6 most famous NASCAR drivers from Texas

According to the 2013 U.S. Census, Texas is the second most populous state in the country, with 26,448,193 residents — or roughly 8.4 percent of the entire United States population.

But when you think about how big Texas is and how many people it has, the Lone Star State is grossly underrepresented in NASCAR.  There is only one active full-time Cup driver who is a Texas native right now, while states as random as Iowa, Arizona and Indiana all have multiple drivers.

Here are six of the most famous drivers who were born in Texas and the cities they hail from.

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One of the original young guns of NASCAR, Hillin burst onto the scene at the age of 18 in 1982, when he ran five Premier Series races for his family owned team. He would go to amass 334 starts over 17 seasons, although success would prove elusive. Hillin’s only Premier Series race victory came at Talladega in 1986. For his career, he had eight top-five and 43 top-10 finishes.

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The book on Buescher is still pretty much in its first chapter, although it’s a good opening. A rookie this season, Buescher won at Pocono and became the first Front Row Motorsports driver to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. In fact, Buescher and fellow first-year driver Chase Elliott were the first rookies to make the Chase since Denny Hamlin in 2006.

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“Lone Star JR” won the Indianapolis 500 three times — in 1973, ’76 and ’80. All told, Rutherford won 30 USAC Champ Car and CART races and took the 1980 series championship as well. His only win in NASCAR came in 1963, when he drove Smokey Yunick’s iconic No. 13 black-and-gold Chevrolet to victory in one of the 100-mile Daytona 500 qualifying races. Rutherford went on to finish ninth in the ’63 Daytona 500.

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The younger of the Labonte brothers won the 2000 NASCAR Premier Series championship driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac. Over his 25-year career, Labonte won 21 races and had 115 top fives and 203 top 10s. Prior to driving for Gibbs, Labonte drove for car owner Bill Davis.

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A NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2016 inductee, Labonte won 22 Premier Series races and two championships, the first in 1984 for car owner Billy Hagan and the second for Rick Hendrick 12 years later. It was the longest gap between championships for any driver. Labonte, who went by the nicknames “The Iceman” and “Texas Terry” was known for his coolness under pressure.

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Some believe “Super Tex” is the best American racer of all-time and the numbers paint a strong case: Foyt owns the USAC victory record with 159 wins and the Champ Car record with 67, including four Indianapolis 500s. In NASCAR, Foyt won seven races, but he didn’t race stock cars much during his driving career. Foyt is the only driver in history to win the Indy  500, Daytona 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona.  

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