Great Driver

S

smack500

Guest
Whats your idea of a great driver?

Someone who can preform well on all types of tracks, or someone that can preform well in multiple leagues (open,stock) or ....
 
Some one who stops at stops signs, stays off my bumper while going down the highway, and doesn't use the rear-view mirror to put on makeup while driving down the interstate.....


;) :D
 
lol maybe I should have been more specific

Whats your idea of a great race car driver?
 
Many things combined. But the first thing I look for is someone who can do a lot with a car that ain't quite perfect. For that reason, even though I never really liked the guy that much, I put Cale Yarbrough at the top of the list as far as raw driving goes. It's also why Junior and Jeffie rank real low with me. Being good at all types of tracks is also important. Jeffie does well at that part of it. As does Rudd. Lastly, knowing when you don't have the car to compete and then being gentleman enough not to be in the way is an overlooked quality. Mark Martin, Kyle Petty, and Ken Schrader rate high there.
 
I agree. A great driver will squeeze more out of any given car than an average driver will. Put a Jeff Gordon or a Mark Martin both in Brett Bodine's car and you will see better finishes than the ol# 11 has had for a while. As evidence of this look how much better Greg Biffle performed in the #55 or Petty cars than their regular drivers did. Just a difference in the skill levels.

And it works in reverse too,I would think.Take a driver like,oh I dont know-Kevin Harvick,Jimmie Johnson-and drop them in Brett's car and see what youve got:Brett PLEASE come back!.......;)
 
You guys have said it all.I think Mark has kept more fenders on his car than most.But that don't make no Champion in Winstons eye.;) :)
 
Tony and jeff might not have drove a mid or low classed car in WC but they have been in several leagues all throughout there youth. Most of the time not haveing good or great cars and preformed well all throughout there lives. I think both of them broke several records (youngest in what they did) while growing up, both working other jobs to pay for there dream. Both would and have preformed well in open and stock cars. Thats why I think there the great drivers in nascar of today.
 
Man saying Harvick and Johnson aren't as good as Bodine.....ROFLMAO, get a clue dude! You are way off the mark on that one!
 
I personaly think it's when a driver is in a mid field car and can push it to get point/s and even win...
 
I think Jeff Gordon is a great driver. I will agree that he has great equipment, but I also think that winning 4 cups takes a heck of a lot more than good equipment. I don't think he has had the absolute best equipment out very often at all. Who wins consistently with below average equipment? Also, he has won on every level he's raced. Did he have the best equipment in midgets, sprint, and everywhere alse he won?

Tony Stewart is a great driver too for much the same reasons. Every level.
 
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''Man saying Harvick and Johnson aren't as good as Bodine.....ROFLMAO, get a clue dude! You are way off the mark on that one!''

Ok,I see now,Mopardh9.Thanks for setting me straight on that. For a moment there I thought it might have been the contributions of Earnhardt and Gordon that made Harvick and Johnson so 'sensational'.....guess it was just there in- born natural talent though. I am sure either of those two could have stepped into ,say, a Travis Carter car[PLEASE come back Todd] and performed superbly.

Actually my whole point was using Brett's car as representative of the typically underfunded back-marker car. And also using Martin and Gordon as examples of two very adept drivers.And your two boys [Kev and Jim] as two typical new-breed every possible advantage imaginable nascar pretty-boys.

Which is what they are of course.Crafted and handled to appeal to the 'Earnhardt-is-gone,but Kevin crashes people too' crowd and the 'Jeff is getting too old to call wonder-boy,lets get another one with nice hair' masses.

At least guys like Brett have faced a little adversity at the WC level and still endured.I have 'a clue' enough to respect that.

Dude.
 
Great used as an adjective (large size) I would have to say Spencer. Mikey is great because he is tall.

Great used as an adverb (successful) can encompass many drivers because exactly how does one perceive success. Is it only defined to win, or can just finishing an event be considered succesful. Owning 5, 6 or maybe 1 team is considered a success.

