In NASCAR Cup Series competition the #34 car has started 1,183races with 75 drivers and has 6 wins, 2 pole, 40 top 5s, and 214 top 10s.
Wendell Scott has the most career starts in #34 with 469 starts including 1 win in 1964 at Jacksonville Speedway Park in Jacksville, FL. He is the first black driver to win a race in what is now the Cup Series and was the only black driver to until Bubba Wallace’s 2021 Talladega victory. Scott’s career was repeatedly affected by racial prejudice and problems with top-level NASCAR officials. However, his determined struggle as an underdog won him thousands of white fans and many friends and admirers among his fellow racers. After a bad accident at Talladega in 1973, Scott was forced to retire. He died at age 69 in 1990 after a battle with spinal cancer. Scott was part of the 2015 class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
David Ragan drove the #34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports until 2015. To date he has 109 starts in #34, running full time since 2012. Ragan’s biggest moment came in the spring of 2013 at Talladega when he and Front Row Racing teammate David Gilliland made a last lap surge to get the 1-2 finish for the team with Ragan winning the race. Ragan made only 1 start in 2015 before leaving to drive the #18 car for injured Kyle Bush, leaving the #34 car became the center of a game of musical cars. In 2017, Ragan returned to Front Row Motorsports behind the wheel of car #38, while Landon Casssill moved from car #38 to pilot the #34 Ford.
When Ragan left to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing after the 2015 Daytona 500, Joe Nemecheck started the car at Atlanta. Brett Moffitt subbed for Brian Vickers in the #55 at Atlanta with an impressive 8th place finish, but when Vickers returned the the car Michael Waltrip Racing arranged a deal to lend Moffit to the #34 car at Vegas and Phoenix. Chris Buescher drove the car for the next four races along with Talladega and Reed Sorenson drove at Richmond. In May 2015, Moffitt, competing for ROTY honors, was named the driver for the remainder of the season, though Justin Marks took over at Sonoma and Buescher drove the car at Watkins Glen. Despite not running the full season, Moffitt earned Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors.
In 2016 Buescher was named the full-time driver of the #34 car, on loan from Roush-Fenway Racing. After a rough start to the season, including a wild ride at Talladega, Buescher and his team were able to pull off an upset victory in a weather-shortened event at Pocono. This put the #34 team in a unique position: They had earned a spot in The Chase for the Sprint Cup, if they could manage to break into the top-30 in the regular season standings. Following his victory, Buescher’s performance improved. The Front Row Racing team made The Chase, only to be eliminated in the first round. For 2017, Buescher left the team to drive the #37 for JTG Daugherty Racing, ending his “on loan” status from Roush-Fenway. He started 42 races in #34.
In 2017 Landon Cassill moved to the #34 car, after previously piloting car #38 for Front Row Motorsports. Cassill was remarkably consistent. He finished in the top 30 27 times, but posted only 3 top-20 finishes and 6 finishes outside the top 30. Though a popular ambassador for NASCAR on social media, it was announced in October that Cassill would part ways with Front Row Motorsports at the end of the season. After 36 starts in #34, Cassill was being replaced at the end of the 2017 season.
Michael McDowell joined Front Row Motorsports in 2018 to pilot the #34 car. In the first race of the season, McDowell raced up front late and finished 9th in the Daytona 500. This would be his only top 10 finish of the season, but his 9 other top 20 finishes would be good enough to earn 26th in the season standings. In 2019 McDowell scored 2 top 5 finished- both at Super-Speedways. McDowell sparked a bit of controversy at the 2019 Daytona 500 by not drafting with Joey Logano, a fellow Ford driver.
In 2020, McDowell scored 4 top-10 finishes (Pocono, Indianapolis, and both Bristol races) and raised his average finish to 20.92, the highest of his career. His most notable moment of the year came during the All-Star Open at Bristol where McDowell tagged Bubba Wallace’s bumper, turning him into the wall early. Wallace, upset with McDowell’s driving, left a present on the back the #34 team’s equipment truck- the mangled bumper of his #43 car.
After the race, Wallace poked fun at McDowell during a TV interview. “People say [McDowell is] one of the nicest guys in the garage, can’t wait for the God-fearing text that he’s going to send me about preaching and praise and respect,” Wallace said. “What a joke he is.”
