Driver Appreciation thread

T

timmyholton

Guest
Watching the race last night and seeing Kenny Schrader in the race made me smile. Sure he isn't known as a
great "nascar" driver due to only 4 wins (the last one coming in 1991) but he is one of the best racers around outside of nascar

The guy is a racer plain and simple. He'll go anywhere and race.

He's also one of the nicest guys around. He had raced at my local track a handful of times and always makes time after the race to meet fans and sign autographs. No sunglasses on, he looks you in teh eye when he's talking to ya, shakes you hand, smiles for the camera. He looks genuinely happy to be there.

After one race a few of us were in the infield drinking a few cold ones when kenny drove up on his 4 wheeler with a cooler and decided to shoot the bull with us.

He ended up going to a local burger joint with us afterwards and we just had a good time (No I didn't have pictures of this for proof. I felt that this was something that I didn't want to turn into a "look at me situation hanging with Kenny" and I think Kenny appreciated that"

I think NASCAR misses guys like Schrader. Guys who are everyday men who are just racers. No pr guy, no entourage, no plastic wife, no fancy clothes.

I understand NASCAR has changed and i'm not trying to make this a NASCAR USE TO BE WAY BETTER posts, I'm just saying how I feel

The people who connected with Schrader, adn Gant and the Allisons, and Mark Martin, and Texas Terry and Dale can't connect to today's drivers

Alot of it is social media, sponsors being more protective and the changing of society

Anyway the point of this thread is maybe we can talk about teh drivers who dont get talked about alot to keep their name going.

We always talk about, gordon, Dale, Stewart, Petty, Cale but let's kep the guys who didnt have hall of fame careers going

Maybe talk about meeting some of them?
 
I wasn't around as a fan back then, but I've always had to be impressed with JD McDuffie's career numbers. 653 starts and nary a win. But the guy kept going out there week after week. I've got to imagine that he had a real passion for racing to continue to face failure like he did in sub-par equipment.
 
29-4 said:
I wasn't around as a fan back then, but I've always had to be impressed with JD McDuffie's career numbers. 653 starts and nary a win. But the guy kept going out there week after week. I've got to imagine that he had a real passion for racing to continue to face failure like he did in sub-par equipment.
Click to expand...


he's the one who passed away at watkins glen correct?
 
I know this thread is more about non Hall of Famers but I love the story below. I always believed Richard Petty was genuine with the time he gave his fans. Glad to say he was one my heroes when I was a boy in the 70s.

I do think the story at least fits with some of the qualities mentioned in the OP, at least I hope it does.

www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2014/8/9/vp-of-competition-robin-pemberton-richard-petty-upstate-new-york.html

(snipped)...
It all began when Pemberton was a 12-year-old busboy at his parents' restaurant outside Saratoga Springs, New York and made fast friends with a famous diner who was in town to race big-time stock cars at the local short track.

It's something Pemberton remembers fondly as he spends time this weekend back in his native Upstate New York for Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International.

"I don't think a lot of people know how much racing actually takes place in all of New York, and those stock cars of that day -- the Sprint Cup series of the '60s and '70s -- were really alien to us because everything else around there was modified dirt cars,'' Pemberton recalled of the early 1970s when NASCAR's big leagues made two trips in 1970 and 1971 to the half-mile Albany Saratoga Speedway -- a few miles from Pemberton's hometown, Malta, New York. Both races were won by The King.

"Richard Petty used to stay at the motel across the street from our family's restaurant, and he'd have his car at the speed shop by the gas station up the road.

"A bunch of us kids would ride up on our bicycles and watch them working on their cars, and I remember Richard was just sitting there in a director's chair outside and we just rolled up there and started talking to him.

"He let us climb up on the doors and peek in the car, and I was like, 'Man, there are no door handles on it.' I remember him saying, 'Well, guess I got too close to the wall and knocked the door handles off.' We didn't know any better.

"We spent hours, I mean hours, with him and he just never quit talking, and I still have a postcard he signed to me when he had the Plymouth Superbird,'' Pemberton recalled.....
 
A driver I always rooted for that I thought was a little underrated was Bobby Hamilton. He never was in great equipment at the Cup level but still managed 4 wins, and later won a Truck title. I always appreciated him for bringing the 43 back to prominence in the mid-90's as well. I hate that he died so young.
 
