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Once upon a time there was this kid out of the open wheel ranks that got a ride with a fairly decent team. Now this kid didn't know beans about how to drive a stock car but dern was he good lookin. Well sure enuf the kid does pretty good for a rookie down there in the bush leagues. Shows some real flashes of brilliance and looks really good too. Did I mention this was a real good looking kid?
Then the kid caught the eye of the owner of a team that just happened to be one of the slickest biz men in auto-racing. Knows a gold mine when he sees it and tosses his entire organization at giving this kid the very best that money buy. Anyways, the new boss brings him on up to the big time, and keeps tossing more money at the car than most of the other guys out there have made in their entire careers. Speed cost how fast ya wanna go and the boss wants really really fast. The kid keeps improving as a driver.
Well now the PR and marketing guys move in. Along comes the monster sponsor that throws even more money at the car. The kid takes off in an F-14 while the rest of the field is trying to keep up in P-51 Mustangs and World War One Bi-Planes. A few of them actually do.
On any given Sunday the kid is an odds on fave to win the race. When ya got twice the money to work with as your closest competitior and 15 to 30 times as much as the guys in the back row, it's really not much of a stretch to beat the other guys 20 percent of the time.
In my book, a great driver in the very same car would have won twice as many races. Dick Trickle coulda been a champ in this kids car. But still, he's just a kid.
Ahh but the grand days are over. Parity is upon the sport, other teams have found the money to buy more speed, and even better looking kids are starting to show up. The kid is beginning to struggle. Puts together the longest non-winning streak of his career. Ends the 2nd longest DNF steak in modern history. Starts making huge mistakes out of frustration.
Ya see, the kid was groomed to be a winner and a winner he became. Can he survive as merely a contender? If he does, I'll call him great. But if he doesn't I'll no longer even call him very good.
Then the kid caught the eye of the owner of a team that just happened to be one of the slickest biz men in auto-racing. Knows a gold mine when he sees it and tosses his entire organization at giving this kid the very best that money buy. Anyways, the new boss brings him on up to the big time, and keeps tossing more money at the car than most of the other guys out there have made in their entire careers. Speed cost how fast ya wanna go and the boss wants really really fast. The kid keeps improving as a driver.
Well now the PR and marketing guys move in. Along comes the monster sponsor that throws even more money at the car. The kid takes off in an F-14 while the rest of the field is trying to keep up in P-51 Mustangs and World War One Bi-Planes. A few of them actually do.
On any given Sunday the kid is an odds on fave to win the race. When ya got twice the money to work with as your closest competitior and 15 to 30 times as much as the guys in the back row, it's really not much of a stretch to beat the other guys 20 percent of the time.
In my book, a great driver in the very same car would have won twice as many races. Dick Trickle coulda been a champ in this kids car. But still, he's just a kid.
Ahh but the grand days are over. Parity is upon the sport, other teams have found the money to buy more speed, and even better looking kids are starting to show up. The kid is beginning to struggle. Puts together the longest non-winning streak of his career. Ends the 2nd longest DNF steak in modern history. Starts making huge mistakes out of frustration.
Ya see, the kid was groomed to be a winner and a winner he became. Can he survive as merely a contender? If he does, I'll call him great. But if he doesn't I'll no longer even call him very good.
