In NASCAR Cup Series competition the #20 car has started 1,344 races with 85 drivers and has 59 wins, 37 poles, 271 top 5s, and 541 top 10s.
Tony Stewart has 356 starts in the Joe Gibbs #20 car from 1999-2008 with 33 wins. Tony Stewart debuted the #20 Home Depot car at the 1999 Daytona 500, qualifying on the outside pole. He won three races at Richmond , Phoenix and Homestead as well as the Winston Open and the NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors and finished 4th in points. 2000 was an up and down year for Stewart as he won six races, including both Dover races, Martinsville, New Hampshire, Michigan and Homestead but only finished 6th in points. 2001 was another good year for Stewart, as he won the Budweiser Shootout, Richmond, Infineon and Bristol and finished 2nd in the overall standings.
2002 was a break-out year for Stewart with wins at Atlanta, Richmond and Watkins Glen along with the Budweiser Shootout and the team won the 2002 championship . In 2003, Stewart won twice at Pocono and Charlotte and finished 7th in points. In 2004 the team had a similar year to 2003 with 2 wins and finished 6th in points in the first ever chase.
Stewart won his second championship in 2005 . After winning the Gatorade Duel, the team didn’t win again until Infineon and went on to win the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, New Hampshire, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen and held the championship through the Chase.
2006 was Stewart’s worst season in the 20 statistically. After winning early at Martinsville, Stewart suffered an injury at Charlotte and was replaced during Dover. He won again at Daytona but missed the Chase. During the Chase, Stewart won 3 races at Kansas, Atlanta and Texas and finished 11th in points. 2007 was another good year for the team. Though Stewart won the Budweiser Shootout and Gatorade Duel, an early wreck smashed his Daytona 500 hopes. The team won 3 races though at Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen and finished 6th in points.
Following the team’s switch from Chevrolet to Toyota, Stewart’s performance dwindled, earning 10 top 5s and 16 top 10s. Stewart’s only win was the 2008 AMP Energy 500 at Talladega in a controversial finish. Stewart was passed on the final lap by rookie Regan Smith, who would cross the finish line in first. Smith, however, was found to be passing below the yellow line upon video review, and per NASCAR rules had his position revoked, giving Stewart the win.
On June 9, 2008, Stewart was granted a release from his final year of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, ending a twelve year relationship with the organization that included over 30 wins and two Cup Series Championships. Stewart would move to Haas CNC Racing, renamed Stewart-Haas Racing after Stewart purchased a 50% ownership stake from founder Gene Haas, in part to return to longtime manufacturer Chevrolet
Joey Logano started #20 144 times with 2 wins. On August 25, 2008, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that 18-year-old Joey Logano would replace Stewart as the driver of the #20 car for the 2009 season, after only making his NASCAR debut in May 2008 and running abbreviated Nationwide and Cup schedules. Longtime crew chief Greg Zipadelli remained with JGR for Logano’s rookie season. Logano’s first win came in the rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after a fuel mileage gamble, becoming the youngest winner in Sprint Cup Series history. Logano beat former open-wheel drivers Max Papis and Scott Speed for the Rookie of the Year Award, with seven top-tens and a 20th place points finish.
Logano failed to win in 2010 and finished 16th in points. In 2011 Logano again was winless and finished 24th in points. On October 13, 2011, Joe Gibbs Racing announced The Home Depot will become co-primary sponsor for Logano’s car with Dollar General.
Dollar General was set to sponsor 12 races while the other 22 sponsored by The Home Depot. The Home Depot had served as the sole primary sponsor of the #20 car since its debut with Tony Stewart in 1999. Logano won his second career race at Pocono from the pole in the 2012 Pocono 400 after passing Mark Martin with 3 laps to go.
Logano was experiencing little success in the #20 car, and it was announced in the summer of 2012 that Matt Kenseth would replace Logano for the 2013 season. Logano was hired to pilot the #22 for Roger Penske, where he remains today.
Matt Kenseth has 178 starts in #20 with 15 wins. Beginning in 2013, the #20 car was taken over by Matt Kenseth, who left Roush Fenway Racing, as Joey Logano moved to the #22 at Penske Racing. The team saw a resurgence, with Kenseth winning five races in the regular season (Las Vegas, Kansas, Darlington , Kentucky, and Bristol), and led the most laps at several other races (Daytona 500, Kansas, Richmond and Talladega). Kenseth also won the first two races of the Chase, bringing the team up to 7 wins – which was more wins in a single season than the car had ever achieved with Stewart or Logano, though Kenseth would go winless in 2014.