Skinner , Hornaday, Sprague, Onion , Kenny Wallace , Benson , ....can't begin to list em all.
 
I always cheered for Jon Andretti too....
 
Dick Brooks.


J.D. McDuffie played W.C. Fields with me at Langley - “Go away, kid. You bother me.” Never did hold it against him, I'm sure I was.
 
Ricky Rudd was interesting. Wish he would have got ahold of Harvick at Richmond that night. Quote of the year was his comment about not knowing what was coming out of that yap-yap mouth....classic.
 
It is fun to reminisce about the good old days before sponsors, 24/7 cable sports TV, and social media, but I think today's Nascar stars tend to be more fan friendly and accessible than the stars of most sports. And if they seem a little "plain vanilla" in personality, who can blame them? The fans have taught the drivers that whenever they say, do, or even think anything that is non-vanilla, we will tighten their balls in a vice to the point of castration.

The drivers know that Nascar fans claim to want the drivers to exhibit non-vanilla personalities, but in actual fact, we will tolerate nothing but plain vanilla. The hierarchy of fan reaction goes like this...

1) If you are my favorite driver, you can do no wrong. Really, seriously, what*ever* you do is 100% perfect.

2) If you are not my favorite driver, you need to be 100% vanilla, 100% of the time, or I will *hate* you forever.
 
Jimmy Spencer. I still wish that he would have had a good shot with a top team.

I have a story about him, but this story isn't just about a driver but about the sort of connection you don't really see with the fans as much anymore. I was a member of the Jimmy Spencer Fan Club. The fan club was ran out of the Spencer Motor Ventures race shop, and Jimmy's sister Chrissy ran both it and the merchandise side of things. One year a family member called them wanting to see if they had any new merch they could order as a birthday present for me. Chrissy helped them out, but also told them Jimmy was going to be in and to expect something extra in the shipment. She got Jimmy to sign some stuff for me and they threw in some hat pins, keychains, and other items.
 
Ford 222 said:
Ricky Rudd was interesting. Wish he would have got ahold of Harvick at Richmond that night. Quote of the year was his comment about not knowing what was coming out of that yap-yap mouth....classic.
Click to expand...


this dont get talked about a lot



8:00
 
Marlin won a late model race at Nashville a week or so ago.

The car was illegal post-race. Stripped the win.
 
timmyholton said:
Watching the race last night and seeing Kenny Schrader in the race made me smile. Sure he isn't known as a
great "nascar" driver due to only 4 wins (the last one coming in 1991) but he is one of the best racers around outside of nascar

The guy is a racer plain and simple. He'll go anywhere and race.

He's also one of the nicest guys around. He had raced at my local track a handful of times and always makes time after the race to meet fans and sign autographs. No sunglasses on, he looks you in teh eye when he's talking to ya, shakes you hand, smiles for the camera. He looks genuinely happy to be there.

After one race a few of us were in the infield drinking a few cold ones when kenny drove up on his 4 wheeler with a cooler and decided to shoot the bull with us.

He ended up going to a local burger joint with us afterwards and we just had a good time (No I didn't have pictures of this for proof. I felt that this was something that I didn't want to turn into a "look at me situation hanging with Kenny" and I think Kenny appreciated that"

I think NASCAR misses guys like Schrader. Guys who are everyday men who are just racers. No pr guy, no entourage, no plastic wife, no fancy clothes.

I understand NASCAR has changed and i'm not trying to make this a NASCAR USE TO BE WAY BETTER posts, I'm just saying how I feel

The people who connected with Schrader, adn Gant and the Allisons, and Mark Martin, and Texas Terry and Dale can't connect to today's drivers

Alot of it is social media, sponsors being more protective and the changing of society

Anyway the point of this thread is maybe we can talk about teh drivers who dont get talked about alot to keep their name going.

We always talk about, gordon, Dale, Stewart, Petty, Cale but let's kep the guys who didnt have hall of fame careers going

Maybe talk about meeting some of them?
Click to expand...

Just one letter away from all this.....
Tim Hortons.jpg
 
Lake Speed.