Great used an a noun (skillful person). How do we define skills in a race dirver? How many of us have had the opportunity to actually see numerous WC drivers cutting their teeth on short tracks as they were honing their talents? I've seen alot of these guys amaze the spectators with skill and talent as they were competing at a younger age. Unfortunatly, many of them fall short when it comes to WC racing. Some have shown great success in the Busch series only to become an also ran in Cup. Did they loose their skill? No that talent is always their. It's the money that the owner has to build a team of great members in order to showcase the drivers talent.

Is Hamilton a great driver? Maybe so, but why did Biffle dominate with the same car? Is he a greater dirver than Hamilton?

So my answer to what is a great driver is I don't know. Show me a true and honest racer who lives an breathes their livelihood, gives it their all each and every race and gets the most out of what their running. Not the guy who is running laps to showcase the sponsors logo, or the one muggin for the camera with stupid ironies and the guy who can always blame someone else. I like the ones who say we had a twenth place car and we made it work to get in the top fifteen. Great job guys. You didn't give up. I like that because they showed greatness when little else was going to work for them at that event.
 
Originally posted by 97forever
[Which is what they are of course.Crafted and  handled to appeal to the  'Earnhardt-is-gone,but Kevin crashes people too' crowd  and the 'Jeff  is  getting  too old to call  wonder-boy,lets get another one with nice hair' masses.
[/b]
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Yeah ok pal.:rolleyes:
 
A driver that can adapt, knows the limits of himself and his car and is consistent is a great driver in my book. I knew a guy that had the most underfunded racecar on the face of the earth and while he never won a race in it, he posted better numbers than people that had 4 to 5 times as much money in their car. He was also level headed. I wrecked him one week and went over to apologize later and he shrugged it off saying it was part of the game. We had some other drivers that lived by the "an eye for an eye" rule that leads to a bunch of wrecked racecars and hard feelings. He happened to win the points championship last year at Raceway 7 in the Hobby Stock class, with a car that was not quite as good as some of the others.
 
GREAT drivers:

Phil Hill
Phil raced anything and everything all over the world until he won the World Driving Championship. The only American born driver to ever achieve that.

Dan Gurney
Another driver who raced anything, anywhere, anytime and was usually pretty close to the front at the checkers. Dan owned Riverside Raceway back in the 60's, won something like 4 Grand National races in a row and 5 out of six that he ran at that track. (I'm not 100% on those figures. Would have to dig into the archives to find out for certain.)
His AAR Trans Am and Indy cars were always a force to reckon with when they pulled into a racetrack.

A.J. Foyt
First 4 time winner of the Indy 500, won in the old front engine champ cars, won in rear engine champ cars, won in midgets, won in sprints, won at Daytona on both the road course and the oval, won at LeMans, has over a dozen championships in different divisions and too many wins to keep track of. Probably the best all time driver in the history of the sport.

Mario Andretti
Another guy who has won in everything from the old jalopies, to midgets, to sprints, won Indy for STP and Andy Granatelli, won at Daytona in Grand National, and is the only other American to ever win the World Driving Championship.
He and Foyt were something to see in the old big cars on a flat dirt mile oval.

Before you all jump on me about these drivers not being NASCAR drivers; every one of them has competed with NASCAR at some point and unlike the current drivers in NASCAR, these guys would and could race any kind of car on any kind of track and win.

They may not have always been politically correct, quite often they finished races covered in dirt and oil, they might actually slug you in the mouth if they felt you deserved it, and they would tell you what they thought and where you stood with them. They not only could drive the race car, they could design, build, or repair it.

It's a shame that there are so many NASCAR (Winston Cup) fans today who think that drivers who only race in one type of car, with only one santioning body, on the same race tracks year after year, for their entire careers, can be considered a great driver.

There are a few youngsters coming into Bush and Cup now who could possibly be great if they expanded their horizons beyond the dollars available in NASCAR.
Certainly doubt that will happen.

But then again, I guess we always tried to make the show where the payoffs were the best for the miles we had to tow.

And I'll betcha that the best race driver in the world today is probably running a go-kart or hobby stock at a local track somewhere nobody has ever heard of.
He might even be that driver that racerx11 mentioned. Ya never know!
 
Hey boB:

Is it a New England thing that brings out the logic in our racing perspective? Or is it that we really spend time learning our racing?

Good to have another sensible voice of understanding on the forum.
 
