NASCAR gets no respect from British racing mag
Quote selected text Published December 19th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Autosport is a British magazine that covers motorsports on a worldwide basis. The people who work for it know far more about what’s going on around the wide, wide world of racing than I ever will.
I know that a guy like me who has seen one Formula One race live and probably has seen a total of three minutes of World Rally Championship competition on television in his life has no standing when it comes to ranking the world’s best drivers. That’s why I don’t - and won’t - try to do it.
Autosport, however, does. The magazine is out with its list of the world’s top-50 drivers for 2007 and it should surprise no one that F1 drivers dominate the rankings.
But 12 of the top 18? Twelve?
F1 champ Kimi Raikkonen is first, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. World Rally drivers Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb follow in the top five.
OK, here’s where I think these blokes get a little wacky.
Jenson Button, who finished 15th in the F1 standings, is sixth. The rationale, apparently, is that Button had junk (by F1 standards) to drive this year and did a decent job in it.
Dario Franchitti, the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series winner, is seventh, followed by IndyCar runner-up Scott Dixon.
Does it occur to anybody that there’s a name that ought to be at least somewhere along here in this part of the list - at the very least?
Jimmie Johnson won 10 races and the Nextel Cup championship. There’s no question that he beat better competition in his form of U.S. auto racing than Franchitti did. But even if you give Franchitti points for winning America’s most significant single race, doesn’t Johnson have to be ahead of Dixon?
Johnson, though, is 20th. That’s right, 20th.
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NASCAR isnt regarded as a highly skillful sport. other series drivers have a hard time adapting because 50% of NASCAR racing is negotiating the other cars, not driving precision. 40% is the team you are with. 10% is driver. The learning curve for NASCAR is so huge because most drivers are not used to the way the cars run with each other. You normally battle 1-2 people in other series.
I wonder where Brian ranks in this survey?????????
I don’t know about every one else, but I think it takes 1000 times more skill to race one of those openwheel cars and not kill yourself then it does to race a stockcar.
where can i find the full list?
Fisha695 wrote:
So the object of the race is not to kill yourself? IF open wheel takes more skill then why are open wheel drivers having such a difficult time in nascar?
There should be more road courses in NASCAR.. I love them.. I mean come on only 2 road courses? Why not race in Montreal or Mexico City? Lets have more road courses! They take more skill I believe.
Apples and Oranges. Jimmy Johnson is great at his form of racing. Kimi Raikkonen is great at his form of racing. WRC is extremely difficult. But the author loses a little credibility for me when he rates Jensen Button 6th. Sounds a little homerish. I follow other forms of racing more than I follow NASCAR (although I do love every form of stock car racing) and I believe Button has one single F1 win on his resume. Now, before I get attacked, no, I couldn’t do better. But, I’m just saying that Button does not belong in the top 20 or 25, even when he had better cars. Sorry I’m so long-winded, but the Brit seems a bit biased.
Sam wrote:
That’s one of the objects…. And they are having trouble because it’s a different kind of skill. A good non-racing example would be Michael Jordan, He is an Amazing athlete, and very good at the form of athletics that he had chosen (basketball), yet put him in another form of athletics (baseball) and he is no good.
I’m tired of all these open wheelers invading at onetime. It’s almost like our border and Mexico. We need to limit the number like they want to limit the number of Cup drivers that invade the Nationwide series. Those English dudes drive on the wrong side of the road too. But they sound fancy when they talk.
Do they drive on the wrong side… or do we….??? l0l
Juan Pablo Montoya said it was much MORE hard learning to handle a stock car than a Indy / F1 open wheel car. But what does he know? He hasnt had the stellar career than Jensen Button has. ( thats a joke for all the slow people ) I think some open wheel people could do great in nascar , and some nascar drivers could do great in open wheel cars. Remember than , Gordon , Stewart , Edwards , Kahne and a few others came from open wheel and or dirt racing. I actually think when nascar drivers run in the 24 hours of Daytona and alot of Indy / Sportscar / endurance drivers compete with them , they alsways comment on how quickly the Nascar drivers adapt and perform in thier sportscars , and this is an indication of thier versatilty. and not even mentioning that Robby Gordon has raced and won in everything but a shopping cart. But this arguement will go on forever.
I love all kinds of racing. But Nascar definitely is not given the respect it deserves. If racing Nascar is so easy and doesn’t rate you as high on the talented drivers list….then why have all these open wheel drivers who have switched to Nascar not won? In fact they are finishing quite poorly for the most part. If Nascar rates as these open wheel people seem to think, then the open wheel drivers should have no problem winning and I sure have yet to see that happen.
