Not Ranked
Well, let's define successful open wheel driver's. Tony Stewart - successful, Kasey Kahne - not so much in my opinion. Most Sunday's he is in the way like M. Waltrip. If you consider all the commercials he's been in as part of success, then yeah, I guess he is. His Cup stat's are:
194 starts
9 wins
Avg. finish spot - 18
Successful? Not if I'm a sponsor. Tony Stewart:
266 starts
34 wins
Avg. finish spot - 12
As someone mentioned, Tony Stewart is really something special to watch, not sure how long his career will be, but the guy can drive anything good. So, back to the question of how many open wheel drivers have been successful in NASCAR, not many and I would attest that TS is the only one. Mario, in 14 races, had one win, one top five and three top ten. The one win though was at Daytona in '67, so since that was such a high profile race, he is thought to be "successful". Just a matter of opinion I guess.
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