30 With 30: Gordon, Earnhardt Highlight More Competitive Era of NASCAR

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The 2025 campaign will mark the 76th season of competition in the NASCAR Cup Series, in which time several talented drivers have come and gone, leaving their marks on the history books and the NASCAR community, in general.

While not all of the most talented drivers were able to reach the 30-win landmark, several of NASCAR’s stars, both on and off the racetrack have done so, and with Kyle Larson’s triumph in last Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead, are being celebrated.

Of the nearly 3,000 drivers that are recorded to have taken the green-flag in a NASCAR Cup Series event – whether it be just once, or more than a thousand times (Richard Petty), there are less than three dozen human beings that can say they’ve won more than 30 NASCAR Cup Series events.

Just 21 years into NASCAR’s history, there were only 10 drivers that managed to surpass the 30-win milestone – and those 10 drivers accounted for 519 wins in 980 races, a total of 52.96%.

READ PART #1 - 30 With 30: NASCAR's First 10 Drivers to Cross the 30-Win Mark

Now, for these next 10 drivers, there was a little bit more competition to deal with in the NASCAR Cup Series, which is why it took from 1971 to 2007 (36 years) for the series to have another 10 drivers that managed to collect a total of 30 NASCAR Cup Series victories.

1. Bobby Allison
2. Cale Yarborough
3. Darrell Waltrip
4. Dale Earnhardt
5. Bill Elliott
6. Rusty Wallace
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Mark Martin
9. Dale Jarrett
10. Tony Stewart
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Bobby Allison

Bobby Allison was the eleventh driver to collect 30 NASCAR Cup Series victories, crossing over the landmark in November 1971. | Photo: ISC Archives, Getty Images

Bobby Allison is technically the oldest winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, after being awarded the victory of the 1971 Myers Brothers 250 at Bowman Gray Stadium a whopping 53 years after the checkered flag was displayed, in October 2024, mere weeks before his passing.

While that controversy may occupy the forefront of people’s minds when thinking about Allison, who now ranks fourth on the all-time wins list with 85 triumphs, there are many other accolades that define his time at NASCAR’s top-level.

Allison is the 1983 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, a three-time DAYTONA 500 wins (1978, 1982, and 1985), a four-time Southern 500 winner (1971, 1972, 1975, 1983), and a three-time World 600 wins (1971, 1981, 1984), among many other things.

The Hueytown, Alabama-native, widely associated with ‘The Alabama Gang”, earned his landmark win No. 30 in the NASCAR Cup Series in 1971, in the Georgia 500 at Middle Georgia Raceway in Macon, Georgia, when Allison dominated the 500-lap event around the 0.548-mile paved short track to capture the victory, beating Tiny Lund by more than one lap.

While it wasn’t known during the height of his successes in NASCAR, Bobby would be the pioneer of a multi-generation successful racing family, with his son Davey Allison rising to prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, before tragically losing his life in a helicopter crash.

Cale Yarborough

Cale Yarborough was the twelfth driver to collect 30 NASCAR Cup Series victories, collecting his landmark 30th win in July 1975. | Manny Rubio-Imagn Images

With three NASCAR Cup Series championships (1976, 1977, 1978), four DAYTONA 500 victories (1968, 1977, 1983, 1984), and five Southern 500 victories (1968, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1982), Cale Yarborough is one of the most decorated drivers in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.

For more than three decades, Yarborough graced the NASCAR Cup Series with his presence, making his final start in 1988 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, more than 31 years after his debut in the series, and nearly a quarter-century after his first victory.

Yarborough is quite different than many of the others on this list, though, with his 30th NASCAR Cup Series victory coming before the driver managed to claim his first title. The landmark victory came in the 1975 Nashville 420 at Nashville Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee, where on July 20 he beat Richard Petty by more than one lap to capture the victory.

