NASCAR around the corner

That certainly isn't hard to do considering how often these guys change teams, pit crews, sponsors, crew chiefs, and such! I can't keep up these days.

Julia

 

I so wanted Dale Jr. or Tony Stewart to win and yet that sissy boy Gordon won...yuck

 

Sissy boy Gordon. Heh.

He's known as Geek Boy around my house.

Chris

 

Call him sissy boy if you like, but he is a man among boys when it comes to driving a race car. His win yesterday was positively brilliant. He hung around the front all day but rarely led and did not show his hand until it counted. Then he made his move and won. I am not really a Gordon fan, but I can't deny it--he's the best driver I've ever seen.

 

"Sissy boy" has his teammate Jimmie Johnson to thank for the win. First Gordon got a tremendous shove from behind from teammate Jimmie Johnson that helped him pass Jr., then Johnson made sure Tony wasn't getting back to the front of the pack to race Gordon to the finish line.

 

Yeah, and I think that Tony showed Jimmie his hot displeasure at the end of the race. That boy just can't stay out of trouble!

Julia

 

When Dale was racing #3 that was just called racin!

Now with drivers like "Sissy boy" and some of the others who whine to the officials every week it's called "trouble" if Tony tries to race "old school".

Wasn't that Gordon who was whining about Tony and Jr. during that next to the last restart? Something about having the officials watch them to make sure they weren't dropping back to try to pass him.

At least Jimmy and Tony were able to smile about it and go home in peace after the race.

 

Yes, and that just made me want to puke some more! LOL . . . I couldn't believe he said that. Reminded me of my kids fussing with each other when they can't get the others to 'play nice' and then trying to tell me how to do my job as the mom!

Julia

 

You have got to be kidding me Did you not see Dale Earnhardt drive? Richard Petty drive? Gordon has done well, but he is not the best driver of all time, he is not even the best driver today.

 

I did see Richard Petty drive--on TV and in person. I am a big fan of his too. No doubt he was a great driver. He set lots of records and won lots of championships. In his day, he carried the sport. Many people say that David Pearson was the greatest driver ever, but since Richard stayed almost even with him when they finished 1-2, Richard could not have been THAT bad. But consider this, in 1971, Richard won his third Daytona 500 and his third championship. Jeff Gordon, who I think is a year or two older than Richard was then already has four championships and just won his third Daytona 500. I think he has an excellent shot to tie both of those records with Petty. For now he is at least even.

As for Earnhardt, I am not a fan of his. Yes, he won championships, but he won relatively few races. In the modern era (since 1971), Darrell Waltrip is the biggest winner with 84 wins. Earnhardt had GREAT car control and made some fantastic moves. He became bigger than life in some ways. However, his aggressive driving cost him many victories over the years as other drivers did not hesitate to wreck him late in a race. His aggressiveness also made him a late bloomer in the sport as early in his career car owners hesitated to give him a ride because he wrecked so often.

The biggest reason that I think Gordon is better than Earnhardt? In 1994, Dale Earnhardt won his seventh championship. At the time, I thought that he would probably win 10 by the end of his career. But he never won another. Why? Because Jeff Gordon won threee of the next four in 95, 97, and 98. Gordon essentially ended the dominance of Earnhardt. I cannot think of a single race in which Gordon and Earnhardt ran 1-2, but that Gordon won. Also, Earnhardt won 76 races in his career. His winning seasons spanned from 1979-2000--21 years. Gordon has already won 70 races and he has competed only 11 years.

Right now the consensus among writers is that Earnhardt is the best driver ever. As time goes by I think his star in the pantheon of NASCAR drivers will fade somewhat. Gordon's is on the rise.

 

swaimj,

With all due respect and Christian affection; your cheese has slipped off its cracker. I know and feel your pain at the Eagle loss and the no-show Flyers but to mention Gordon in the same paragraph as Petty and Earnhardt? You have my pity.

 

My thoughts exactly! Gordon is a good driver, no doubt. But to put him in the class of Petty and Earnhardt is ridiculous. I would not even put him in the class of Pearson or Waltrip. Maybe, when he is done he will be in that class, but not now. As I said before, he is not even the best driver in Nascar at this point in time, maybe the top 5. I would say there are atleast 4-5 drivers better than he is right now and maybe more.

 

Don't attribute the ending of Earnhardt's dominance entirely to Jeff Gordon. There are a lot of things that happened to end it.

#1, Andy Petree left RCR.
At the end of the 95 season, Andy bought Leo Jackson's team. Andy was the crew chief of the #3 car from 93-95, and he was very, very good. For example, before joining the #3 team, he engineered Harry Gant's remarkable winning streak in 1991. He won 15 races and 2 championships in 3 seasons. He was innovative and a winner. In the middle of the 95 season, Andy lost focus on the #3 team for a few weeks working on his own team for 96, and the #3 team suffered some poor runs. By the time Petree got his focus back, it was too late to catch Gordon. In contrast, Evernham and Gordon never lost their focus on winning in the late 90s.

#2, Earnhardt's wreck at Talladega in July 1996. Earnhardt had 2 wins to that point in the season, and was 12 points behind Terry Labonte going into Talladega. Then, while Earnhardt was dominating and leading at Talladega, One-Eyed Irvan clipped Sterling Marlin, who clipped Earnhardt and sent him nearly head on into the wall. Earnhardt had 2 Top 5's the rest of the season.

