Here’s the deal, who is the best driver in racing? I’m not going to list the types or groups of racing, but I’ll let you decide on who’s the best.
I’m aiming in the area of NASCAR, but you can throw in other racers if you want. The top driver by stats is Richard Petty with 200 wins and a record tying 7 championships. Now is he the best due to the stats? I believe not due to the fact of different eras and cars. Look at what the drivers drove and who they raced against. Pick you driver carefully and if you want go by the eras.
I feel that out of this era, even though I hate him, is Gordon, but many say that a era changes by the name of the series. This will be the last year for the Nextel cup so really this is a end of an short era and a beginning to a new one. I still feel Gordon is the best out of all the others, including my man Jr.
Now the Winston Cup era I feel Earnhardt Sr. was the man. He won all 7 championships in that era, along with rookie of the year honors and 76 races. I know many will say Waltrip or Petty were better, but this who I feel was the best.
I let you shoot out you bests and see who we come up with.
I agree with you on Richard and Dale Earnhardt. I like the way you broke this down in eras, you have to.
As much as I despise Jeff Gordon, too!, he's pretty much the best driver. There is a lot of close compition though. If Tony would chill out and worry about staying out of trouble, he'd be far better than Gordon. Man that sucks, I can't stand either one! Guess no one can say I only pull for who's winning!
In Nascar, I'd vote Curtis Turner (pre-Nascar into the Nascar beginning years), then David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt, and probably Gordon. The sad reality is that Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki and Tim Richmond could be on the list if death hadn't come knocking a bit early.
If we're talking driver, any series - then I pick Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, and Tony Stewart. And Earnhardt doesn't make the top 10 of that list, although Petty might.
I go through a hell of a lot of race drivers before a NASCAR driver hits my list:
Fangio, Clark, Foyt, Donohue, Moss, Senna, M. Schumacher, G. Villenueve, Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, ... even Niki Lauda, Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, and Emerson Fittipaldi are at least even with the NASCAR greats, which IMO include:
Petty, D. Earnhart, Jeff Gordon, Dave & Bobby Allison, Cale Yarbrough, and Bill Elliott (I'd have to put all three Unsers, Rick Mears, and Johnny Rutherford in with the last five of that group) - and I'm sure some old timers and even a few more contemporary racers have been inappropriately ommitted.
... see, I missed David Pearson and Tony Stewart (although his greatness in NASCAR is still in progress - he can drive ANYTHING) and that old guy IowaGirl knows about but I don't. Just for that, I'll throw in Wilbur Shaw and Tony Bettenhausen, Sr.
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on July 17th at 4:16 PM.
Are we talking about the best drivers or the most successful drivers?
My picks as the best drivers are, in no paticular order/era:
Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorensen, Cale Yarbourgh, Tim Richmond, Fonty Flock, David Pearson, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch.
I really liked Moore - what a talent. One of those who died before he could achieve all that he likely would have achieved. A terribly fluky accident too.
I'll throw Alex Zanardi onto ANY list of drivers whose talent never had a chance to fully flourish. I've never met a driver more likable than Zanardi, and a top talent to-boot. He doesn't belong with the Fangio's, Foyts, and the like, but he's such an incredible personality along with a very strong talent (his talent is very similar to Stewart's - could/can drive anything). Still an incredibly positive personality, even after losing both legs in that horrible accident.
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on July 17th at 5:30 PM.
I was a little kid when Clark was in his prime. Danny On-The-Gas was a fun driver, a balls-to-the-wall type of driver - wouldn't make my personal top 10 or 20 list, but was a fun driver to watch.
Dave: You was a little kid when Clark raced?? Yeah I know Danny wasn't a hot pick for the great list but I always liked him running in Drag racing and in Indy when he didn't crash which was rare. I have heard as a joke he didn't know where the brake pedal was..
His Interscope Racing "Batmobile" ('81 I think) was one of the all-time great looking Indy cars. He also survived one of the uglier looking crashes that year (pretty famous photo of his car at rest, with the front sheered off and against the wall, with him clearly unconcious and his broken leg folded across the front of him as though sitting crosslegged in a chair - ugly and fascinating at the same time ...).
We all seem young until you get to know us. Kenrick is 68.
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on July 17th at 7:09 PM.
I think that was in 82 or 83 Wasn't it for the Indy 500. That also ended his Indy racing career. I recall the Whittington brothers in that race before their demise with the DEA a year or so later..
I'll have to check. I though his big crash (of course, there were several of them ...) was in '81 - maybe even while leading the race. He did at least try to qualify a car - and I believe he raced - after that crash. But it's been a few years and I'm not so sure.
Edit - here's a URL to the crash photos, omitting only the most famous one - horrible looking crash;
http://www.forix.com/8w/ongais/do-c rash.jpg
he was very badly hurt but recovered incredibly quickly and did race again (thru '87 - didn't remember him racing that "recently"). The article I read reminded me that the Batmobile was an Interscope chassis, built for a radically new Porsche flat-6 engine, which CART/USAC immediately rendered archaic by changing the formula at the last minute - that is why the chassis is tapered at the rear, giving it the batmobile look, kinda ...)
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on July 17th at 8:33 PM.
See, I barely got into the international guys. Gurney would be there.
Completely agree with Dave on Clark, Fangio and Zanardi, also add Montoya. I might add Ascari (hopefully spelled that right).
Using my criteria (drove lots of different cars/series) and did well, I'm not sure about Senna, Schumacher etc. I'd need to do more research than I'm tempted to do now...
1. Dale Earnhardt
-- Jeff Gordon
3. David Pearson
4. Richard Petty
5. Cale Yarbourgh
Now thats just the quicky version of my count. I had Turner, Kenseth, Montoya, fireball Roberts, and many more including Dave_in_Indy's drivers. Thats a lot of drivers to sort but I appricate all of you who joined in this discussion.
Hey I'm Aaron just here to write about some of the major topics in sports. I'm a Nascar fan hands down and yes Nascar is a SPORT! My favorite driver is Dale Jr., but I also like Stewart. Earnhardt Sr. will always be my man for sure. Baseball I like the Cubs, Football I like the Chiefs and Cowboys, NHL I like the Red Wings, and for any College Sport I root on the Texas Longhorns, I also cheer for Iowa State, but More Horns, HOOK 'EM' HORNS!!
