Who worked the most and who worked the least to get into the cup &amp

ah but Paul you are so quick to judge other's reasons for being a fan of a particular driver.......oh wait what was that word again started with an H ....lol
 
Lizzy...

He said that a driver didn't have to work for his ride because his father bought him a car at age 3.

:confused:

And sorry for not having a driver's cute looks come into play when I pick my favorite. :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by SelesFreak
Newman fan, Interpreted the question same as you...I know recently Mikey worked hard since last year he was on the verge of losing his ride with DEI and now look what he did with it this year.
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He hasn't improved that much, his average finish is only up 3 spots from last year. I think him winning at Daytona this year is the only thing that saved him from not being canned for next year. I'm just interested to see what happens next year when NAPA's sponsorship is up.
 
Originally posted by tonystewart1
Fergy ?


Jeffy was lucky to have a daddy that would pay his way into racing.  Not everyone has the $$$$$$$$  to buy there kids race cars at age 3 and all the way up to buying sprint  cars at age 14!  If Jeffy paid for all this on his own I would really like to see the proof?????????
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Jeff was born August 4, 1971 in Vallejo, California.
When he was about a year old, he, his older sister, Kim, and his mother went to a race at Vallejo Speedway with John Bickford. By the time Jeff was 4, John and Carol were married. Jeff's stepfather took him under his "racing wing" and bought him a BMX bicycle and then a Quarter Midget race car when he was 5.
"I ran Rio Linda, Sunnyvale, Visalia, Pomona . . . mainly around the Sunnyvale-Fremont area, and Rio Linda, which was a dirt track we'd go to some weekends. In fact, the very first time I ever got into a race car was at Rio Linda," Gordon said. His stepdad seemed to know that Jeff would become a race driver because he had him practicing laps in his Quarter Midget soon after he got it. "We'd take that car out every night after I got home from work and run it lap after lap," John said. "Jeff couldn't seem to get enough of it." By the time he was 8, Jeff had won his first Quarter Midget championship. Two more followed, and by the early 1980s, Jeff and also won four class championships in Go-Karts. Jeff took to the quarter midget cars like he was born to race. He was winning races before he could read or write. Jeff ran quarter-midget races every weekend somewhere in the U.S.
Jeff was winning so frequently in quarter midgets that at age nine, he was beating drivers 17 and older. On and on he went, usually racing on dirt and always moving to a higher level of success.
John Bickford, who married Jeff's mother, Carol, when Jeff was a year old, says racing was Jeff's idea. They made sure he was as safe as possible. "We were always trying to prepare for the next opportunity -- that would be the way to say it," Bickford says. "I think all parents have a certain level of concern, but if he chose skydiving I'd be more worried than racing." The highlight of Gordon's California racing career was the quartermidget nationals. Jeff, then 11, was winning steadily, but this was special. Bickford says Gordon was confident but cautious. "He was smart enough in the races he didn't win that he knew anything could happen," says Bickford. "He knew there was always a chance he'd lose; so he couldn't be ****y."

But he didn't lose. And once it was determined that Jeff would be a racer, the family had a decision to make. By 1985, Jeff's parents knew that their son's future was in racing. Vallejo, California, was wonderful, but Jeff could get little competition racing other kids. He needed to race against adults, but he couldn't do that in his home state because of age restrictions. "It was one of those crossroads in life you come to where you're going to have to make a commitment to something, whether it's your life or your kid's life," says Bickford. "And I felt the potential in our family lied in our ability to do what it took to advance the kid." They moved from California to Florida. Then they relocated to Pittsboro, Indiana, near Indianapolis in 1986 for two reasons. Open-wheel racing was very popular in the Midwest and there were a lot of race tracks in the area. In addition, Jeff could legally race sprint cars in Indiana with his parents' permission.

The rural Pittsboro was cheaper than Indy, and the family was near the chassis builders and many racetracks. His step-father gave up his small manufacturing business in California in the hopes that Jeff could become a champion racer.