At the end of his driving career, Yarborough elected to jump into the team ownership game. While he did make some starts for his own team, the organization’s only win in 13 years came with John Andretti in the 1997 Firecracker 400 at Daytona.

Darrell Waltrip

Darrell Waltrip was the thirteenth driver to secure 30 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, reaching that landmark in March 1981. | Greg Lovett / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

During the height of his NASCAR Cup Series success in the 1980s, Darrell Waltrip found himself to be nearly unstoppable, with a streak of eight consecutive seasons where the Owensboro, Kentucky-native won five or more events – including a pair of 12-win seasons in 1981 and 1982 that netted him back-to-back championships.

With three NASCAR Cup Series championships (1981, 1982, 1985) and victories in the DAYTONA 500, Southern 500, and Coca-Cola 600, Waltrip continued his career at NASCAR’s top-level for more than three decades, before retiring after the 2000 season, at the age of 53.

During his period of incredible success, Waltrip acquired his 30th race-win trophy in the NASCAR Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway, a racetrack he excelled at throughout his career, winning a stunning 12 races at the half-mile oval. The landmark victory came on March 29, 1981, nearly six years after Cale Yarborough, who at the time, was the most recent driver to cross over that landmark.

Waltrip did end up returning for select NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events from 2002 to 2006, all under the DW Motorsports banner, an organization in which he fielded entries across NASCAR’s National Series throughout his driving career, and only in the Truck Series afterwards. The team closed shop after the 2007 season.

From 2001 to 2019, NASCAR fans also got to know Darrell Waltrip as a broadcaster for NASCAR on FOX, and became known for starting each NASCAR Cup Series event with the iconic call of "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity."

Dale Earnhardt

Dale Earnhardt was the fourteenth driver to pick up 30 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, achieving his landmark 30th victory in September 1987. | John Russell / The Tennessean via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Dale Earnhardt was a NASCAR icon. A figure that even 24 years after his tragic death on the final lap of the 2001 DAYTONA 500, lives in infamy as one of the greatest race car drivers to ever live. His stat line definitely backed up that claim, too.

With a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, and 76 career victories, Earnhardt was a legend, who had victories in the DAYTONA 500 (1998), Brickyard 400 (1995), Southern 500 (1987, 1989, 1990), Coca-Cola 600 (1986, 1992, 1993), and the NASCAR All-Star Race (1987, 1990, 1993).

In fact, his landmark 30th NASCAR Cup Series victory came in one of the most prestigious events on the calendar in 1987, the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, an event where he beat Rusty Wallace and Richard Petty for the victory – his first of three in the historic event

Dale was the second of three generations to find success in the NASCAR Cup Series, with his son Dale Earnhardt, Jr. having a pretty successful career, and post-retirement becoming one of the most influential figures in the NASCAR world.

Bill Elliott

Bill Elliott was the fifteenth driver to pick up 30 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, achieving this landmark in June 1989. | Manny Rubio-Imagn Images

Throughout his career, Bill Elliott has been pretty well-known for being the fastest man in NASCAR history, after posting the fastest qualifying speed ever at Talladega Superspeedway in 1987 (212.809mph).

The Dawsonville, Georgia-native was one of the most popular drivers of his generation, winning the NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award a mind-boggling 16 times. But, Elliott wasn’t just a fan-favorite, he was also one of the most decorated drivers in the history of NASCAR.

A champion of the NASCAR Cup Series (1988), Elliott was also a two-time champion of the DAYTONA 500 (1985, 1987), a winner in the Brickyard 400 (2002), and a three-time Southern 500 winner (1985, 1988, 1994).

Elliott reached his milestone of 30 NASCAR Cup Series victories after his sole championship at NASCAR’s top-level, winning the 1989 Miller High Life 400 at Pocono Raceway over Rusty Wallace on June 25, 1989.

While Elliott went on to secure 44 victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, the veteran of 828 career starts is more focused on being a father than a race car driver these days, watching on as his son, 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, competed full-time for Hendrick Motorsports in the No. 9 that he made famous.

