Running in the shadows: you might be surprised at the list of drivers who never have won a Winston Cup championship

Many Winston Cup drivers have demonstrated tremendous driving talent, recorded memorable victories and achieved a measure of stardom in their careers. But just as with Dan Marino, an all-time great NFL quarterback who never won a Super Bowl, individual accolades cannot cover a substantial gap in their resumes.

Twenty-four drivers have been Winston Cup champions. A whopping 161 have won at least one race. That leaves a pretty long list of race winners, active and inactive, who never have won a points title.

The Cup title has gained prestige and significance over the years. For winning the inaugural title in 1949, Red Byron collected $5,800 in bonus prize money and received passing mention in the national press. For winning the title in 2001, Jeff Gordon collected $6.6 million at the awards ceremony, which was televised nationally.

Likewise, the manner in which the championship is contested has evolved.

Until the 1980s, many top drivers were more concerned about leading laps and winning races than they were about winning season championships. Sometimes more conservative drivers came out ahead in points, but Dale Earnhardt and Gordon raced their way to the Cup without compromising their hard-charging style and desire to win races.

How, then, should non-championship drivers be evaluated?

"I think you have to draw a line somewhere between several different decades of the championship," says Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president for corporate communications. "At one point in time, all the drivers didn't run all the races, so a guy who did run all or most of the races was obviously going to have an opportunity to amass points. Then there was another period of time when there weren't that many teams actively trying to win the championship."

Today's Winston Cup Series is based on a constant product: a 43-car starting field in every race, almost always made up of the same teams and drivers.

Many insiders think the Winston Cup championship is becoming more difficult to win, and there are usually enough contenders to create a pennant-race atmosphere in the waning stages of the season.

"It's tough," says Sterling Marlin, who has finished third twice. "You need a little luck along the way. We fell out of five races last year or had trouble and finished 32nd on back. If we had three of those back, we would have been right on Jeff's heels."

How much of a margin for error does a championship hopeful have? Not much, Marlin says.

"You need to hold it to two bad races (a season) if you want to have a shot at the championship," he says. "That's all you can have."

Among NASCAR's first generation of stars, many drivers who did not win a championship are better known than some who did. Junior Johnson's name is probably familiar to even the newest NASCAR fans, and many might think Johnson was a championship-winning driver. Johnson did claim six Winston Cup titles as a team owner, and but he never won one as a driver, though he won 50 races.

Other prominent names from the early days include Glenn "Fireball" Roberts and Curtis Turner. Neither of them won the series title either, though Roberts still was among the top drivers when he was killed in a race accident.

In the early days the championship was a less important long-range goal--the money wasn't large, and the structure was looser. "Drivers like Fireball and Junior never ran for the championship," Hunter says.

From a more recent era, some drivers considered sure-fire bets to win the Cup died before they could. Davey Allison, who suffered fatal injuries in a helicopter crash just as he was entering the the peak of his career in 1993, finished third in points in his last two full seasons. He was at the top of the standings going into the last race of the 1992 season, but he was involved in a crash and was passed in the points race by Alan Kulwicki, the winner, and Bill Elliott.

Tim Richmond, one of the brightest stars and most controversial characters of the 1980s, died in 1989 of complications from AIDS. Richmond finished third in 1986, his best season before symptoms of his disease caused him to end his career during the 1987 season.

Other standout drivers came close, but simply couldn't close the deal. Harry Gant, a crowd favorite and winner of 18 races before he retired, could finish no better than second in the points race. He came closest in 1984, when he fell 65 points short of winner Terry Labonte.

Among contemporary drivers who have had opportunities to compete for the title, two who mounted serious charges last year--Marlin and Ricky Rudd--stand out.

"I felt like we had one going last year," says Rudd, who was in the thick of the fight until problems late in the season caused him to slip to fourth. "We had a real good chance, and we had more mechanical failures than you can afford to have and win a championship."

Three-time runner-up Mark Martin suffered through a horrendous 2001, but before that he was considered to be the best driver who never had won the Cup. In 1990, a penalty assessed early in the season cost him enough points to prevent him from claiming the title over Earnhardt. In 1998, Martin was magnificent, winning seven races and finishing second six times, but Gordon had an even more incredible year, winning 13 times and claiming his third title in four years.