Any Bad NASCAR drivers?

Sure there are.

Jimmy Spenser and Mike Wallace come to mind immediately. So does Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace. In general, though, those with a full-time ride are good drivers -- unless they happen to own the team.

There were 78 drivers that scored points in Nascar Nextel Cup racing this season (for those unfamiliar, points are scored throughout the field -- even last scores some points). Of those 78, 37 ran a full season or close to one. Those 37 are all pretty good drivers.

There's a consistent crew of backmarkers that are just field fillers. In all fairness, a weak team will compromise the best driver, but the good drivers don't stay in those teams year after year.

The problem is that a team can be radically up and down with exactly the same crew/chief/driver/etc. from year to year. It's not unusual for someone to be competing for the championship one year and a backmarker the next.

People that are REALLY bad get to drive the Nascar Truck series

For the numbercrunchers: http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2006/data/standings_unofficial.html

 

Every racing series has its bad drivers. Being a back marker does not make you a bad driver. Crashing into other cars, or causing other cars to wreck on a constant basis does make you a bad driver.

 

Backmarker - Can you say Morgan Shepard??!!!!!!

 

Nope - no 'bad drivers' - just drivers that, for one reason or another, never landed on a top team (money, image ?), Jimmy Spencer comes to mind, as was mentioned. Some will say Robby Gordon is 'bad', I'm not too fond of of the driving styles of Ryan Newman, Kurt or Kyle Busch, Martin Truex or Brian Vickers, but they landed rides at top teams, so.......

Morgan Sheppard was a helluva driver - 25 years ago, Kirk Shelmerdine was a great CC 10 years ago, and chose to follow his dream of driving.

Carl Long is a driver that's pretty damned good, but has no money.

I will agree with one thing - lots of guys are well-past their 'shelf life' - and it shows. Richard hung around at least 5 years too long, and it looks like Kyle is going the same way. Terry LaBonte is making the right move now, as is Mark Martin, and Rusty last year. Ken Schrader needs to go next.

 

Every weekend the top NASCAR drives make mistakes however on account of their environment people don't take as much notice to it.

Think how many NASCAR's touch the wall at bristol and are able to continue on, how many people 'bump' draft someone at Talledega.

Just immagine what happens in F1 when someone 'brushes' the wall at Monaco? Their car comes back in ity bity bits on a flatbed truck. Same thing goes for bumping someone; wheel to wheel contact results in airborne and smashed to bit's f1 cars.

Not saying one driver or another is better or worse, mistakes simply aren't tolerated in F1. The costs of mistakes are astronomical and as a result the drivers are held to a higher degree of scrutiny.

Cheers, just my opinion.

 

Buckshot Jones. Man... that guy caused a lot of wrecks.

I don't think that there are bad NASCAR drivers. Many of them are not up to the same caliber as the top 40, but they would probably do very very well in lesser classes. I'm a great race car driver if you compare me to, well, a really really bad driver. I'm a bad race car driver compared to everyone else. Everything is about perspective.

Gene

 

Guess that is the price you pay in F1 for not having fenders. I don't think mistakes are tolerated in any form of motorsport, they just happen. Good or bad, the ability to survive a mistake is better in NASCAR, only because of car design. Mistakes happen is racing when someone crosses the extreme. At least you know they are trying when it happens, or there was a mechanical issue. Or in the case of JPM at Indy this year, brain fade.

 

JPM is a living brain fade

 

The only good ones are Ron Fellows and Boris Said.

 

Every driver excells at their own track, and there are drivers that excell on all tracks. All of the drivers are good, when your competing at the top level not everyone can win. Its like professional sports, all the players were the best in their high school, and on their college teams, but now in the pros its the cream of the crop and there will always be sombody thats the best.

Lots of people like to slam robby gordon and I will admit that he does deserve some of it. Yes he is cocky at times, but when your one of the best you can be. Robby grew up racing in the dirt in the deserts of baja, california, arizona and nevada. Driving off road you leard to "read" the terrain and can comprehend things very quickly like the rocks, holes, cactus, and so on that you dont have to navigate on a paved race track. There are lots of things that are dealt with racing off road in the desert, think like a rally car. Robby still does very well with baja and in fact won the overall of the baja 1000 this past weekend. Jimmy johnson also grew up racing in the desert with robby gordon as well as some others like brenden gauhn, and casey mears. Other racers like Kasey Khane and Greg Biffle grew up racing dirt oval tracks. All these guys that raced dirt can control cars that wont handle when comming into the turns, somthing that not all drivers can do. Given good equipment robby gordon would be a contender week in week out. When robby gordon won the sears point road course it was with a car that his off road shop built, not by his team at the time which was RCR.

Like in F1 with teams like redbull and honda and toyota there are teams that are there to get their sponsors on tv and run a few laps and maybe if everyone else crashes or blows up they might win. If you want to know about some field fillers just look at the team that montoya went to. Those guys are great drivers, but they have junk equipment. If you could move David Streme into jimmy johnsons car and have him mesh with the team just the same then he would be the one thats the champion right now.

The comment above about drivers going into a lesser series is so true. If you look at kevin harvic he isnt that good in comparison to the other drivers out there however he has some really good equipment that lets him get some good points here and there, combined with crashing people out of his way he scores a win here and there. Take his multi million dollar equipment from nextel cup, detune it a bit and make it a legal car to run the buch series and he will clean house!

 

Kevin Harvick DID win the Busch championship this year, he ran a full schedule in both series. In the Busch series he had nine wins, 23 top-five and 32 top-10 finishes

 

I just have to smile when I read comments about this or that professional driver being "rubbish."

