Ranking the 10 Greatest Rivalries in NASCAR History
NASCAR has always been and always will be about rivalries.
That’s one of the best things about the sport, and it's what fans love so much, when they love to tout “their” driver against any other driver.
Whether it’s a career-long rivalry or from one race to another (if somebody does you wrong one race, you look for potential revenge in the next race), drivers just seem to elevate their dislike against a certain driver or drivers for whatever reasons.
But rivalries, as you’ll see in this slideshow, can also be between manufacturers and even team owners.
Trying to pick the best rivalries in the sport’s 65-year history is difficult because there have been so many. But here’s arguably the greatest rivalries the sport has ever seen:
10. Jimmy Spencer vs. Kurt Busch
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Kurt Busch broke into NASCAR as somewhat of a brash driver who got under the skin of several of his fellow competitors, but none more so than Jimmy Spencer.
Spencer was an old-school racer from Pennsylvania who had a great deal of success racing modifieds but only marginal success in the Cup Series.
Busch, meanwhile, was a young upstart from the glamour and glitz of Las Vegas.
When Busch began racing in the then-Winston Cup Series, he and Spencer had a number of tangles, including Phoenix in 2001, Bristol in spring 2002 (which led to Busch’s first career Cup win) and again at Indianapolis later that summer.
But none more so well-known than at Michigan in 2003, when Spencer caught up with Busch while driving on his way to the garage and promptly punched him in the nose.
9. Jack Roush vs. Toyota
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Ever since Toyota announced it would go racing on the Sprint Cup circuit in 2007, it’s No. 1 rival was team owner Jack Roush.
Roush absolutely detested Toyota coming into the Cup series, seemingly never missing an opportunity to deride the Japanese automaker.
Roush’s disdain for Toyota seemed to diminish with time—or he simply kept his comments more so to himself.
In perhaps the most ironic twists of fate, two of Roush’s longtime drivers jumped ship to go to a rival team—and drive Toyotas.
Matt Kenseth moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013 and promptly won a career single-season-high seven races.
Carl Edwards just left Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the 2014 season and has joined his former RFR teammate Kenseth at JGR for 2015.
There was also the irony when Edwards, Roush and Ford trumped Toyota when they won the Toyota/Save-Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway this past June.
8. Carl Edwards vs. Brad Keselowski
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While their rivalry has simmered in recent years, when Brad Keselowski first burst onto the NASCAR scene, he and Carl Edwards became quite the battling couple.
As they headed to the finish line, Keselowski turned Edwards at Talladega in 2009, sending him into the catchfence.
The following year, Edwards took his mangled race car and returned the favor to Keselowski at Atlanta.
The pair had another scrape that same season in the Nationwide Series at Gateway, but they have become fairly congenial rivals ever since.
Maybe they both became subscribers to the theory: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
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7. Darrell Waltrip vs. Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt
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Darrell Waltrip had countless battles during his career with his two biggest archrivals, Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt.
Yarborough gave Waltrip the nickname “Jaws” because the latter flapped his so much with trash talk against others and boisterous talk about himself and his abilities.
Eventually, team owner Junior Johnson replaced Yarborough with Waltrip, which only exacerbated their rivalry.
Earnhardt, meanwhile, had arguably the fiercest rivalry of any driver in his career with Waltrip. While they respected each other, they also seemed to hate each other on the race track.
But over time, Earnhardt and Waltrip let bygones be bygones and became close friends.
6. Petty Enterprises vs. Wood Brothers Racing
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In a sense, Petty Enterprises vs. Wood Brothers Racing was NASCAR’s version of Hatfields vs. McCoys—albeit in a good way.
There was no real hatred or animosity between the two teams, just a fierce competitive spirit on the race track. But off the track, they were the closest of friends.
What’s more, these were not cold, stainless steel teams—they were family-owned teams that stressed family values, good morals and high standards.
And even though they traded paint countless times on the race track, if one team needed something, the other team would be willing to give the shirt off its back to help its rival.
5. Cale Yarborough vs. Bobby and Donnie Allison (1979 Daytona 500)
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Cale Yarborough always seemed to have a rivalry with Donnie Allison and a lesser-extent rivalry with Donnie’s brother, Bobby.
All three of them got into perhaps the most infamous battle in NASCAR history during the 1979 Daytona 500.