#3, The failure of Earnhardt and McReynolds.
Richard Childress hired Larry McReynolds as crew chief to much fanfare in 1997. But, just like with Darrell Waltrip's "Dream Team" in the late 80's, this combination didn't work very well. I just think McReynolds was the wrong guy for that team.

#4, Ray Evernham.
Ray Evernham came into Winston Cup as somewhat of an outsider. Before WC, he worked in the IROC series. He also worked for Alan Kulwicki for a short time, who told Ray that he wasn't smart enough to keep working in WC. Hendrick hired him for the #24 team, and since he was an outsider, he looked at Cup racing differently than anybody else did. He also had a chip on his shoulder to prove that he was smart enough. Ray thought of things, and did things, that nobody else did. For example, Ray hired a crew that did nothing but show up on Sunday and work on pit road. To that point, the guys who worked on the car throughout the week also worked on pit road. That changed because of Evernham. Gordon won many races because of the Rainbow Warriors.

#5, Dupont sponsorship money.
Dupont spent more money than any other sponsor. Why did Evernham hire a pit crew to do nothing but pit road work? Because he had the money to do so. Dupont is the #1 reason that sponsorships are so much more expensive now than they were in the mid-90s.

#6, The #24 team had a technological advantage over everybody else.
In 1997, Chevrolet won 11 races out of 32. Jeff Gordon won 10 of them. After being humbled by Chevy in 95 and 96, Ford came back strong. Chevy was clearly behind the 8-ball all season, but Jeff Gordon wasn't. His car was still better than anything Ford had. In the 1997 All-Star race, Ray Evernham brought a car nicknamed T-Rex. Gordon completely dominated the event, winning all 3 segments easily, and Nascar strongly advised Evernham to not show up with that car ever again.

Did Gordon end Earnhardt's dominance? He was certainly a part of it, but you can't attribute it totally to him. I believe that the biggest reason for JG's success from 1995 to 1999 was Ray Evernham. I believe that the biggest reason for JG's success from 2001 to now is Jeff Gordon. I think he's a much better driver now than he ever was when he was winning all those races in the 90's. The #24 team doesn't have the big technological advantages now that they did then, but Gordon still wins.

I am no Jeff Gordon fan. We call him Geek Boy in my house. But, I differ from others in that I think he is the best driver in Cup racing right now. Dale Jr, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman are all right there with him, but Gordon is the best right now.

Here's my personal list of the best drivers ever.

1. Dale Earnhardt
2. David Pearson
3. Cale Yarborough
4. Richard Petty
5. Bobby Allison
6. Darrell Waltrip
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Junior Johnson
9. Ned Jarrett
10. Lee Petty

As to your points about Dale Earnhardt, I have a few quibbles. He won 76 races, but what do you mean by relatively few? In comparison to Richard Petty, yeah, 76 is relatively few. However, 76 is 6th all-time and 2nd in the modern era. I don't know what relatively few is supposed to mean.

Also, I don't know of a single race where somebody wrecked Earnhardt to win a race. However, I can name a few where he got into somebody else, intentionally or not, and went on to win.

Finally, Earnhardt's problem early in his Cup career was that he drove so hard and broke his car, not that he wrecked it. Bud Moore warned Childress that Earnhardt would break him, not because he wrecked so much, but because you couldn't put a car together that would stay together when Earnhardt drove it.

I think Jeff Gordon is a great driver. I don't think he's the best ever, but I do think he's the best right now. I think Dale Earnhardt is the best ever.

Chris

 

Hey! I was born and raised in NC. I lost no sleep over the Eagles (mightof gained some since I think I fell asleep during half-time!)

A couple of comments on Earnhardt. First, read Larry MacReynold's book. Clearly he thought that Earnhardt was either washed up or had lost his focus while he was his crew-chief. As for Evernham, how many races has his team won since he started with Dodge and how many has Gordon won? No doubt, Evernham is a great NASCAR mind and contributed to Gordon's success (and Kasey Kahne is certainly capable of rattling off some wins this year), but Gordon has been successful without Evernham as well.

 

cc, I think you have some great points. And your top 10 is interesting. Gordon definitely needs to be in the conversation, but I am not sure he belongs in the top 10 yet.

 

I think Larry Mac was a great crew chief. But, I still maintain that he was the wrong guy for that team. I don't doubt that Earnhardt lost focus, because he started spending more time building DEI. However, after Childress made Kevin Hamlin crew chief of the #3 car, Earnhardt's performance got much better. 1999, 2000, and the 2001 Daytona 500 showed that he wasn't washed up.

Certainly, Evernham hasn't won as much since left the 24 team, but look at why that is. He built the Dodge program almost from the ground up in 2000. While Gordon was winning 5 or 6 races in 2001 on the way to a 4th championship, Evernham saw his Dodge cars win 2 races, no small achievement. Jeff has had a lot of success after Evernham, but not nearly at the rate he did while Ray was crew chief. That really only underscores my point that Jeff won a lot of races because the team had a mechanical advantage. He hasn't won as much since Evernham because that big mechanical advantage is no longer there.

However, he has won without Evernham, which does serve to show that he should be counted among the great drivers in history. I don't think he's the best ever though. Also, I think there's more to Earnhardt's dominance going away than saying that Jeff Gordon did it by himself. Earnhardt himself was a big part of the end of the Earnhardt era.

 

I don't even consider car racing a sport!

 

Why are you posting here then?

 

Great question, there are plenty of other places to post if you do not care for car racing.