After moving to Indiana, things were far from easy. In an interview with Newsweek, his step-father said that the family "slept in pick-up trucks and made our own parts. That's why I think Jeff is misunderstood by people who think he was born to rich parents and had a silver spoon in his mouth."

Jeff joined the United States Auto Club (USAC) at 16 and was the youngest person to ever get a license with the group. Jeff won 3 sprint car track championships before he was old enough to get a drivers license. In the late-80's, he journied to Australia and New Zealand to compete in sprint car races on foreign soil. He was the 1989 USAC Midget Rookie of the Year.

He went to Tri-West High School in nearby Lizton, Indiana (where he was voted prom king) and graduated in 1989. The day of his graduation, he got his diploma and quickly changed into his racing gear for a dirt track race in Bloomington that night. He joined the cross country track team in high school to stay in shape for racing. Often, he'd leave school early (or skip it entirely) on Fridays in favor of travel to tracks like Eldora and Winchester. By the time he graduated, he'd already won over 100 races. He won the USAC Midget championship in 1990. That year, Jeff ran 21 USAC Midget Car races. He was the fastest qualifier 10 times, won nine races and at age 19 became the youngest Midget class champion ever. The next year he moved up to USAC's Silver Crown Division (the cars are similar to Midgets and Sprints but are a lot bigger), and at 20 he became the youngest driver to ever win that championship. He won the USAC midget title in 1990 and his father suggested that Jeff go to Rockingham, North Carolina and attend the Buck Baker driving school. Not for sprint cars, but NASCAR stock cars. ESPN taped a story about Jeff's experience there and in return, Baker would teach Gordon free of charge. After taking his first lap in a stock car, Jeff realized that those were the cars he wanted to race... as long as he was racing.

His breakthrough year was probably 1991 when he won the coveted USAC Silver Crown title and, in a year of frenzied racing, moved up to Busch Grand National competition driving the #1 Carolina Ford owned by Bill Davis and won rookie of the year honors. The car was sponsored by Baby Ruth in 1992 in Busch racing and Jeff captured a NASCAR record 11 pole positions that year. Winston Cup car owner Rick Hendrick noticed Gordon driving an extremely loose race car around Atlanta Motor Speedway that year. He waited for the driver to lose control and wreck but the driver went on the win the race. Hendrick immediately asked who the driver was and was told that it was "that Gordon kid."

Hendrick told his general manager, Jimmy Johnson, to sign the kid to a Winston Cup contract, whatever it took. In 1992, he signed with Hendrick Motorsports to drive for car owner Rick Hendrick. However, car owner Bill Davis expected Jeff to drive for him when his team moved up to Winston Cup. Rather than jump to Winston Cup competiton with an average team that might not be strong enough to qualify every weekend owned by Bill Davis, Jeff signed the deal of a lifetime putting him into the elite circle of NASCAR teams. At the age of 21, he ran the final race of the 1992 season at Atlanta. He came out strong in 1993, winning the Gatorade 125-mile Qualifying race for the Daytona 500. He noticed Miss Winston, Brooke Sealy, in Victory Lane that day. They married in 1994 and lived in Huntersville, North Carolina until 1998 when they moved to Highland Beach, Florida.



Dale jr competed in several series before winston cup also.

This topic has came up over and over again thats why I asked this question as a thread, not to piss people off but to solve the questions at hand.
 
Hey Paul...I think the entire thread is ill-intentioned.

Simply done to start this type of nit picking.

In my opinion (often mistaken by some to be fact when they post) any driver who attained NASCAR Winston Cup status and has maintained a ride has worked for it.

No one (again my opinion) has had it handed to them.

Yes, some teams are better than others as some drivers are better than others. So are we to assume because a driver runs for a monied team (i.e Hendricks, RYR, Childress et al.) that they are less deserving?
 
No...but I think you're missing the point.

Some drivers bled for years in small, no name racing circuits. Living in their cars and cleaning toilets to get a few bucks to fix their carbuerator. Got their name out there and got themselves noticed.

Some drivers were born into well extablished racing famlies.