Rusty Wallace

Rusty Wallace was the sixteenth driver to record their 30th win in the NASCAR Cup Series, doing so in October of 1993. | Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images

Rusty Wallace had already claimed his sole NASCAR Cup Series title (1989) when moving to Team Penske at the start of the 1991 campaign, but the short tracker turned into a NASCAR star made a legacy for himself driving the organization’s No. 2, in what eventually became the Blue Deuce.

With Raymond Beadle and Blue Max Racing, Wallace was already a very successful star in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series but spending the entirety of the 1990s and early 2000s for a top-tier, world-class organization like Team Penske, really put the St. Louis, Missouri-native on the map.

Wallace would never get the chance to hoist a championship trophy with Roger Penske by his side, but Victory Lane became a pretty common site for the driver-team pairing, who won together a total of 37 times, including the 1990 Coca-Cola 600 and the 1989 NASCAR All-Star Race.

In 12 of his final 14 seasons competing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, Wallace managed a top-10 points finish – with the exception of the 2003 and 2004 seasons, where he struggled to even grasp the top-15 in standings.

For a while during the 1990s, if you wanted to win a NASCAR Cup Series event on a short track, you had to go through Rusty Wallace – and sometimes, going through Rusty Wallace is exactly what it required, which created some historic moments in NASCAR’s boom.

Wallace announced his retirement from full-time racing at the end of the 2004 season, and a broadcast contract with ESPN prevented the series veteran from taking on a part-time schedule. However, in 2014, the NASCAR Hall of Famer did participate in pre-season thunder for Team Penske, as a promotion for long-time sponsor Miller Lite’s 40th anniversary.

Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon was the seventeenth driver to record their 30th victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, winning the landmark race in February 1998. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

In the late 1990s, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series pretty much belonged to Jeff Gordon.

Entering NASCAR’s top-level in 1993 at 21 years old, paired with Ray Evernham and Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon began his era of total domination with his first victory in the 1994 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

By the end of the 2001 season, seven years later, Gordon had already won four NASCAR Cup Series championships (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001) and 58 victories, an astonishing run that cemented the Pittsboro, Indiana-native as one of the all-time greats in the series.

His 30th NASCAR Cup Series victory came in the 1998 GM Goodwrench Service Plus at Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina, in just his 158th start at NASCAR’s top-level and at the age of 26 years, 10 months, and 15 days, making him the youngest driver to ever each 30 wins, a record that still stands to this day.

Gordon's career continues strong until 2015, racking up a total of 93 NASCAR Cup Series victories, which ranks him third on the all-time wins list behind only Richard Petty and David Pearson. Now, the NASCAR legend serves as Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports -- the winningest NASCAR Cup Series team of all-time.

Mark Martin

Mark Martin was the eighteenth driver to record 30 NASCAR Cup Series victories, earning the notable win in February 1999. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Although he likely has competition in this category now from Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin has been considered one of the best to never win a NASCAR Cup Series championship for a long while, while collecting 40 victories at NASCARs top-level.

Martin is no stranger to winning championships, collecting five in the International Race of Champions (IROC) and four in the American Speed Association (ASA), but when it comes to NASCAR, despite some pretty close calls and victories in the Southern 500 (1993, 2009), Coca-Cola 600 (2002), and the NASCAR All-Star Race (1998, 2005).

And sure, there’s definitely some jokes that could be made about Mark Martin’s “retirement tour” in 2005, which ended up happening eight seasons before the fan-favorite driver actually decided to hang up the helmet, but it made for a career that would be difficult to match, in terms of longevity.

Martin’s landmark 30th win in the NASCAR Cup Series came in February of 1999 at Rockingham Speedway, as he drove his No. 6 Roush Racing Ford to the victory in the DuraLube / Big K 400 at Rockingham Speedway, beating out the year’s eventual champion, Dale Jarrett.

