The best driver ever from your home state

Formerjackman said:
Tim was a wheel man. By the time I got to see him in person, he had already been through the wreck and was fighting his other issues, but man he could still drive. I got to witness a couple of short track knock down drag outs between him and Frank Kimmel. Kimmel is the Richard Petty of ARCA, but I believe Tim was better. No WAY Frank wins ALL of those titles if he had to race a healthy Tim Steele for them.
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Remember his car blowing up in the pits while it sat on jackstands?
 
Greg said:
Not sure if Richie Evans matches the upstate NY geography, but definitely a worthy driver.

Geoff Bodine is one of the most underrated drivers ever imo. He had a great modified career, was great in the Busch Series and very good in Cup cars.
Rick Hendricks first driver and winner in a Cup car.
I thought he had a quirky personality, maybe folks couldn't relate to him, but the driving record was solid.
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If my memory serves me right, Geoff was the first driver to dub his ride "The Levi Garrett Monte Carlo". He was the original master of the unending sponsor plugs. He was an outsider in the early eighties. He came in around the same time as Rusty, Kulwicki, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte and that whole group. Rusty, Alan, Davey, Martin and Trickle all came through the ASA ranks. The ASA was an outstanding short track series that fed a lot of top tier talent into the Cup series. Bodine came from the Northeast Modifieds. He was different, but he could wheel a big, heavy stock car. He won his first race for Rick Hendrick in 1984, and won the Daytona 500 in 1986. Not to shabby. I remember him putting Davey out of the 1989 Daytona 500, young Allison had to be restrained afterwards. Love him or hate him, he was very good in his day.
 
LJ7201 said:
Ohio

Dirt: Dave Blaney / Jack Hewitt

Stock cars: Butch Hartman / Tim Richmond (and Ryan Blaney if he keeps up how he has)

Open wheel: Sam Hornish Jr. / Bobby Rahal

Also gotta mention Roger Penske, Banjo Matthews, Eddie Rickenbacker, Jim Trueman and Paul Newman

I'm probably forgetting some or don't know of some
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Pretty good list...as a fellow Buckeye I will add Rick Ferkle.
 
"Best" is such a subjective term, I prefer the term successful. A lot of great drivers out there just never got the right breaks. We came from California, so the most successful obviously would be Johnson, Gordo and Harvick. But a shout out to Larson for being probably the most natural talent, IMHO. I have seen him do things in sprint cars and midgets that are unbelievable, almost like a sixth sense.

We are now in Nevada, so the Busch brothers would be the two most successful with one Cup each.
 
So many from PA in the short tracks circuit. Cup gave us Jimmy Spencer, John Andretti, Butch Leitzinger...guess we can't claim Mario though.
 
Matt Kenseth, Alan Kulwicki, Johnny Sauter, Dick Trickle, Dave Marcis, Paul Menard, Scott Wimmer, Travis Kavpil, Danica Patrick

Best Crew Chiefs Jimmy Fennig, Robbie Reiser.
 
WhiskyBadger said:
Matt Kenseth, Alan Kulwicki, Johnny Sauter, Dick Trickle, Dave Marcis, Paul Menard, Scott Wimmer, Travis Kavpil, Danica Patrick

Best Crew Chiefs Jimmy Fennig, Robbie Reiser.
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As long as you are mentioning great Wisconsin crew chiefs, don't forget the late great Howie Lettow.
 
Bob said:
So many from PA in the short tracks circuit. Cup gave us Jimmy Spencer, John Andretti, Butch Leitzinger...guess we can't claim Mario though.
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Drag Racer Joe Amato is worthy of mention too!

I'm from PA too. As a kid I use to see Mario driving around his Lambo when i lived in Bethlehem. This was only a couple of miles from his home town of Nazareth. He use to hang out as his Andretti-Hanna Car Wash he had near where i lived. It was pretty cool.
 
BradBlaney said:
From upstate NY, It has to be Geoff Bodine
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Since you're a New Yorker you'll get this.

As someone who lives in Northern PA I always get a kick out of how "outsiders" consider anything north of West Point "Upstate NY". Everyone who lives in the area knows Chemung is part of the "Southern Tier" of NY. I live in what is considered the "Northern Tier" of PA. Together we form the "Twin Tiers"!
 
I’m 27 years old, so I’ll pick drivers I’ve actually watched.

Originally from Ohio: missed Bobby Rahal’s prime, and Tim Richmond died the year before I was born...

Sam Hornish Jr.
Graham Rahal
Dave Blaney
Ryan Blaney

Currently live in Texas: again, too young to have watched AJ Foyt or Johnny Rutherford...

Terry Labonte
Bobby Labonte
Chris Buescher
James Buescher
 
Yeah easily Tim Richmond from Ashland, Ohio. Because of our proximity to Indiana it’s obviously more of an Indycar state historically as dirt car sprint ovals are prominent
 
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