No one is saying which is worse. That's up to the individual fan to decide. But to say that someone with the name Earnhardt had to bust his balls to get noticed is living in a dream world.
 
Smack 500:

Thanks for proving my point! I have read that article before! I don't think that you can buy a sprint car and run around the country and race if you don't have more than average cash! Do you know how much an engine cost for one of these things? Let alone all the other expenses!


"After moving to Indiana, things were far from easy. In an interview with Newsweek, his step-father said that the family "slept in pick-up trucks and made our own parts. That's why I think Jeff is misunderstood by people who think he was born to rich parents and had a silver spoon in his mouth."

I don't think that this paragraph is proof that Jeffy had to work for anything!

I will say that Jeff Gordon is a great race car driver "even maybe the best ever". He did take full advantage of the opportunities to get where he is today! The guy is good no doubt about it!
 
Well Dale Earnhardt worked for years to get noticed and his father was already established.

DJ worked for years to get a good ride and certainly Ned was well known.

Oh well just my opinion and I am obviously missing the point.
 
I guess the only true point to be made is that this is The Good Old USA! We are free to do whatever we want with whoever we want! If daddy is rich then great! If daddy is poor than so be it! But sometimes the poor climb over top of the rich and make things all peachy keen!

:D
 
tonystewart1 the thing is they didnt go to the store and buy a new one they drove piss pore equipment, him and his family had to make alot of sacrifices. Yes, everyone is welcomed to there own opinion, I dont see a problem with everyone bringing up there opinions and people debateing about it. But jeffs family was far from rich he had to morgage there house several times, they also had to file for bankruptcy at one time. The first time jeff had the best equipment on the track was when he got into cup but by that time he had already lived through alot of sacrifices, just like alot of other drivers.

I think everyone has worked to get into cup some more then others, but I just broung this up to let everyone get there opinions out on this subject and if someone else didn't agree with there opinion they could say something about yes its called debate or a arguement. Whats wrong with that???

dale jr raced several years before cup and busch.

Jimmy johnson raced trucks in the desert and other series.

tony stewart was in several series before coming into even the irl.

I think the real question is does working harder to get what you have make you better at what you do??
 
I think the difference is that Jr raced in some other stock series just to get some practice in. He didn't need to struggle as a nobody at small bullrings in the middle of nowhere to get his name out there.
 
Originally posted by smack500
I think the real question is does working harder to get what you have make you better at what you do??
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That's an excellent question, Smack -- one I'm probably not at all equipped to answer. So I'll just give you my take on things...

I'm inclined to believe that people who work very hard to get what they have are more deserving of their success. I do tend to want to root for the underdog. However, this does not mean that all wealthy, connected people are necessarily untalented, or even undeserving of their success. There are plenty of talented people out there who had it easy growing up. -- For some reason, Robin Williams comes to mind. Some (like my ex) get really lazy and self-indulgent in that environment, and some work even harder to prove they haven't just been handed everything in life.

I believe Dale Jr. falls somewhere in the middle. It seems that, lately, he's worked very hard to prove that he respects the sport he's a part of, and wants to enhance both his position in it and the legacy his father left behind. He's obviously not without talent, or else he'd still be mired in Busch (or worse), like Kerry. I believe he's got most, if not all, of the necessary raw materials. He just has to mature a bit more than, perhaps, most other drivers not the rich, handsome son of Dale Earnhardt ever had to.

Should he have never become a race car driver because of this stigma? Should he have pursued something a bit more humbling, like grave digging or insurance adjusting, just so people wouldn't constantly throw this kind of stuff in his face? You see where I'm coming from?
 
Why do the Jr fans continue to think that we are "throwing something in his face" or that commenting on his racing life as less than difficult is a bad thing?

No one is saying that the path a driver like say, Tony Stewart, took to get to WC is any better or worse than the path Jr took. Given the choice between the two, I would rather have the easier road than the long and difficult one.

Why so defensive, these are merely observations.
 
I didn't think I was being defensive, Paul.