I spent lots of years racing. Or I think that's what we were trying to do.
Covered lots of miles, made lots of friends, got a lotta memories, and spend an awful lot of money.
But it was an awful lot of fun and I think the friendships over the years and the memories were worth it all.

Now if I can only figure out why we never got rich and famous....
Where did we go wrong?

Are you planning on making it to the Autorama this year?
 
Forgot to say thanks for the kind words there.

Wife and I are thinking about maybe taking a ride down on the Saturday of the show but nothing certain yet.
Son and his girlfriend are also talking about coming along.
I have some problems which can disrupt the best laid plans so we sort of take things day by day now.
Have to see what happens, but possibly we could meet up there.
What part of western Mass?
 
Come off it Freestyleperdue with the comment "is it a New Englan thing that brings out the logic in our racing perspective"? Your question on the New England thing sounds like TNW now with his answer of "it's a southern thing you wouldn't understand". Regional B.S. ?? Or is it pride??

Ah yes, Massachusetts. Are there still signs of life there?? The way people drive on the highways in that state gives pause to wonder how anyone survives, but maybe the answer lies in the fact if you are raised there the antics of local Massachusetts drivers become commonplace diminishing the fear factor.

IF...................... that is the situation, how come there are not more championship contending race drivers in Winston Cup or other branches of the auto racing sport??? Or have they all signed up with Joey Chitwood ???

Just some food for thought. And boB, if ya go to Massachusetts, be careful out there !! ;) :)
 
I would have to add myself to the list of great drivers based soley on a manuever I just pulled off in my wife's Caravan, of all things! I was coming up an extremely snowy hill in the right lane. There were two cars in the left lane. It looked like the one in front was having trouble going fast enough for the one in the back so he just cut right in front of me. I tried braking, but it was too late, so I had to go over the curb and into someone's front yard. I somehow avoided the huge row of pine trees that were approximately 10 feet off the road and miraculously I only barely scraped the real estate sign that was on the edge of the road. I called the police and they said I have 5 days to file an accident report. I will check it out tomorrow at work to see if there is any damage to the steering/suspension before I file a report. If it needs any parts, I will file. If it is only an alignment I would rather not see the guy get a ticket and a confiscatory fine and have his insurance go up, so I probably won't file.
 
Hey, I hear that Hollywood pays pretty decent money for stunt drivers now.
Lucky you had those 10 feet between the road and the pine trees. One thing about it though; pine is a soft wood.
lol
 
Originally posted by boB
Hey, I hear that Hollywood pays pretty decent money for stunt drivers now.
Lucky you had those 10 feet between the road and the pine trees.  One thing about it though; pine is a soft wood.  
lol
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Soft it a relative thing. It didn't seem like a soft place to stop when I was headed right for them.
 
Hey Whizzer how can you asctually back that statement up? There have been way too many drivers that have come out of the NE area to list. The talent in that part of the country is pretty impressive......Bodines, Park,Bouchards,Mcglaughlin, Baldwin, Everham,....and that is just a few off the top of my head that have come from the NE/NY connection. As for your response to my comment 97 all I meant is that you can not compare Brett or Todd Bodine to Jimmie Johnson or Harvick. Both Bodines have had a chance to prove themselves and neither has. They both have had quality rides at times in their careers and how many wins have they accumulated over the years.....?, outside of their older brother Geoff there is no comparison. Johnson has much more talent than Brett and Todd put together and has proved it in only his rookie season. And don't give me the crap about the good equipment thing, he is in that ride for reason and has proved he deserves it! Sorry dude but as far as talent goes i would take Harvick and Johnson over the the 2 younger Bodines anyday.
 
Originally posted by Mopardh9
Sorry dude but as far as talent goes i would take Harvick and Johnson over the the 2 younger Bodines anyday.
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Are you sure now? Ya know Harvick was a "flash in the pan".
:rolleyes: :bleh:
 
Harvick is not a flash in the pan....look what he did his rookie season! There was a lot of turmoil going on at RCR last year , Harvick got caught up in it. I'll go out on a limb and predict he will finish in the top 10 in points this year. I really feel last year was a great learning experience for him, he learned how hard it was to race in Cup. He saw the other side of the coin, the struggling, the team not jelling, the Boss being upset at him. I don't think anyone else could of done what Harvick did his rookie season, racing both Cup and Busch and pulling it off like he did. It was not luck it took a lot of guts,focus, and skill. I still feel in the not too distant future he will be a Cup champion.
 
