Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in only his 12th Winston Cup start. Ron Bouchard won a Cup race in his 11th start in 1981 at Talladega, Mark Donohue won in his 5th Winston Cup start in 1973 at Riverside, the earliest in the ‘modern era’ of Winston Cup, he would only make one more Cup start. Others: Morgan Shepherd won in his 15th start (Martinsville) in 1981, but wasn’t named Rookie of the Year. Several other drivers won in their first year, but weren’t considered ROTY candidates: Dan Gurney at Riverside in 1963 in his third race and Mario Andretti at Daytona Beach in 1967 in his fifth start(Daily Press)(4-4-2000) UPDATE: Looks like the ‘record’ for an earliest win is a rookie who is running a full season, not a one time or part time driver. Seems Bouchard is credited with holding the record. See a nice chart on this at That’s Racin’: Rookies running to Victory Lane(4-7-2000)