With less than a lap remaining on the first nationally televised live broadcast of a NASCAR event—and with a captive audience due to more than half of the U.S. being snow- or ice-bound—Donnie Allison was leading Yarborough.
Yarborough pulled even and the two began beating on each other’s cars, trading paint like artists splashing each other.
Ultimately, they both wrecked and wound up in the infield, and fisticuffs shortly followed.
Seeing his brother in trouble, Bobby came to Donnie’s aid, with everything being captured on TV. Meanwhile, Richard Petty drove past the mess and motored on to win the race.
4. Daytona 500 vs. Dale Earnhardt
7 of 10
Dale Earnhardt had a love-hate relationship with the Daytona 500.
While he loved the Great American Race, it did not love him back—and found virtually every way it could to keep him from reaching Victory Lane in the biggest race every year in NASCAR.
Be it wrecks, mechanical failure, running out of gas or what have you, Earnhardt could have written a book on how to lose the 500 in virtually every way possible.
But finally, after 19 failed previous attempts, Earnhardt managed to beat Daytona at its own game and won the 1998 500, the only time he ever won it.
Sadly, it was in another Daytona 500, the 2001 edition, that Earnhardt lost his life in a last-lap crash.
3. Ford vs. Chevrolet
8 of 10
The blue oval vs. the bow tie have long been one of NASCAR’s greatest rivalries on NASCAR race tracks.
That one-upsmanship battle even extended to auto-dealer showrooms, as countless fans would extend their loyalty from their favorite driver to buying the brand of car that their favorite driver drove.
Sure, there were other makes along the years, including Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Dodge, Buick, Chrysler and, most recently, Toyota, but there has never been the kind of battle like there has been between Ford and Chevy.
The two preeminent manufacturers have been part of NASCAR since its earliest beginnings. And that was also one of the reasons that led to establishment of the Manufacturer’s Championship each season.
2. Dale Earnhardt vs. Jeff Gordon
9 of 10
The Intimidator vs. The Kid.
When Jeff Gordon burst onto the NASCAR Cup scene at the end of 1992 and then into his first full-time season in 1993, Earnhardt took almost an immediate dislike to him—at least on the race track.
Success seemed to come almost immediately to Gordon, which rankled Earnhardt, who not only paid his dues coming up the NASCAR ranks, he also paid interest on those dues.
It ultimately became the man in black vs. the All-American kid that seemed to wear a white hat, the sport’s first outlaw (sorry, Kurt Busch) vs. the young whippersnapper.
One of the best examples of their rivalry was the 1995 Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt won the race and proclaimed himself as the first man to win the Brickyard. When reminded that Gordon won the inaugural 400 one year earlier, Earnhardt—with a sly smirk on his face—again reiterated that he was “the first man” to win the 400, which certainly raised the ire of Gordon and his fans.
It was the Gordon vs. Earnhardt rivalry that arguably became the biggest catalyst for NASCAR’s surge in popularity in the mid- and late 1990s, as well as into the following decade.
Fans responded in kind. They loved the rivalry, and no matter which driver they rooted for, they made it very clear that it was a black vs. white matchup. There was no gray area. Either you were for Gordon or Earnhardt, or you were against them. It was that plain, that basic and that simple.
Interestingly, it would be learned later on, particularly after Earnhardt’s passing, that he and Gordon had actually become very good friends in the latter stages of The Intimidator’s career.
1. Richard Petty vs. David Pearson
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If there ever was a prototype for a rivalry between two drivers, it was Petty vs. Pearson.
They fought each other tooth and nail virtually every time they faced each other on a race track.
Had it not been for Pearson, Petty arguably would have had a lot more than 200 career NASCAR wins in his career.
Likewise, if there was no Petty, Pearson likely would have won more than 105 races in his own career. In fact, he may very well have become NASCAR’s “King” if Petty hadn’t been his chief rival.
What’s more, they finished one-two in 63 of their respective wins against each other.
When the two drivers squared off, many times races seemingly evolved into just a battle of two drivers, Petty and Pearson, and every other driver on the race track was quickly forgotten.
They had a mutual respect for each other and typically raced the other fairly cleanly on the race track. But at the same time, you’d be very hard-pressed to find two guys who tried to one-up the other as much as Petty and Pearson.
Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
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