Modern Era?

[Sutty]

I noticed that on Nascar's statistics page they list DW in first and Gordon in second. What defines modern era and why don't they just list all wins including the kings 200?

[VMS]

Not sure I can anwers this 100% correct, but I believe when petty was winning so many races, they raced 3 - 4 times a week rather than just one time a week for what is it...36 races now?

The cars are different altogether as compared as well(no longer "run what you brung")

As for differentiating between who should be modern and who is not for DW etc...I don't feel I can answer that...

Steve

[JollyT]

The Nascar historians consider the "Modern Era" to start in 1972. This is when the Grand National series was renamed "Winston Cup" and all the marketing money started flowing. As with anything it's not easy to pick a spot, but that's the one they picked. You could also argue 1979 would have been a good place as that was the first time the Daytona 500 was carried flag to flag on national television. Any point you pick you have driver overlap. I think what the King's record really shows, is that Lee Petty put a professional racing business together years before anyone else.

[fishing tech]

Modern era I believe is from 1972 when they went from grand national to Winston cup.

[Juneau4]

There was a division made when the world of outlaw came into being and the Bush Series came into being I'm not sure when that happened but it changed stock car racing in much the same way that Cart and IRl changed everything a few years ago when some cars weren't allowed to race at Indy.