Just one of the most simplest drivers I have ever heard speak. This man beat Ayrton Senna in parting and was a pretty solid NASCAR driver, but I think he would have been a star in CART during that time. A man who had opprotunties, but decided to stay in NASCAR and honestly I think his results just do no justify his speed.

David Reutaimann as well, I still remember his last race with MWR. I have never seen a grown man cry as much as he did, I thought he was a very good driver. Very fun to watch in that 00 car.

Morgan Shepard

God honest truth, Jeremy Mayfield was a hoot to watch as well.
 
aunty dive said:
Marlin won a late model race at Nashville a week or so ago.

The car was illegal post-race. Stripped the win.
Click to expand...
Can we get a 'they ****ted Sterling out of a win at Nashville' thread going...

... or at least a country song by that name....
 
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timmyholton said:
Watching the race last night and seeing Kenny Schrader in the race made me smile....

The guy is a racer plain and simple. He'll go anywhere and race.

He's also one of the nicest guys around. He had raced at my local track a handful of times and always makes time after the race to meet fans and sign autographs...
Click to expand...

timmyholton: from my experiences with mr. Schrader, it is obvious you have been there. he is an ambassador for racing.

from a rained out modified show at wilmot, where he showed up in rain gear on a motorcycle that he had me hold up while he went to autograph the dash of a local street stock driver to the after race pit visit at hales corners where I had brought a bunch of nascar fans to their first dirt race, Schrader creates races fans. just a guy...

I remember the stories of The King signing autographs after a race until the last person in line was taken care of. I know that the racers of today have so many commitments that it is difficult to make time with "just a fan". but that is how the sport grew to what it once was.

matt kenseth raced at slinger superspeedway earlier this week. tony stewart almost cost himself a career playing at dirt tracks. and there are several other current stars that take the time to honor their short track roots and the local fans that go there.

I believe that is how to return the fans to stands for nascar. maybe some of those big dollar board room meetings ought to be replaced with some old fashioned re-connect to the grass roots fans barnstorming.
 
LewTheShoe said:
It is fun to reminisce about the good old days before sponsors, 24/7 cable sports TV, and social media, but I think today's Nascar stars tend to be more fan friendly and accessible than the stars of most sports. And if they seem a little "plain vanilla" in personality, who can blame them? The fans have taught the drivers that whenever they say, do, or even think anything that is non-vanilla, we will tighten their balls in a vice to the point of castration.

The drivers know that Nascar fans claim to want the drivers to exhibit non-vanilla personalities, but in actual fact, we will tolerate nothing but plain vanilla. The hierarchy of fan reaction goes like this...

1) If you are my favorite driver, you can do no wrong. Really, seriously, what*ever* you do is 100% perfect.

2) If you are not my favorite driver, you need to be 100% vanilla, 100% of the time, or I will *hate* you forever.
Click to expand...
Lol. Very correct. Guilty!
 
LewTheShoe said:
It is fun to reminisce about the good old days before sponsors, 24/7 cable sports TV, and social media, but I think today's Nascar stars tend to be more fan friendly and accessible than the stars of most sports. And if they seem a little "plain vanilla" in personality, who can blame them? The fans have taught the drivers that whenever they say, do, or even think anything that is non-vanilla, we will tighten their balls in a vice to the point of castration.

The drivers know that Nascar fans claim to want the drivers to exhibit non-vanilla personalities, but in actual fact, we will tolerate nothing but plain vanilla. The hierarchy of fan reaction goes like this...

1) If you are my favorite driver, you can do no wrong. Really, seriously, what*ever* you do is 100% perfect.

2) If you are not my favorite driver, you need to be 100% vanilla, 100% of the time, or I will *hate* you forever.
Click to expand...


I critique my fav driver all the time. No ones perfect.
 
Greg Biffle.

I wonder how fast he could have been if he had gotten into Cup sooner. I mean he was a rookie at 36, but I have a huge appreciation for him because with Roush like it is and Biff is weathering the storm to not only make it better for himself. He has many younger prospects looking at him for guidance, his loyalty to Roush is commendable.

I always wanted him to get that thriple crown title... 2005 he was so darn close and he closed out at Homestead like a boss that year.
 
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