10 Unbelievable NASCAR Records That Will Never Be Broken

Marvel at this as we wait for NASCAR to resume its suspended season, hopefully on May 8-9 with a Modified Tour 200 and a Cup Series 500 at Martinsville Speedway: it would take 2004 champion Kurt Busch almost 14 more seasons to match Richard Petty’s record of 1,185 career starts. Busch has 684 starts, more than any active driver. But at age 41 and trailing by 501, it’s fairly safe to say he’ll never get close to Petty’s untouchable 1,185.

In fact, nobody will ever approach that. Even if NASCAR finds an ungodly talented 20-year-old with Fort Knox and a race- and championship-caliber ride, the kid would have to run almost 33 full seasons to approach Petty’s number. Ain’t gonna happen.

NASCAR has a handful of other unbreakable record, most of them set by the seven-time champion, 200-time winner, and Hall of Fame legend. Other notable records have come from former drivers Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Ned Jarrett, and the late J.D. McDuffie, and current star Jimmie Johnson.

Among them:

It's a safe bet that nobody will ever approach Richard Petty's 1,185 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series. Even if NASCAR finds an ungodly talented 20-year-old backed by Fort Knox and with a race- and championship-caliber ride, the kid would have to run almost 33 full seasons to approach Petty’s number. Ain’t gonna happen.

Not only does Petty hold almost every positive NASCAR record—most starts, poles, victories, top-5s, top-10s, races led and laps led—he also hold the dubious record for most losses. Take away his 200 victories from his 1,185 starts and you have 985 losses. Nobody's ever gonna get close to that, either.

NASCAR has a handful of other unbreakable records, most of them set by the seven-time champion, 200-time winner and Hall of Fame legend Petty. Other notable records have come from former drivers Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Ned Jarrett, the late J.D. McDuffie, and current star Jimmie Johnson.

Among them:

Richard Petty Wins 10 Consecutive Races in 1967

The King Richard Petty dominated 1967, winning an unimaginable 10 consecutive races between Aug. 12 and Oct. 1.

Those wins were on the short tracks at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia; the superspeedway at Darlington, South Carolina; then back on the short tracks at Hickory, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, Beltsville, Maryland, Hillsboro, North Carolina, Martinsville, Virginia, and North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

The streak ended with an engine-related 18th at Charlotte in early October. In addition to leading the consecutive-victory list, Petty is second with six straight in 1971, the same year Bobby Allison won five straight.

Richard Petty Wins 27 Races in 1966-67

The 10-race winning streak wasn’t Petty’s only impressive stat in 1967. He won more than half the schedule’s 47 races, beginning with the season opener in November 1966.

He then won one race in March, four in April, three each in May and June, and five in July that foreshadowed the 10-race rampage. (Petty is also second on the single-season victories list, with 21 in 1971.)

Richard Petty Racks Up 200 Victories

Petty, the sport’s biggest winner, stayed too long, going 0-for-241 over the last eight seasons of his career.

He got No. 199 on May 20, 1984 at Dover, Delaware, and reached 200 by beating Harry Gant (not Cale Yarborough as most people think) on July 4, 1984 in Daytona Beach, Florida (pictured here). Alas, he never won again, slogging around with little distinction in the twilight of a career that ended with a wreck-related 35th in the Nov. 15, 1992, season finale near Atlanta.

The late David Pearson is a distant second, with 105 career victories. With 83, the soon-to-retire Jimmie Johnson is first among active winners.

RELATED: Top 10 NASCAR Drivers without a Cup Series Championship

Bill Elliott's 212.809 mph Qualifying Lap in 1987

NASCAR was shaken to its core when Bobby Allison sailed into the Talladega Superspeedway fencing on May 3, 1987.

His car’s engine exploded, scattering debris that cut a rear tire. The car turned around and lifted backward into the tri-oval fencing, shedding parts and pieces that injured several fans.