Oh and as for my greatest drivers of all time I'd have to say Pearson, Petty, Yarborough, and D.Earnhardt sr. Out those four i'd hate to pick the best, but i sure would like to have them on my 4 car Cup team.....lol;)
 
Originally posted by Mopardh9
Oh and as for my greatest drivers of all time I'd have to say Pearson, Petty, Yarborough, and D.Earnhardt sr. Out those four i'd hate to pick the best, but i sure would like to have them on my 4 car Cup team.....lol;)
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As for my opinion as to the 4 greatest of all time, I would have to say in this order...

1. Richard Petty
2. Dale Earhardt Sr.
3. Jeff Gordon*
4. Shawna Robinson (ok, just kidding)

*Jeff Gordon is not finished winning championships, so the asterisk is where I think he ranks now. He may move up the list however, depending of course on how many more cups he wins.
 
1.dale earnhardt Sr.
2.darrell waltrip
3.Jeff gordon
4.cale yarborough
5.richard petty
 
For pure driving ability, in Winston Cup, and using no other factor, I go:

1. Cale Yarbrough
2. Dale Earnhardt
3. Harry Gant
4. Davey Allison
5. David Pearson
 
Oh yeh Harry Gant, he was awesome i remember when he won like 4 in a row towards the last part of his career.
 
Originally posted by Mopardh9
Hey Whizzer how can you asctually back that statement up? There have been way too many drivers that have come out of the NE area to list. The talent in that part of the country is pretty impressive......Bodines, Park,Bouchards,Mcglaughlin, Baldwin, Everham,....and that is just a few off the top of my head that have come from the NE/NY connection. As for your response to my comment 97 all I meant is that you can not compare Brett or Todd Bodine to Jimmie Johnson or Harvick.
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How can I back it up??? Very easily. First of all Mopardh9, my comment was intended as a fun comment to Freestyleperdue and boB, but also had a bit of sarcasm about Massachusetts ROAD DRIVERS. There was no mention of a NE/NY connection.

The comment was directly about Massachussetts road drivers and was stated as such so did not include drivers like those you mentioned, the Bodines, Park, MacLaughlin and Baldwin, all of who are from New York State not Massachusetts. Consideration was given to Ron Bouchard. Evernham is an entirely different story. His history as a stock car driver racing in and residing near Flemington, New Jersey, close to where I lived for sixty years and attended races is well documented. Ray himself has stated his successes as a race car driver and gives that as a major reason for the move into the profession of mechanic/crew chief.

Since I do not know what you are referring to with "comment 97", refresh my memory. There are several things I am guilty of and failure to remember is one of them. I can't remember your comment 97. Help me out here. Give me the thread title or something.

If anyone was offended by the post and reference to Massachusetts road drivers, please bear in mind it was intended to be a factual observation offered in jest, if there is such a thing. It was arrived at by personal observation and experience after several trips of driving in fear on Massachusetts highways to the point where when traveling to Maine in the present day, we go through New York State, into Vermont and then New Hampshire, avoiding Masachusetts altogether, to arrive in Maine. I am convinced Massachusetts road drivers take a test that involves malfeasance of driving ability. No joke.:D
 
Yeh ok try driving in CO Whizzer just as bad or worse. Sorry if i ticked you off just was a little peeved at comment....no harm done.:D
 
Why do you think I am ticked off?? You asked a question and I responded, no harm no foul. I am however, still curious about the comment 97 you refer too.

I think I recall what you mention, but do not remember the thread title. If you can refresh my memory.

:)
 
to me a good driver is:

someone that was a good driver at one time
finishes well ever week
can win but dont try to hard
nice and easy going off the track

thats what a good drive is. and i belive there is olny 2-3 grate active drivers in cup now.
 
Whizzer ................97 was saying that if you put Johnson or Harvick in Bodines Hooters car that they wouldn't do as well as Bodine. I feel differently and stated that Johnson has more talent and ability than both Todd and Brett.
 
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