NASCAR: Kyle Busch vs. Richard Petty; whose 200 wins are more impressive?

Kyle Busch tied Richard Petty’s all-time NASCAR wins record with his 200th career victory on Sunday. But whose 200 victories are more impressive?

By crossing the finish line ahead of the rest of the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, the Auto Club 400, at Auto Club Speedway, Kyle Busch tied Richard Petty for first place on the all-time NASCAR wins list with his 200th career victory.

However, this is a topic that has been heavily debated over the last several weeks as Busch’s career NASCAR win total, which was 194 before the start of the 2019 season, crept toward 200. Now that it has reached 200, these debates are only going to get more intense.

So whose 200 NASCAR victories are more impressive, Busch’s or Petty’s?

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For many fans, this seems like a simple question with a simple answer, and that simple answer would be Petty.

Petty never competed in the Xfinity Series or the Truck Series. He earned all 200 of his victories in the sport’s premier series, the Cup Series, and only 105-time Cup Series race winner David Pearson has a career Cup Series win total that is more than half of Petty’s.

Meanwhile, barely one-quarter of Busch’s career NASCAR victories are Cup Series victories. His career Cup Series win total is 53, which ranks 11th on the all-time list, and his career Xfinity Series win total of 94 as well as his career Truck Series win total of 53 are both all-time records.

That said, the debate is a lot deeper than just these facts and figures.

It is true that Petty competed in what Busch described as “50-lappers back at the Fairgrounds” with “16 cars in the field” — in fact, some races were shorter than 50 laps and featured fewer than 16 cars.

In addition, as my colleague William Richard stated, Petty’s era was also far less competitive than Busch’s. On average, a smaller percentage of the drivers entered in each race finished that race, and there were times when drivers won races by several laps.

Petty also had some of the best equipment in the garage in his era. While the same could be said for Busch, having the best equipment in Petty’s era was far more of an advantage than it is now with the competition being as tight as it is in general.

But it is also true that Petty only ever competed against the best drivers in his era at the sport’s highest level. Meanwhile, only 26.5% of Busch’s 200 career NASCAR wins have come at the sport’s highest level.

In 503 career Cup Series starts, Busch’s win percentage is 10.54%. Meanwhile, his overall career NASCAR win percentage is a whopping 20.04%. This is the case because of the fact that his career Xfinity Series win percentage is a whopping 27.01% in 348 career starts as well as the fact that his career Truck Series win percentage is a whopping 36.05% in 147 career starts.

It is true that Petty competed in far more races per season, on average, than average Cup Series drivers do today. In the six-year span from the 1966 through the 1971 during which he earned 100 of his 200 career Cup Series victories, he competed in 272 races, meaning that he competed in an average of 45.33 races per season. Today’s Cup Series schedules feature 36 races.

But it is also true that entering this season, Busch had competed in a total of 940 races across the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series since he became a full-time Cup Series driver in the 2015 season, meaning that he had competed in 940 races over the course of 14 seasons.

In other words, the 33-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native had competed in an average of 67.14 races per season, a total that gives him almost 22 more starts per season than Petty had during his most successful six-year span in the sport.

During the most successful six-year span of Busch’s career, which lasted from the 2008 season through the 2013 season, he earned 105 victories. In these six seasons, he competed in 456 races, meaning he competed in an average of 76.00 races per season.

In the 10-year span from the 2005 season through the 2014 season, Busch competed in 732 races, his career-high for a 10-year span, meaning that he competed in an average of 73.20 races per season for a full decade. He won 130 of these 732 races.

The 10-year span during which Petty competed in the most races throughout his NASCAR career lasted from the 1962 season through the 1971 season. During this span, he competed in 453 races, meaning that he competed in an average of 45.30 races per season. He won 135 of these 453 races.

So in the most successful six-year span of Busch’s career across the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series, his win percentage (23.03%) was nowhere near Petty’s win percentage (36.76%) during the most successful six-year span of his career at NASCAR’s highest level.

In addition, in the 10-year span of Busch’s career during which he competed in a career-high number of Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series races for a 10-year span, his win percentage (17.76%) was nowhere near Petty’s win percentage (29.80%) during the 10-year span of his career during which he competed in a career-high number of races at NASCAR’s highest level for a 10-year span.

At the end of the day, there are certainly more advantages favoring Busch’s 200 victories over Petty’s 200 victories than you might expect if you were to simply compare the Cup Series win totals of the two drivers and do nothing else before making a judgment about the matter, but Petty’s 200 victories are still far more impressive than Busch’s on so many levels.

One way to illustrate even further is to delve deeper into the “different era” argument, which is actually an advantage for Busch in the first place. When you delve deeper into it, it becomes an advantage for Petty.

There are several drivers of the modern era, most notably seven-time Cup Series champion and 83-time Cup Series race winner Jimmie Johnson and four-time Cup Series champion and 93-time Cup Series race winner Jeff Gordon, who have had more success at NASCAR’s top level than Busch.

Yet Busch is the driver who everyone is comparing to the driver who many fans believe is the greatest in NASCAR history simply because of the fact that he, like Petty, now has 200 career NASCAR victories to his name.

But again, an overwhelming majority of Busch’s career NASCAR victories are Xfinity Series or Truck Series victories. So are his 147 victories in these two series really the reason why he is compared to Petty as opposed to drivers such as Johnson and Gordon, who hardly competed in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series and have instead focused on and had a boatload of success proving themselves at NASCAR’s top level in an era that is far more competitive than Petty’s was?

The fact that the answer to this question is yes tells you everything you need to know and more about the Busch vs. Petty 200-win debate. In realty, Busch shouldn’t even be in it. At just 33 years old, he should certainly still have time to work his way into a debate as one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers of all-time, but he isn’t there yet.

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Whose 200 career NASCAR victories do you believe are more impressive, Kyle Busch’s or Richard Petty’s? While this debate may have seemed intense over the past few weeks and it may seem a lot more intense now, it is safe to say that it has not yet come close to peaking regardless of whose side you are on, especially with Busch’s 201st career victory being seemingly inevitable in the very near future.

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