Ryan Newman and the All Time Pole Position Record Holders

Thanks to racefan57, I got going on another project to locate stats on all time pole winners. Actually not his fault...just got me thinking. My searching and searching landed me at TheInsideGrove.com. I emailed Donald Miller at the site for some direction, and he directed. On their stats page they have it.

In 2001 Ryan Newman got his first NASCAR pole position in only his 3rd ever NASCAR Cup race. Consequently he also finished dead last in that race due to an accident. Newman raced 7 Cup races in the 2001.

In his first full year in NASCAR Cup racing, Newman was the leader in pole positions in 2002 with 6 poles followed by Jimmie Johnson with 5. Also during his first full year in Cup racing Newman grabbed the pole position at New Hampshire and took the his first checkered flag that weekend. That was Newman's 35th career NASCAR Cup race.
In 2003 Newman had the most poles again with 5 followed by Bobby Labonte.

And in 2004, yes it was Ryan Newman in the lead with 9 followed by Jeff Gordon with 6.

And once again in 2005 Newman had the most poles with 8 followed by Elliot Sadler with 3.

Newman's qualifying and race performance fell off in 2006. He only had 2 poles, tied with 3 others for 5th for the year.

Now in 2007 Newman has 5 poles following Jeff Gordon who has the most with 6 poles.

Newman's Average Finish From The Pole
2001 – 43
2002 – 12.6 (1 win from the pole)
2003 – 10 (1 win from the pole – quite a few top 5's)
2004 – 8.5 (quite a few top 5's and 10 top's)
2005 – 14
2006 – 26.5
2007 – 18.8 (2 2nd place finishes from the pole)
Overall - 13.5

Anyway here is what TheInsideGrove.com has listed as all time pole position winners.
1. Richard Petty – 126
2. David Peason – 113
3. Cale Yarborough – 70
4. Jeff Gordon (A) – 62
5. Darrel Waltrip – 59
6. Bobby Allison – 59
7. Bill Elliott – 55
8. Bobby Isaac – 52
9. Junior Johnson – 46
10. Buck Baker – 44
11. Ryan Newman (A) – 42
12. Mark Martin (A) – 41
13. Buddy Baker – 38
14. Herb Thomas – 38
15. Tim Flock – 38
16. Geoff Bodine – 37
17. Rusty Wallace – 36
18. Ned Jarrett – 35
19. Rex White – 35
20. Firball Roberts – 34
21. Fred Lorenzen – 33
22. Fonty Flock – 32
23. Ricky Rudd – 29
24. Terry Labonte – 28
25. Bobby Labonte (A) – 26
26. Jack Smith – 24
27. Alan Kulwicki – 24
28. Ken Schrader (A) – 23
29. Dale Earnhardt – 22
30. Dick Hutcherson – 22
31. Ernie Irvan – 22
32. Marvin Panch – 21
33. Benny Parsons – 20
34. Neil Bonnett – 20
35. Joe Weatherly – 19
36. Speedy Thompson – 19
37. Lee Petty – 18

Ok, that is as far as I am going!! You can see all the rest at The Inside Grooves Stats Page. So for all time, Ryan Newman is ranked 11th. Actually, The Inside Groove had him behind Mark Martin at 40 poles. But this last weekend Newman got his 42nd Pole Position.

And for active drivers, Newman is ranked 2nd, 20 pole positions behind Jeff Gordon.

Anyway, once again I had fun getting side tracked on a different subject. I mean it. So many times I have 30 things on my brain and 40 working projects, then…………BAM…..I find something else that I have to know the answer to!! And for a brief time I forget about all those other things on my mind!!