Fast forward a decade from that landmark victory, to 2009, and Martin was still competing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, having just returned to Hendrick Motorsports to pilot the No. 5 Chevrolet and compete for a championship – a season which provided him with five victories, at the age of 50.

The final full-time campaign for Martin came in 2011, 29 years after his debut season in the NASCAR Cup Series. Now that’s longevity.

Dale Jarrett

Dale Jarrett was the nineteenth driver to secure their 30th NASCAR Cup Series victory, collecting the landmark victory in August 2002. | RVR Photos-Imagn Images

It took a half-decade of NASCAR Xfinity Series racing for Dale Jarrett to get his shot in the NASCAR Cup Series, but once he got there, and got into the right situation, it was all systems go for the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer, Ned Jarrett.

More than 125 starts into his NASCAR Cup Series career, Jarrett, partnered with The Wood Brothers, finally scored his maiden victory at Michigan International Speedway, which then catapulted the driver into his first big break with Joe Gibbs Racing.

It took exactly one season together for the organization to win its first race – the 1993 DAYTONA 500, and the rest is history. Between tenures at JGR and Yates Racing, Jarrett managed to collect several victories, including wins in the DAYTONA 500 (1993, 1996, 2000), the Brickyard 400 (1996, 1999), and the Coca-Cola 600 (1996), and even a NASCAR Cup Series title (1999).

Jarrett collected his 30th victory in the NASCAR Cup Series in the 2002 Pepsi 400 on August 8 at Michigan International Speedway, while driving the iconic No. 88 UPS Ford for Yates Racing. At the age of 45 years, 8 months, and 23 days, the Hickory, North Carolina-native was the oldest driver to reach the 30-win mark in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.

Despite being in his mid-40s at the time, Jarrett was still as sharp as ever, going on to win an additional two NASCAR Cup Series events in his career – one the next Spring at Rockingham Speedway, and one at the end of 2005 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Jarrett retired from competition at NASCAR’s top-level following the opening five events of the 2008 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, after opening the season in the No. 44 UPS Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing.

Tony Stewart

Tony Stewart was the twentieth driver to secure their 30th win in the NASCAR Cup Series, collecting the landmark victory in July of 2007. | Sam Sharpe-Imagn Images

One of NASCAR’s most versatile drivers, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (2002, 2005, 2011) Tony Stewart comes from a completely different world than most of the drivers that have been able to find success at NASCARs top-level.

The Columbus, Indiana-native started out by pursuing a career in open-wheel racing throughout the late 1990s, but while running full-time in the NTT IndyCar Series in 1997 and 1998 (where he won three races and a championship), Stewart also decided to dabble in NASCAR. Catching the attention of Joe Gibbs Racing, stock car racing quickly became a serious path.

In 1999, Stewart tackled his rookie campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series and found immediate success, winning three events – marking one of the most successful debut seasons in the sport’s history. From there, his career took off like a rocketship.

Stewart’s 30th NASCAR Cup Series victory came following his first two championships, winning the 2007 event at Chicagoland Speedway on July 15, beating out Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards.

Aside from co-owning a championship-winning NASCAR Cup Series organization for 15 years, Stewart is probably most well-known for his triumph in the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series championship fight, in which the final race of the season ended with him and Carl Edwards in a dead heat – with the tie being broken courtesy of five victories in the final 10 races of the season.

Now, about eight years removed from driving in the NASCAR Cup Series and less than a year removed from the NASCAR world overall, Stewart is competing in the NHRA Top Fuel class and is very much enjoying his life.

READ PART #1 - 30 With 30: NASCAR's First 10 Drivers to Cross the 30-Win Mark

The third and final installment of Racing America On SI's 30 With 30 series will be released on Thursday, March 27, and documents the final 10 drivers to surpass the 30-win landmark in the NASCAR Cup Series, which picks up in 2007 and spans to the modern-day.