It was announced in September 2014 that Stanley Black & Decker would leave Richard Petty Motorsports to sponsor JGR in the Cup Series for 2015. This move reunited Kenseth with long time sponsor DeWalt for six races as a primary, and the entire season as an associate.
Kenseth won 5 races in his 34 starts in 2015. After a difficult second round of the Chase, Kenseth was on the verge of punching his ticket to the next round with a win at Kansas. In the final 5 laps, an altercation with the #22 car of Joey Logano cost Kenseth the win and a chance to advance. Logano ended up sweeping the second round.
2 weeks later at Martinsville Kenseth, after an altercation with Logano’s teammate of Brad Keselowski, displayed his displeasure with Team Penske by intentionally wrecking Logano and then lying about it on television. Logano would not recover from the incident and was eliminated from the Chase at the end of the round. Kenseth would be suspended for 2 races allowing young Erik Jones to make 2 starts in the car.
Kenseth started out his season with a promising race in the Daytona 500. He led 40 laps in the waning stages in the race. He took the white flag to start the final lap, but was passed by teammate Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex, Jr.. Kenseth’s attempt at blocking backfired as he went sideways and lost several positions. Kenseth finished 14th while Hamlin edged Truex to the stripe to win the closest finish in the race’s history.
One week later in the Atlanta race, he was tagged for “improper fueling” during a green flag pit stop and was forced to serve a pass-through penalty. He was given the black flag with the white cross marks for not pitting within three laps. After serving that penalty, he ended up in 31st two-laps down. After the race, he said “I got black-flagged for some type of pit road penalty and I didn’t know it and pitted the lap they told me to do a pass through – I’m assuming they were black flagging us before that and they pulled our card. I never heard anything about it or at least saw the flag or anything, so I came when they told me to come and I guess they must have penalized us a couple laps or something. I don’t really know. I haven’t really seen it.” However, Kenseth did go on to finish 19th. He finished 37th at Las Vegas after being involved in a multi-car wreck with Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, and Carl Edwards late in the race.
At Talladega, Kenseth started 4th and led 39 of the first 71 laps and got caught up in a late-race wreck with Joey Logano and Danica Patrick causing Kenseth to barrel-roll onto his roof. Kenseth exchanged words with Logano after the race, accusing Logano of shoving him off the track just before the wreck happened.
At the restart of a caution at Dover, Kenseth started on the inside front row next to Jimmie Johnson. Johnson looked to have gotten a great start but couldn’t shift into 4th gear, causing an 18-car wreck. Kenseth made it through, then the red flag came out. With 10 laps remaining, Kenseth was having a hard time holding off Kyle Larson. But when 3rd position driver Chase Elliott challenged Larson, Kenseth then had no trouble winning the race to end a 17-race winless streak.
At the first New Hampshire race of the season, Kenseth held off Tony Stewart for his second win of the season, and his 38th career win.
After the race, Joe Gibbs Racing was docked 15 owner and driver points Wednesday for failing postrace inspection at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. His car failed the Laser Inspection Station (LIS). NASCAR assessed a P3 penalty that included the loss of 15 points, which drops Kenseth from eighth to ninth in the point standings. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff was also fined $25,000.
Kenseth lost sponsor Dollar General prior to the 2017 season, leading Dewalt to up their number of races to a 15 race primary sponsor. Tide also came on board for 3 races starting at the spring Phoenix race, though they sponsored an extra race at Martinsville in the spring because the team had no other sponsor for the race. Peak and BlueDef joined the team for Las Vegas and Auto Club. Circle K joined the team mid season to sponsor 6 races during the season starting at the spring Richmond race, where Kenseth was able to get his first pole and first stage win of the season, though Circle K ended up sponsoring an extra race due to the team having no other sponsor. Despite these deals, the 20 team still had to use Toyotacare as a fill-in sponsor at the spring Texas race and the spring Dover race. After a slow start to the season, Kenseth picked up his performance and came back to contend with Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano for a spot in the playoffs.