Those were merely my observations. :)
 
What did:

Should he have pursued something a bit more humbling, like grave digging or insurance adjusting, just so people wouldn't constantly throw this kind of stuff in his face?

mean?
 
Originally posted by paul
What did:

Should he have pursued something a bit more humbling, like grave digging or insurance adjusting, just so people wouldn't constantly throw this kind of stuff in his face?

mean?
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A sardonically worded, but perfectly legitimate question.
 
Why do the Jr fans continue to think that we are "throwing something in his face" or that commenting on his racing life as less than difficult is a bad thing?
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because a majority of the post are very condisending. sorry paul not trying to start anything...just stating what i feel

No one is saying that the path a driver like say, Tony Stewart, took to get to WC is any better or worse than the path Jr took. Given the choice between the two, I would rather have the easier road than the long and difficult one.

Why so defensive, these are merely observations.
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in wasnt easy for Jr or for any of the earnhardts while they were growing up....Jr had to fend off people that wanted to fight him every monday morning in High School, depending on how well his father did the day before.......ive heard first hand stories about this.

Kelly, worked at the local walmart while she was in school

Jr, changed oil at his dad's dealer (and was fired LOL) after he graduated from high school

Kerry didnt start spending a lot of time with his father until he was age 10, hell he didnt even share the same last name until he was 18 i believe...he was adopted by his stepfather and took the name Kerry King, later when he spent more time with his father he changed his name back to Kerry Earnhardt.

Kerry and Jr bought their first race car together an old Monte Carlo and did all the work on it....the only support they got from their father was the safety equipment...thats all that was "handed" to them

they werent handed a lot of things, they maybe got more than most people...but Sr. made them earn what they got.
 
Originally posted by abooja
A sardonically worded, but perfectly legitimate question.
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No one's throwing anything in his face, which was explained to you by:

Some drivers bled for years in small, no name racing circuits. Living in their cars and cleaning toilets to get a few bucks to fix their carbuerator. Got their name out there and got themselves noticed.

Some drivers were born into well extablished racing famlies.

Those are observences. Not "throwing it into his face". That's a few posts above your "perfect" question...if you need to re-read it. :)
 
Originally posted by paul
No one's throwing anything in his face, which was explained to you by the post above your "perfect" question.
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I didn't say it was a perfect question, just a perfectly legitimate one.

And I also didn't say that YOU were throwing anything in Junior's face. But people do exactly that, and have done it in this very thread. The very subject of this thread seemed almost to incite all the anti-Junior sentiment all over again, in fact. I didn't fall for it, this time, but thought I kept my cool pretty well. :)
 
Some drivers bled for years in small, no name racing circuits. Living in their cars and cleaning toilets to get a few bucks to fix their carbuerator. Got their name out there and got themselves noticed.
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none of the new drivers have ever been that bad off.......they were ALL really young when they got big...so they didnt have to live in their cars or anything like that

that may have happened back in the 70's or 80's..but none of the new drivers have had to do that.
 
he's the only driver that has then..........it must not have lasted very long....he was in Major motorsports in the early 90 to mid 90's right? and he's still very young?
 
He left home when he was 16 and just drove around looking for work near any tracks he could find. He's 33 or something now.

As I don't know the history behind any other drivers I can't say one way or the other. If I don't know that they have or haven't...I'm not going to just say "No one has"...because I don't know.
 
Tony has some interesting stuff in his book. He mentions having to stay in his car many a nights while racing. He also mentions going to race knowing that he had to win just to have gas money to get back home that night. He also says that his family didn't even have average money! He doesn't seem to like the guys that had it all given to them!

He also wasn't too excited that the Owners of Cart only wanted to hire foreign drivers! He grew up dreaming of driving for a Cart team at Indy and he couldn't even get looked at because he was running dirt tracks! AJ Foyt eventually gave him a test and eventually ended up driving a Menard car in IRL !

Interesting book. Go read it!
 
For the record - and I think some people misinterpreted the first few posts - Hardscrabble and I were referring to a driver's stature and how that would relate to him getting in and out of the car.
 
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