole of the history of the sport... was Wallace's Dega win last season. Although Extremely popular in terms of media reception and overall for the sport. Bubba Wallace's rain shortened win was absolutely hated and joked about even still constantly to this day on social media referencing "NASCAR only called the race due to the storyline it created and for the publicity". Now let's be honest, NASCAR Social Media is a sestpool of keyboard warrior vomit... But the haters are real. 

On to the main topic of the article; Rain Shortened Race winners!

Jeff Gordon & Darrell Waltrip are the "luckiest" drivers in NASCAR history with a combined 9 rain shortened wins. Five drivers have three wins each, two with two & a bunch with a single win. So for the moment ya'll have been reading for... Here's the list from luckiest to just lucky.
(spoiler alert, Kyle Busch has backed into 0 this way) 


1.)   Jeff Gordon            6                Bristol 1996, Talladega 1996, Atlanta 1998, Pocono 2007, Pocono 2012
2.)  Darrell Waltrip      4                 Atlanta 1977, Atlanta 1982, Bristol 1983, Darlington 1992
3.)  Rusty Wallace       3                 Pocono 1991, Martinsville 1995, Phoenix 1998
      Jeff Burton            3                 Spring Darlington 1999 Fall Darlington 1999, Las Vegas 2000
      Tony Stewart        3                 Michigan 2000, Loudon 2000, Fontana 2012
      Kurt Busch            3                 Atlanta 2002, Loudon 2008, Michigan 2015 (I was there)
      Cale Yarborough  3                 Martinsville 1976, Richmond 1977, Martinsville 1977
4.)  Richard Petty        2                Martinsville 1973 and Pocono 1974
      Serling Marlin       2                Daytona 1996 and Michigan 2001

& With 1 win each.. A big list 

5.   David Pearson, Tim Richmond, Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Chase Elliott, Bill Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Aric Almirola, Chris Buesher, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Justin Haley, Joey Logano, David Reutimann, Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Joe Nemechek, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Petty & Dave Marcis. 
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