This series of articles focuses on a bizzaro or oddball statistical anomaly that played in professional sports. I probably will run out of players to do this with eventually though. This is the 4th edition of Sports Oddities!

Brett Bodine was a journeyman NASCAR Winston Cup driver who was solidly in the middle of the pack week in and week out. He had finished in the Top 5 three times out of seventy-eight races in his career thus far. Then came the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro in the spring of 1990.

Dale Earnhardt led late and Bodine, who was having a solid day and had a shot to earn a fourth career top five finish and even sneak into the Top 10 in the Winston Cup points standings. He pitted a little earlier than the leaders and since North Wilkesboro is a small race track, he ended up being lapped. A caution would come out a short time later and the pace car incorrectly picked up the wrong car as the leader. That was Bodine. Suddenly, Bodine had the lead spot and fresher tires than everyone else and was able to win his first (and it turns out only) career NASCAR Winston Cup race over Darrell Waltrip.

How could such a scoring error happen? In 1990 NASCAR didn’t have their electronic scoring loops like they do today. Hilariously, Bodine claimed he was the leader all along. Waltrip complained to NASCAR Chairman Bill France, who told him that “you’ll win tons more races but leave Bodine alone, this is his first one”. Crazy that something like that would stand.

Brett Bodine’s final career stat line: 480 starts, 61 top 10s, 16 top 5s.

And one win.