'No fox for all of the dogs to chase': Richard Petty laments lack of dominant NASCAR stars

Richard Petty believes NASCAR has a star problem.

In an interview with Forbes published Feb. 17, the seven-time Cup champion said the sport’s lack of a dominant superstar is hurting NASCAR as it looks to regain the popularity it enjoyed in the 1990s and 2000s.

"We're really hurting, looking for somebody to break out of the crowd," Petty, 88, told Forbes' Jim Clash. "We have no fox for all of the dogs to chase. It's a multitude of drivers racing against each other with no front-runner, nobody dominant, the first time in all of the transitions to different eras we have had this."

Could increased parity be to blame for lack of stars?

Don’t mistake a perceived lack of superstars for a lack of talent in NASCAR’s top division. Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick are elite drivers. Among them, there are six Cup Series titles, seven Daytona 500 victories and dozens of race wins.

But few would be recognized by the average fan on the street. NASCAR isn’t dead, nor is it dying, but its top drivers no longer occupy the same cultural space as the stars of the NFL, NBA or MLB.

A broader dip in NASCAR’s popularity helps explain it, but so does parity.

Fourteen drivers won the 36 Cup races in 2025. In 2022, the first season of the Next-Gen car, 19 different drivers won races. In 2024, 18 drivers won a race. The cars are more equal than ever, and teams now have unprecedented access to data — including information shared across organizations.

NASCAR stars drivers once transcended the sport

In 1979, Petty’s seventh and final championship season, only eight drivers won during the 31-race campaign. Seven of them are now in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The best teams could separate from the field — and they did.

That’s no longer the case. Today’s cars rely heavily on single-source parts supplied by NASCAR-approved vendors. 

“Out of 40-some cars in a race, at least 30 are capable of winning under the right circumstances,” Petty said of modern Cup cars. 

Parity makes the racing tighter, but it also makes it harder for stars to break out. Petty began racing in 1959 as NASCAR royalty, but he became an American icon through sheer dominance.  In 1967, he won 27 of 48 Cup races. President Ronald Reagan attended his 200th victory, at Daytona in July 1984. 

From 1986 to 1994, Dale Earnhardt won six championships in nine seasons. From 1995 to 1998, Jeff Gordon won three titles and 40 races in four years. From 2006 to 2010, Jimmie Johnson won five consecutive Cup Series championships. All transcended NASCAR and became superstars. 

Today, NASCAR’s competitiveness is undeniable, but producing a singular superstar is far harder.