Rudd came to the NASCAR Cup Series in 1975 and scored his first victory for Richard Childress Racing in 1983. From 1994 through ’99, Rudd’s Fords were competitive and he logged six victories, including the 1997 Brickyard 400. Rudd closed his team in late 1998 and drove for Wood Brothers Racing and Robert Yates Racing before retiring in 2007.
Waltrip won three Cup Series championships with team owner Junior Johnson but six years with Hendrick led to the decision to return to team ownership as he had done at the start of his career. Waltrip logged one win in 1975 and five from 1991 through ’98 as a car owner.
Western Auto sponsored Waltrip’s No. 17 but after that company was sold, the bottom fell out. Waltrip found another sponsor, but when it defaulted on payments sold his operation.
“With Darrell Waltrip Motorsports we had six good years, scored some more wins and we ended up with a successful Truck Series racing team, too,” Waltrip said. “I took on my own engine program, and with all the endorsements and souvenirs and everything I was making enough money to keep the team running at a pretty good level.
“Then Western Auto got taken over and they pulled out. Meanwhile, costs in NASCAR suddenly seemed to be galloping. I’d started with 12 people but now, with the engine shop, the truck team, everything else, I was employing 60 people. Running the whole outfit was costing me $600,000 a month. My 1998 sponsor, a building firm called Speed Block, defaulted on what they’d contracted to pay. So I was in trouble and I had to accept the grim truth; the only solution was to sell the team.”
Wisconsin native Alan Kulwicki won the 1992 NASCAR Cup Series championship with only a dozen crew members turning wrenches on his Fords.
During the 1992 season, Kulwicki collected two victories, 11 top-five finishes and 17 top-10 efforts that paved the way for him to be crowned an unlikely Cup Series champion.
Kulwicki died in a private plane crash on April 1, 1993, while en route to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Cale Yarborough amassed 83 wins as a driver with Wood Brothers Racing, Junior Johnson and Associates, M.C. Anderson Racing and Harry Ranier Racing before driving his own Oldsmobiles in 1987. Yarborough’s only victory as a team owner came with John Andretti at the wheel at Daytona Int’l Speedway in July 1997.
Tony Stewart won his third Cup Series title in 2011 and became the first driver-owner to secure a championship since Kulwicki. Stewart won two Cup Series titles with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2002 and ’05 before joining team owner Gene Haas to create Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009.
Stewart won five of the final 10 races in 2011, including the finale at Hometead-Miami Speedway.
“I feel like I’m a part of a time in NASCAR when the competition’s better than it’s ever been,” Stewart said during post-race interviews. “And to be in a format that’s very tight, very competitive and you can’t have anything go wrong to win five races out of a 10-race Chase and to win closest battle in NASCAR history. No matter what the record books say at the end of the day and the greats that are a part of it, it’s a huge honor just to be in those record books with those guys.
“I don’t care how many races you win, how many championships you win, you never feel like you measure up to the greats of the sport,” he noted. “That’s what makes trying so much fun.”