Some critics of Wallace seemed to think that his comments were derogatory toward Christianity, but Wallace later clarified that he was intending call McDowell a hypocrite; insinuating that he wasn’t living up to his reputation as an outspoken christian. McDowell auctioned off the bumper that Wallace had gifted him, raising $20,000 for Motor Racing Outreach.
In 2021, Michael McDowell won the first race of his Cup Series career- The 63rd running of The Daytona 500. The win would earn McDowell a trip to the NASCAR Playoffs, where he would ultimately finish 16th.
Prior to 2022, McDowell had only scored 16 top-10 finishes in his Cup Series career. In 2022 he nearly doubled that number as he scored 12 top-10 finishes including two 3rd place runs at Sonoma and Talladega to bring his career total to 28 top-10s. His consistency did not go unnoticed; Crew Chief Blake Harris was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to Crew Chief for Alex Bowman’s #48 car in 2023.
McDowell scored his second career win in 2034 after a dominating performance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The win earned him a spot in the playoffs, where he failed to advance to the Round of 12. He finished 15th in the final standings, his best points finish to date. McDowell has started 216 races in the number 34 with 2 wins, and he will return in 2024.
Prior to Ragan joining the team in 2012, David Gilliland drove the #34 for the full 36 race 2011 season. 2012 would see the team expand and Gilliland moved to the #38 car, which he drove through 2015.
2010 saw Front Row fielding the #34 car in every race, but with multiple drivers. Travis Kvapil had the most starts with 19, but other drivers included Kevin Conway, Tony Raines, and Robert Richardson Jr.
John Andretti was the first full time driver for Front Row in #34. After 3 starts in 2008 Andretti left for a brief venture in the Indy Car Series. In 2009 Andretti ran 34 out of 36 races, missing the May races at Darlington and Charlotte to compete in the Indianapolis 500, Tony Raines would start these 2 events in #34. Andretti drove #34 for one start in 2010.
From 2005-2008 Front Row fielded #34 part time with several drivers including Chad Chaffin, Tony Raines, Brian Simo, Randy Lajoie, Mike Skinner, P.J. Jones, and more.
Dick Beaty is best known for being NASCAR’s Director of Competition from 1980 until his retirement in 1992, or as Hary Hyde called him “NASCAR’s Top Cop.” Beaty had a short career as a driver as well, starting 35 of his 38 career races in #34 from 1955-1957.
G.C. Spencer started the #34 car 31 times from 1959-1960.
Jim Roper drove the #34 to victory in the first ever NASCAR Strictly Stock (now Cup Series) race in 1949.
Roper lived in Kansas, and after hearing about a the race in a local news paper, convinced local car dealer Millard Clothier to drive two of Clothier’s Lincoln cars more than 1000 miles to Charlotte, North Carolina to compete on June 19, 1949. Roper finished in second to winner Glenn Dunaway, completing 197 of 200 laps. Chief NASCAR inspector Al Crisler disqualified Dunnaway’s car because car owner Hubert Westmoreland had shored up the chassis by spreading the rear springs, a favorite bootlegger trick to improve traction and handling. Roper was credited with the win in NASCAR’s first Strictly Stock race. Westmoreland sued NASCAR, and the judge threw out the case. NASCAR tore down Roper’s motor after the race, so he had to get a replacement motor to drive back to Kansas. Clothier kept the winner’s trophy. Roper only made one more start in his NASCAR career. He drove #34 again later in 1949 at Occoneechee Speedway in North Carolina- he finished 15th.
Other notable names in #34
Dick Trickle, 4 starts
Todd Bodine, 3 starts
Speedy Thompson 2 starts
Mike McLaughlin, 2 starts
Charlie Glotzbach, 2 starts
Fireball Roberts, 1 start
Junior Johnson, 1 start
Bill Amick, 1 start
Gwyn Staley, 1 start
Joe Weatherly, 1 start
Kevin Lepage, 1 start
Fonty Flock, 1 start
Carl Long, 1 start
At Martinsville in 2014 David Ragan and Bubba Wallace drove special paint schemes to honor Wendell Scott and his induction to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. David Ragan just ran a cool paint scheme on his #34 car, but Bubba changed his truck number from #54 to #34 specifically for the race. Appropriately, Bubba won that race driving Wendell’s #34. Bubba is the only black driver besides Wendell to earn a win in one of NASCAR’s top series.
