In of the closest voting polls in the first four years of the hall of fame, Troy Wiggins was able to finish on top of the results and becomes the seventh member inducted into the Hall. Troy is the second member to be inducted on his performance in the Cup series mostly. Troy did race for 2 seasons in the Nationwide & Truck series to less than stellar results but left them after the 2009 season to focus mainly on the Cup series. Troy had had good and bad seasons in the Cup series like most players but gives his best in every season that he participates in. His best year came in 2008 when he won the Cup series championship after a dominating performance in the Chase.
Troy is a veteran of the league, joining way back in 2005 in the second season. For his very first race in 2005 Daytona 500 he finished in 38th place. Not exactly how he wanted to start his career but he would find success soon afterwards. In his 3rd start at Las Vegas he recorded his first top 5 and nearly won after finishing in 2nd place. He followed it up with 3 good finishes after that Unfortunately for Troy he just narrowly missed making the Chase in his rookie season, but had he made it in, he would have challenged for the championship. He had a strong end to the season and ended up winning the best of the rest award. He also earned his first career Cup win in that time, winning at Atlanta on 10/30/05.
It was a strong rookie season for Troy but he would follow that up even stronger in 2006, not suffering any sophomore slump. He won the 2nd race of the season at California and then the 4th race back at Atlanta again. At that time, Troy moved to the top of the standings for the first time in his career. He led all but 5 weeks heading into the Chase that year. He won a total of 5 races that season which is still a record that holds to this day, tied with Dan Kowalski the previous season. Troy had a solid first Chase but unfortunately his performance good not beat Greg Miller who won the championship again that season. Troy finished the 2006 season in 2nd place, 63 points behind winning his first championship. He did finish with the best average for standings points, race points, picks average and average finish, the only time so far that he's won these awards.
After two strong season, 2007 was a bit of a letdown. This was the year that he would suffer his first slump. After winning 5 races the season before, he went winless in 2007 and missed the Chase. Still he was able to finish in 15th place which isn't too shabby. That season was a bit of a highlight though because he got to represent Lucky Dog Racing in the LROC series thanks to his 2nd place performance the year before. Even though he went winless in the Cup series, he won two LROC races and finished in 3rd place, the highest driver for Lucky Dog Racing. He also raced for the first time in the Truck series where he finished 20th.
In 2008, the multi-car teams began and Troy joined Intimidator Racing, Inc. He was looking for better things this season and they surely did come. For the regular season he was pretty solid but just enough to keep him in contention to make the Chase. Once the Chase began he went full throttle. He had two poor finishes but recorded 6 top 10's. He went to the top of the standings at the halfway point at Charlotte and did not look back from there. Troy cruised to the end and after a 4th place finish at Homestead, won the 2008 Championship by 79 points over Stephen DiCaprio. He didn't win a race that year which was the 2nd time that the champion went winless. Troy also won the first MVT award, the teammate that scored the most points during the season.
That was the only season that Troy had raced in all three series at once. In his first year in the Nationwide series he finished 37 and his 2nd and final season in the Truck series, he finished 22nd. He left the Truck series following the 2008 season and then the Nationwide series the year after.
Despite winning the Championship in 2008, he did not follow it up very strongly the following year. He finished 18th place in 2009 with just four top 5's. In 2010 he did a little better and finished in 12th place but only recorded 5 top 10's, the lowest amount of his career.
After two sub par seasons, Troy rebounded in 2011. He finally won his 7th career race after 5 years at Martinsville. He made the Chase for the fourth time and finished the season in 7th place. He recorded 12 top 10's that year which was the 2nd most of his career.
In 2012 Troy would do even better, bringing back the success of his earlier seasons. Troy made the Chase after finishing in the top 10 and even though his performance wasn't all that strong in the Chase, he recorded a couple of top 5's and finished the season in 3rd place, his 3rd best finish of his career.
Unfortunately for Troy his performance that season would not transfer into the next two seasons. The 2013 and 2014 seasons were the most disappointing of his career after finishing 33rd and 31st. He did break another long winless streak in 2014 after winning his 8th career race at Charlotte in May 2014.
His recent seasons may not exactly be hall worthy, but Troy has had a heck of a career so far and it's far from finished. He will return to that championship form again and this time he will do it as a hall of fame inductee. Congrats to Troy!
Troy was inducted into the Hall of Fame after a total of 7 votes. 3 of the votes came from committee members while 4 came from the league (4 actual votes).
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Career Highlights
2005-2014 Seasons
Cup Series
Won the Championship in 2008
Finished in the top 10 four times
360 starts
8 victories
44 top 5's
96 top 10's
Made the Chase five times
Won the MVT award once
Won the best of the rest award once
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