People who make those comments are clearly people who have never been on a track in a competitive setting. The worst F1 driver is better than me, and I'm pretty good if I say so myself. He may not be as good as the others out there, but even the Karthekaeyans (sp?) and Ides did well in lower formulae. Anybody rem Zanardi? Brilliant in CART, hopeless in F1. It really is that tough.

So next time you slag off any driver in a professional series, keep in mind that while they may not be as good, relative to the others at the top level, they are still better than you. Or me.
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At VIR, turn 3 (IIRC) is lovingly referred to as "NASCAR Corner". Wonder why? It's because when all the NASCAR teams come to do testing, they mostly drive off the track and wreck there.

Was just down there for two private days. A very famous NASCAR team showed up for testing on day one. While it's possible they were WAY off pace on purpose, they certainly didn't impress any one of us or the track workers. In fact, the track workers didn't have many compliments for the NASCAR drivers at all. Period.

Oh, and in case you're wondering; Yes, the team's #2 driver wrecked heavily in ... you guessed it! The #3 driver didn't seem to be on the pace, either. However, the team told us that the #1 driver was doing 1:26s around VIR's North Course. He is a road racer, though, so he understands the concept of turning right!

CW

 

Oh, forgot to mention that these drivers were VERY hard on the cars and the track. Very rough driving styles. Admittedly, their cars weigh in at about 3400 lbs, so bouncing off curbs might not damage the cars too much, but it certainly wasn't precision driving. A number of times, I saw them put two wheels INSIDE the curb. Lots of dirt and debris on the track after they came through. I was glad they were only there for one day. Now, this may have been exactly what they were gathering data on.

Despite all of this, they are paid drivers. So, they're much higher on the food chain than I am in the racing world. However, I also didn't pursue a career in racing. It's entirely possible that some of us are actually faster drivers on a road course.

CW

 

Guess the only thing left for you and those course workers to do is jump in a stock car yourself and see if there's any reason you can't do better than the NASCAR drivers.

When Earnhardt Sr and Jr, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson jumped into other race series (and cars) that required turns both way they sure did manage to impress and beat plenty of road race specialist.

 

A lot of people say Robby Gordon is one of NASCAR's bad drivers. My question is, if he really is one of the so called "bad drivers" on the NASCAR circuit, and he just won the Baja 1000 overall, that means hes actually a VERY talented driver, which shows that just about no professional race series has any really hopelessly bad drivers.

 

just about no professional race series has any really hopelessly bad drivers.

How about....... "Danny Sullivan" stunk as a driver then really stunk as a announcer on TV

 

K,

Next time a team comes knocking...I'll let you know. However, I suspect we'll both be waiting a while! I've driven against professional drivers, and I can say that I was faster on that particular day. I've also been slower (and will always be slower than some) and couldn't figure out for the life of me where their speed was coming from. While there certainly may be "naturals" at this sport, for the rest of most of us it's a function of seat time (although I have seen drivers that have no ability whatsoever and no amount of instruction or seat time will help).

I'd also suggest that the Earnhardt's aren't really the best case to use as a comparison. After all, they got into one of the best cars with the best support at Daytona (a track that's not the most difficult infield and allows them to use their knowledge advantage of driving on a banked oval). That team was really an ALMS team, not a Grand Am team. The difference is considerable. Grand Am has a number of paid drivers many of which are very talented, but the premier talent (ex-F1) seems to end up in ALMS or ELMS. Bigger budgets, bigger pay, bigger opportunity, I suppose. Anyway, the Corvette that the Earnhardt's drove is one of the best designed, engineered and supported cars on the grid. The point is it's like Jacques Villeneuve getting in a Williams. Super car with an otherwise unexceptional driver still won the driver's championship. Best equipment will get you a shot at the title. But, it won't win it for you if you're a punter.

Driver's like Kyle Petty and the Earnhardt's also had steep learning curves when it came to driving at the Daytona 24 hours. They said as much on TV, and, to their credit, they listened to the crew, co-drivers and coaches and did very well. Congratulations to them. But, let's also give driver's like Boris Said credit when he does very well at the NASCAR Watkins Glen event.

But, let's also admit that track workers observe drivers on tracks all day long. They can certainly compare lines, smoothness, and, I guess, other subjective criteria all day long. I take their comments with a grain of salt, too. Be that as it may, those were their comments, and if you don't like them, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I'm sure you don't challenge all commentators to "prove it", though.

It's certainly safe to say that ALL NASCAR driver's got noticed somehow. They've proven themselves at some level of being able to get around a track faster than others. Some criticize Danica Patrick because she hasn't won anything since go-carts. True, but she did lead the Indy 500. Will she ever win?

This discussion makes me think about the TV show where Roush was looking for the next driver. While I can't recall the name of it, and I only watched seconds of it (as it redefined insipid reality TV), it was very interesting. Of course, most driver tests aren't likely conducted like this one was. But, these prospective drivers had all of about 10 laps to get a set a best time. If they weren't good enough, they were gone. So, to get these jobs, you certainly have to be better than others. Maybe that doesn't say much about the competition.

However, I positively respect anyone who straps themselves in and risks their life in a race car. I may not think a whole lot of their talent, but I respect their courage and drive to win. I'm sure every driver on the grid wants to win.

CW

 

Danny Sullivan wasn't bad - it was having to drive with an ego the size of a Goodyear blimp that really hurt him, that swollen head did terrible things to the aero package.

 

I generally do not challenge "announcers" I simply challenged you since your post read like sour grapes. Good save and for the record, I've met Boris and am a big fan.

 

And the alleged spousal abuse.

 

I haven't heard what Boris is doing next year.
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Will Boris be Boris if he ever cuts his hair?

Just kidding...

CW

 

BINGO !
Its like the armchair quarterback in good physical condition.
The crappiest player on the crappiest pro team is much better than He'd dream of being.