NASCAR quickly mandated restrictor plates to limit horsepower and slow speeds. (Bill Elliott had won the pole two days earlier at 212.809 mph). Since then, only 15 pole-winners have gotten into the 200 mph range: 11 at Michigan, two at Texas and one each at Daytona Beach and Talladega.

Absent major rule changes that nobody expects, Elliott’s 212.809 mph pole will stand forever.

Jimmie Johnson's Five Consecutive Championships, 2006-2010

Cale Yarborough made history by winning the 1976, 1977 and 1978 Cup Series titles. Five previous champs had won back-to-back titles, so three was unprecedented.

Imagine the furor when Jimmie Johnson won five straight, between 2006 and 2010. They came under several different point systems, and his 2013 and 2016 titles also were under different systems. NASCAR’s last six champions – Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, and Busch again – got the heavy hardware by winning the season-finale at Homestead.

If that one-race, four-driver, championship-deciding crapshoot format remains, Johnson’s five straight is safe in our lifetimes.

J.D McDuffie Goes 0-for-653 in NASCAR Career

Nobody in the Cup Series raced more without ever winning than this popular, cigar-chomping, determined backmarker J.D. McDuffie.

McDuffie debuted at Myrtle Beach Speedway on July 7, 1963, and was five laps into his 653rd start when he died in a one-car accident at Watkins Glen, New York, on Aug. 11, 1991.

It seems inconceivable anyone will ever race that much again without winning. Retired driver Buddy Arrington (0-for-560), the late Neal “Soapy” Castles (0-for-498) and retired Cup driver Dave Blaney (0-for-473) are closest to McDuffie’s 653. Michael McDowell (at 0-for-325) is the “non-winningest” active driver, still 328 behind McDuffie.

RELATED: Top NASCAR Drivers by Winning Percentage

Jeff Gordon’s 23-Season, 797-Start Consecutive Streak

Jeff Gordon’s first Cup start near Atlanta in November of 1992 came the day Petty made his last start.

Beginning in Daytona Beach the next February, the future four-time champion and Hall of Famer made every start for the next 23 years, through the 2015 season.

That streak of 797 consecutive starts likely will remain untouchable when you consider that the next four in line are retired, and sixth-ranked (and current active leader) Jimmie Johnson will retire after this season with 684.

Ricky Rudd's First Career Stock Car Race Came in Cup Series

Teenage Virginian Ricky Rudd (pictued here in 1979) had never raced any kind of car when NASCAR approved him for the March 2, 1975, race at the North Carolina Motor Speedway at Rockingham.

He had dabbled in motocross and go-karts, but had never been on a NASCAR track except in test sessions. Even so, he qualified 26th and finished 11th in a Bill Champion-owned No. 10 Ford.

Rudd made 905 more starts over 33 seasons, with 29 poles and 23 victories. Now retired, he’ll remain the only Cup Series driver with zero prior experience since NASCAR would never allow that today.

Mark Martin's Average Race Speed of 188.354 at Talladega, 1987

There have been very few caution-free Cup Series races, most recently Dale Jarrett’s victory in Michigan on June 13, 1999.

The May 10, 1997, Winston 500 at Talladega also went caution-free, with Mark Martin covering the 188 laps (just over 500 miles) in 2:39.18 for an average winning speed of 188.354 mph. (The late John Andretti won the pole that weekend at 193.627 mph.)

As long as NASCAR uses competition cautions to slow the field during stage racing, there’s no chance anybody will beat Martin’s record of 188.354 mph.

Ned Jarrrett Wins by 14 Laps at Darlington in 1965

Ned Jarrett, the much-beloved 1961 and 1965 champion won 50 races, easily good enough for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Among those victories was the Southern 500 at venerable Darlington Raceway on Labor Day of 1965. Jarrett won 13 of 54 starts in ’65, and his 14-lap margin of victory over future HOF driver Buck Baker on a Monday afternoon was his most impressive.

The last Cup Series winner to lap the field was Geoffrey Bodine over Terry Labonte by a lap at North Wilkesboro on Oct. 2, 1994.