"One is the Loneliest Number" wasn't just a big hit for 1970s rock group Three Dog Night, it could also be the theme song for those Winston Cup drivers who have yet to earn their first career win.

Johnny Benson knew that tune real well. It took him 226 starts before he could finally start singing another song, "The Winner Takes it All," after last Sunday's win at Rockingham, N.C.

As a result, Benson will no longer be part of NASCAR's most unfortunate group of drivers, those who have spent their entire careers battling tracks from Loudon to Los Angeles without having taken a checkered flag home with them.

But what's perhaps most surprising about Benson's win is the sheer number of drivers that remain who still have never won.

Benson was but a small fish in a big pond, and now he's moved on to bigger and brighter waters.

Meanwhile, there's still a large group of drivers who are happy for Benson, yet wonder if they, too, will soon follow him to Victory Lane -- perhaps as early as Sunday at Phoenix.

"That's what drives you from week to week and race to race, always wondering if the next race is going to be your turn to win," said Mike Skinner, who has gone 201 starts without a win. "You see other guys winning all the time, like Jeff Gordon, and you ask yourself, 'Why not me, why can't I win?' I know it's only a matter of time before my win will come.

"Sure, it gets frustrating, going week after week after week, month after month and year after year without winning. What makes it harder is I was used to winning before I came to Winston Cup. We've had a number of chances to win in our career, but it's usually something out of our control that's prevented us from doing so, either a crash, or mechanical failure, or bad pit stop or something.

"Yes, there are times you think about it in the back of your mind whether you'll ever win a race, but you have to keep telling yourself that it'll come. Someone once told me that getting that first win is always the hardest. After that, it's a little bit easier -- although winning any time in Winston Cup is never easy -- because you've already won once and know what it takes to get a win."

The list of active winless drivers is longer than some may think. While Benson needed 226 starts to grab his first trophy, that total is a drop in the bucket compared to others, four of which have logged a combined total of nearly 1,300 starts between them.

	Blaney has three career-best sixth-place finishes.

Leading the list of winless pilots is veteran Rick Mast, who has logged 364 starts. Others in the 300 Club are Hut Stricklin (324), Ted Musgrave (303) and journeyman Dick Trickle, whose three starts this season increased his total to 301.

In addition, 13 other drivers have more than 70 starts without a victory.

There's Kenny Wallace (262), driver-turned-broadcaster Wally Dallenbach (226 -- the only winless driver in this group who has not started at least one Cup race this season), Chad Little (217), Robert Pressley (205) and Skinner (201). There's also Todd Bodine (168), Steve Grissom (151), Kevin Lepage (128), Mike Wallace (126) and Dave Blaney (109). Rounding out the group are Jeff Green (92), Stacy Compton (87) and second-year driver Casey Atwood (72).

There is still hope for those in that group. They need look no further than at this season's scorecard, with a record five different drivers having been first-time winners in the first 34 races -- including one veteran (Benson), one second-year driver (Kurt Busch) and three rookies (Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray, who technically isn't even a rookie yet) -- to have renewed hope that they'll be next.

Of those still chasing career victory No. 1, several stand out as potential winners at either Sunday's race at Phoenix or next week's season finale at Homestead, Fla. Skinner has had some strong runs in his career at Phoenix, while in last year's event at Homestead, Atwood finished third, Blaney was sixth and Green was ninth.

They've shown they can be competitive and run near the front -- it's just sealing the deal that's eluded them.

Of the top-20 drivers in the standings, six have yet to win a race this season, including Green (18th) and Blaney (19th). And with the chase for the championship likely prompting a more conservative game plan from leaders Tony Stewart, Mark Martin and Johnson, drivers like Skinner, Green, Blaney and Atwood can go for broke. They can afford to take chances Stewart and his pursuers can't.

"To me, you can have all the success you want in the world, from a big house to a fancy car to a boat to an airplane, all kinds of toys and stuff, and that all of those things are the result of you're being a Winston Cup driver," Skinner said. "You can have everything, but if you don't have a win in your career, you're not as successful as you could be and should be.

"When I retire from Winston Cup racing, I won't be able to call my career a complete success unless I've won at least one race, if not a whole bunch of races. That's the reason you became a Winston Cup driver, to win. That's what every guy in Winston Cup is looking for each and every time he straps himself into a race car, to win. Anything less, and you're that much less of a driver."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.