He won the pole for the regular-season finale at the 2017 Federated Auto Parts 400 and made his 13th Career appearance in the Playoffs despite finishing 38th. Kenseth led most of stage 1 until he locked up the brakes and brought out a caution. During the final stage, Danica Patrick spun after contact with Austin Dillon. While under caution, Kenseth got into Clint Bowyer as the field stacked up due an ambulance at the entry of pit road. Still, he managed to beat out Bowyer, Erik Jones, and Joey Logano for the last Playoff spot. Had Logano(who finished 2nd) beaten Kyle Larson(who won) on the final restart, Kenseth would’ve missed the Playoffs for the first time since 2009 due to Logano’s “Encumbered win” in Spring.
On July 11, JGR announced that Kenseth would be replaced in the No. 20 by Erik Jones in 2018, leaving Kenseth with no 2018 ride. As a result, Kenseth eventually announced plans “to take some time off” from the sport on November 4.
With two races remaining for 2017 season, Kenseth had yet to win a race. He was knocked out of the playoffs when an 8th pitcrew member came over the wall to help fix his car that was involved in a wreck. He was disqualified from the race and knocked out of the playoffs.
At Phoenix, Kenseth passed Chase Elliott with 9 laps remaining to win his first race of the year, also ending his 51 race winless streak. “Yeah, it’s really not describable,” Kenseth said. “With only two (races) left, I didn’t think we probably had a good chance of getting back to Victory Lane. It’s been, I don’t know how many races – somebody’s probably going to tell me tonight – but it”s been at least 50 or 60, so it’s been a long time. We’ve had a lot of close ones. Just felt like it was never meant to be, and today it was meant to be…. I’ve got to be honest with you, I never dreamed I’d win one of these races, so obviously I’ve been so incredibly blessed throughout my whole career.” This marked his 39th victory tying him with Tim Flock for 19th place on the all-times wins list.
DeWalt sponsored Kenseth for his final race at Homestead, with his car resembling his rookie paint scheme from 2000. Kenseth finished in 8th place in the race and ultimately ended up in 7th place in the official points standings. Kenseth would return to the Cup series for 15 races in 2018 behind the wheel of car #6 for Roush Racing, and again for 32 races in 2020 in the #42 for Chip Ganassi.
Erik Jones would take over the 20 car full-time beginning in the 2019 season.. On July 7, 2018, Jones captured his first career Cup Series win at the 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at the Daytona International Speedway after going into overtime second alongside Truex Jr. but got a big push from Chris Buescher on the final lap and held off Truex to score his first ever victory. This win secured him in the Playoffs, but was eliminated in the Round of 16 after disastrous finishes at Las Vegas and the Charlotte Roval. Jones finished the season 15th in points.
On September 2, 2019, Jones scored his second career Cup Series win at Darlington, securing him in the 2019 Playoffs. Four days later, he confirmed that he signed a contract extension with JGR to drive the No. 20 in 2020. Heading into the playoffs, Jones, started 26th at Las Vegas. During the race Jones had reported his throttle was stuck and had to go behind the wall. He returned to the track 16 laps down, Jones ultimately finished 36th, 26 points from the cutoff line. At Richmond, Jones ran top 10 in the later part of the night and was able to finish 4th, but was disqualified when his car was discovered to have a rear wheel alignment issue during post-race inspection. He left Richmond 45 points down from the cutoff line. Jones was in a must win situation heading to the Charlotte Roval. However coming to a restart, Jones was involved in a multi-car incident heading into turn 1. The damage was significant enough to puncture his radiator and eliminate him from the Round of 16.
Jones kicked off 2020 with teammate Denny Hamlin pushing him to the win in the Busch Clash; despite Jones being involved in three accidents towards the end of the race. In August 2020, after fellow Toyota team Leavine Family Racing announced the sale of their team, it was announced that JGR would be parting ways with Jones at season’s end, ending a long-time relationship that dated back to 2012. Jones would end up missing the playoffs after being involved in a wreck at Daytona, a race he would need to win in order to lock himself in. Jones would go winless for the first time since his rookie season in 2017 and finish 17th in points. Jones started 110 races in the #20 before moving on to the #43 for Richard Petty.