NASCAR and their drivers never get any recognition from the sporty car set anywhere. That’s true right here in the USA and throughout the world. A lot of the European media are afraid that they will lose their media credentials with F1 and the rest of the sporty car set if they say anything bad about F1 and the other support series. Unlike the US media that are ready to pounce on NASCAR, CCWS, IRL, USAC, NHRA, CORR and any other sanction that mess up. How come all of these open wheelers from everywhere are standing in line for a NASCAR seat and others that revealing that they would like to do the same? It’s not what these folks say it’s what they do. I see envy here. Even with NASCAR peaking and making major errors that are turning off their fan base, F1, CCWS, IRL, NHRA and the rest “would kill” to get those TV ratings and attendance in the USA. However, as NASCAR gets more off-shore drivers in their fold it will erode USA attendance and interest. There will be a steep price to pay for a sell-out to off-shore driver interest and their sponsors.
Lou, learn your history, open wheel drivers and drivers not from the USA have been racing in NASCAR Forever, Heck at least one of them I can name off the top of my head has won the Daytona 500. And that person in Mario Andretti. Back in the day and even now people don’t complain about what he did, but yet they’ll cry themselves to sleep if Marco would come to NASCAR. Why is that? Personally I watch racing for the love of the sport, and the competition, and not to find out what highschool the drivers went to. If the media covering NASCAR would make the drivers invisible and stop following them like a lost puppy I would be more then happy.
NASCAR’s past success comes from the grass roots where drivers coming up from the ladder system come with a fan base from the short tracks. History or not, short track fans in the USA will follow their favorite drivers right to the top. If they go with NASCAR they will follow them there. Because they have been shut out of CCWS and the IRL because of off-shore drivers buying rides. Had the door been open to the short track drivers in CCWS and the IRL, those two circuits would be enjoying more ticket sales and better TV ratings. However, if the influx of off-shore drivers continues to prevent short track USA drivers from moving up into NASCAR, I see more negative results. Short track fans are punishing NASCAR right now because of all of all of the changes. The southeastern fan base defections is one reason for the slip in ticket sales and TV ratings. The various fan forums are very negative about NASCAR turning off the fan base. I can think of a dozen reasons such as the COT, late starting times of the races, poor TV coverage, high price of tickets, paying for the tickets 10 months in advance, letting Toyota into the Cup Series, and letting in too many off shore drivers. Also, moving the Labor Day race out of Darlington and closing up Rockingham. That’s not me stating this. It’s what the bulk of the paying customers are saying on the various fan forums. Let the facts speak for themselves.
THATS CRAP…….. a open wheel car weighs half of what a stock car weighs and alot wider tires sits alot lower to ground therefore easier to drive not to mention open wheel drivers can adjust their cars while their driving give me a break stock car alot harder to drive period………..
Case in point why is it DALE EARNHARDT or any other of the top cup drivers would dominate the open wheel drivers in the iroc series?
Take it for what it is: the opinion of a lot of writers that have likely never stepped in a racing car, period.
F1 cars have different challenges. They are more physically demanding due to the downforce levels (they can pull 3+ g-forces in the corners). They are low and wide, but that doesn’t make them easy to drive. They are way twitchier than a stock car will ever be. Sure, you can adjust them while you drive (adjustable differentials, sway-bars, etc), but that adds to the difficulty as you need a lot of engineering knowledge to make it work properly.
Stock cars are tricky because they use old technology in a lot of aspects (solid rear axle, tubular spaceframe chassis). They are big, heavy and unresponsive (compared to an F1 car). The drivers need to use a lot of tricks to make them turn, and they also need to continuously play with the car to get it to handle at its optimum over the course of a race. This is especially critical when you only have one type of corner to deal with (or three similar ones, in the case of Pocono).
People shouldn’t be pissed off when foreign drivers come to race in “your” series. It’s a race, just like any other, and there are no limits on who can enter. If a team owner thinks that a European driver can get the job done better than any other available drivers at the time, then there is no good reason to avoid the European. Besides, who cares?
As far as adapting to “sports cars”, if you are referring to Daytona Prototypes, then you are being misled. The rules were intentionally designed to ensure the cars have a LOT of downforce, and not much power. Grand-Am made them easy to drive so that rich businessmen would drop the big cash and not get embarrassed by the pro driver he hires. Put them behind the wheel of an F1, Champ Car, or a twitchy Porsche 911 GT3RSR and you’ll see how well they adapt.
Malcom, put a cup driver in a DP and they can win, put that same driver in an LMP1 or LMP2 on the same track and they wouldn’t be as good. What you said about the DP’s is 100% right.
When Schumacher or Hamilton comes over and lights it up in a 3600lb stock car on a 1 mile oval I’ll give these guys a listen. They have no idea. In modern-era girlyman F1 the engineers/downforce/traction control/computers essentially race the car, the drivers merely “pilot” them, so we really have no idea which drivers have sack and which drivers don’t. It’s won or lost in R&D. In older F1, through early 90’s, yes indeed we could see who could wheel a car. But sadly, no more. But, hey you’ve got to expect a Brit-centric mag to dis stock car racing. Not a surprise.
Not worth commenting on. Europe bashing US. Same old same old. Maybe we should talk about an Iraqi driving in a race. Retarded!!!!
I wasnt saying anything about open wheelers coming to nascar thats fine my point was the same as ShowMeDontTellMe’s.