The 2025 season of NASCAR racing has concluded, giving us three months to fill the void with offseason content. It seems like the perfect time to take a dive through history.
Everyone knows names like Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson, and Gordon when it comes to NASCAR's all-time greats. But some of the sport's other legendary figures have fallen through the cracks, while a few more just got too much disrespect. For whatever reason, these drivers are never given their due.
So without further ado, let's rank the 10 most underrated NASCAR drivers of all-time.
10. Ron Hornaday Jr.
Hornaday is widely known as the greatest driver in NASCAR Truck Series history, and that's precisely why he's on the list. That he was diminished to a lower-series lifer is massively insulting to his talent, which never got a proper chance to shine at the Cup level.
His only full season came with A.J. Foyt's fledgling organization in 2001, hardly a fair gauge of his performance. In the Truck Series, he routinely outran drivers such as Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson, who both had moderate Cup success. Hornaday was a race-winning Cup Series driver who never got an opportunity to win Cup races.
9. Juan Pablo Montoya
Montoya is one of the greatest drivers in the history of motorsports, and for American stock car racing fans, he's reduced to the NASCAR version of Mark Sanchez's Butt Fumble. And it wasn't even his fault!
The Colombia native had a more than respectable career in his seven years at NASCAR's top level, winning twice and qualifying for the Chase for the Cup in 2009 (remember that month or so when he actually looked like a legitimate title contender?).
He never won on an oval, but he was incredibly unlucky not to, losing multiple races due to cautions coming out while he leading was in the closing laps. But who cares – hurr durr jet dryer!
8. Steve Park
One of the great Cup Series drivers who could've been. Before Dale Earnhardt Jr. (more on him later) was the face of his father's team, Park was a rising star. He was in the midst of a breakout season in 2001, running inside the top 10 in points, before a brutal Busch Series crash at Darlington sidelined him for the rest of the season with a brain injury. He returned the following year, but he was never the same, and his full-time Cup career was over after 2003.
7. Herb Thomas
When it comes to NASCAR's pioneer era, Lee Petty is generally the first name that comes to mind. But make no mistake: Herb Thomas was better. A lot better. In fact, he has to this day the greatest winning percentage in Cup Series history, taking the checkered flag first in more than 20 percent of his starts.
Unfortunately, his career all-but ended after a controversial crash at Shelby Fairgrounds in 1956, when Speedy Thompson wrecked him under orders to help his teammate Buck Baker win the championship. The real-life inspiration for the Cars character Doc Hudson only ever appeared in three more races.
6. Kurt Busch
In a different world, Kurt Busch might have had as much success as his brother Kyle. He was certainly on the fast track after winning the Cup Series championship in only his fourth season in 2004, but an off-track arrest the following year ended his time with Roush Racing.
The rest of his career was a journey of trials and tribulations, until meeting an untimely ending after suffering a head injury at Pocono Raceway in 2022.
Busch was mostly relegated to second-tier stardom after his messy exits with Roush and Team Penske, but in his later years, he became a driver who always made his teams better. He won with five different organizations, and that doesn't even include Furniture Row Racing, for which he laid the foundation for the championship-winning success the group would later achieve with Martin Truex Jr.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Is it possible to be the most famous driver in NASCAR throughout your career, and yet be underrated? In Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s case, it absolutely is. He has to be by far and away the most successful driver in Cup Series history who has ever been regularly accused of only having a ride because of his last name, which is nothing short of laughable for someone with 26 career wins and four top five points finishes.
No one in NASCAR has ever been held to a more impossible standard than Earnhardt Jr. With a blind resume, he's a no-questions-asked Hall of Famer, and that's even with a career full of head injuries that held him back from reaching his full potential. Yet there are people to this day who consider him the Cup Series equivalent of Marco Andretti.
4. Davey Allison
Speaking of second-generation stars, there's the tragic tale of Davey Allison. The Alabama native was without a doubt a future Cup Series champion, but injuries and brutal luck got in the way during his electric 1992 campaign. Then, before he had a chance to redeem himself, he was killed in a helicopter crash while landing at Talladega Superspeedway the following year.
Had Allison lived, we're not only viewing his career differently, but likely those of Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, and more. But it's not even fair to reduce him to a "could have"; his "did" was good enough on its own. He tied for the Cup Series lead in wins in both 1991 and 1992, leading at least 1,300 laps in both seasons as well. At the time of his death, he was one of the biggest stars in the sport.
3. Harry Gant
The only thing that stopped Harry Gant from winning multiple Cup Series championships was the fact that he was a rookie at age 39. As it is, despite running nearly his full career in a stage of his life when most drivers are retired or on the decline, he became the best old guy in NASCAR history.
Gant's best season came in 1991, a year after his 50th birthday. He won a total of 18 races during his Cup Series career, and the most impressive part is that they all came for organizations that were never remotely among the fastest in the field. His NASCAR Hall of Fame nod this year was long overdue.
2. Ernie Irvan
NASCAR finally got it right with Gant's Hall of Fame status, but one driver still being perplexingly snubbed on an annual basis is Ernie Irvan. He was wildly polarizing for his reckless driving style, but he was also, without exaggeration, one of the small handful of greatest raw talents in Cup Series history.
Irvan spent most of his career driving for the middling Morgan-McClure race team. Then, the moment he joined Robert Yates Racing in 1994, he went toe-to-toe with Dale Earnhardt for the championship until he was critically injured in a practice crash at Michigan International Speedway that effectively ended his competitive days. He led 1,781 laps in only 20 races that year, and had he kept up that pace, he'd likely be a multi-time champion.
1. Tim Richmond
The most underrated driver in NASCAR history is one of its most iconic characters, and yet one who those within the sport are still uncomfortable about giving his proper recognition. Tim Richmond was a racing savant, and it was right as he'd finally harnessed his million-dollar talent that his career, and life, all tragically slipped away from him.
Richmond won seven races during his breakout campaign in 1986, but he fell ill over the offseason and missed the start of the following campaign. He attempted a comeback, miraculously winning his first two events upon return while suffering from complications of AIDS, which would sideline him for good later in 1987. He died two years afterwards.
Not only is Richmond not yet in the Hall of Fame, but he's yet to even make an appearance on the ballot. He's had Hollywood films (Days of Thunder) loosely based on his profile and an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary made about him. Drivers have run throwback paint schemes honoring his No. 25 car and even tried to impersonate his signature look. Yet one of NASCAR's greatest raw talents remains effectively whitewashed from the history books.
Honorable mentions: Ricky Rudd, Matt Kenseth, Jerry Nadeau, Mike Skinner, Mike Bliss