Starting in 2021, Christopher Bell took over the #20 ride for Joe Gibbs Racing. In only his second start in the number, Bell would find victory lane in his 38th career start- The Daytona Road Course. Bell’s victory would secure him a spot in the playoffs, but the rest of his season was not quite as strong as it began. Bell was eliminated in the round of 12 and finished 12th in the final standings.
In 2022, Bell would score a victory at New Hampshire in July, qualifying him for the Playoffs. After a strong first round with Top-5’s at Darlington, Kansas, and Bristol, Bell would start the Round of 12 with a 34th place finish at Texas after he was caught up in a crash with Kyle Larson & Bubba Wallace. A 17th place finish at Talladega left the 20 team in a ‘must win’ situation at the Charlotte Roval. Bell pulled off the long-shot victory and advanced to the Round of 8.
Another 34th place finish at Las Vegas would leave Bell needing a victory to advance to the Championship 4. Bell muscled his way to the front to score the victory at Martinsville, though his feat was overshadowed by the last-lap antics that Ross Chastain pulled off to also advance to the Championship 4.
Bell would finish 10th at Phoenix and 4th in the championship after a freak-accident occurred during his final pitstop, causing a crew member’s hand to be trapped in the wheel.
In 2023, Bell scored a victory at the Bristol Dirt race, earning him a spot in The Playoffs. Bell had a quiet, but consistent summer and fall. His second win of the year came at Homestead Miami Speedway in the Round of 8, earning him a spot in the Championship 4. However, for the second straight year, bad luck would strike Bell in the Championship race, as an exploding brake rotor would end his day after contact with the wall. Bell has started 108 races in #20 with 6 wins, and he will return in 2023.
Clyde Lynn started #20 a total of 160 times from 1965-1971 with no wins.
From 1973-1986 Rick Newsom started #20 a total of 73 times.
Dick Rathmann started #20 a total of 65 times with 10 wins from 1951-1953. Dick drove in the AAA Championship Car series in the 1949 and 1950 seasons with 4 starts, including the 1950 Indianapolis 500. He finished in the top ten once, in 6th position at Milwaukee in 1950. In 1951, he moved to NASCAR, where he was a very successful Grand National driver through 1955.
In 1956, he returned to the USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1956-1964 seasons with an additional 41 starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in 1956 and 1958-1964. He finished in the top ten 21 more times, with his best finish in 2nd position in 1959 at Daytona.
Dick sat on the pole for the 1958 Indianapolis 500. On the first lap, he and fellow front-row starter Ed Elisian raced into turn 3 and started a chain-reaction accident which involved 15 cars and cost the life of Pat O’Connor. With that accident, Rathmann became the first Indy pole-sitter to complete no laps. This feat has been repeated only twice in Indy history, first by Roberto Guerrero and then by Scott Sharp.
Rob Moroso raced car #20 in 26 races from 1989-1990. Moroso made his debut in Winston Cup in 1988 at Charlotte with Peak Antifreeze sponsorship, finishing 14th in his debut. He would race one more time in 1988 and ran two races in 1989 as a warm up for the following season. Moroso declared he was running for Rookie of the Year in the 1990 season with sponsorship from Crown Petroleum, driving the #20 Oldsmobile for his father. The highlight of the season was a ninth place finish in the Pepsi Firecracker 400 at Daytona. On September 30, 1990, Moroso was killed in an automobile crash near Mooresville, North Carolina only hours after finishing 21st in the Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Traveling at an estimated 75 mph, Moroso lost control of his vehicle in a curve with a 35 mph posted speed limit. The resulting collision killed both Moroso and Tammy Williams, the driver of the vehicle in the opposite lane.
Investigations revealed that he had been driving under the influence of alcohol. His blood alcohol level was 0.22, over twice the then legal level of 0.10. He also had been convicted of speeding four times. Judges could have revoked his license at least twice but the charges were reduced.
Moroso earned enough points after completing just 25 of 29 races that he was posthumously awarded the Raybestos NASCAR Rookie of the Year Award in 1990.
Jack Anderson piloted the #20 in 25 starts from 1963-1965.
Other notable names in #20
Bobby Hillin Jr., 11 starts
Buddy Baker, 7 starts
Marvin Panch, 6 starts
Joe Ruttman, 6 starts
Tiny Lund, 5 starts
Elmo Langley, 3 starts
Greg Sacks, 6 starts