Sprint Cars: The Ultimate Test

Even late in his career, A. J. Foyt continued to drive on dirt

What is it about sprint cars?  You can understand Tony Stewart loves to race.  But why a sprint car?  Many of NASCARs regulars drive in other races during the season, typically late model sportsman events.  But not Stewart, you’ll usually find him in a sprint car.  At least until he broke his leg in one last week, ending any chance at the Chase and possibly his season.

Stewart is a throwback.  His acknowledged hero is A. J. Foyt.  Many of the drivers from Foyt’s era considered sprint cars the ultimate test.  Small, lightweight, with engines now producing 700-900 horsepower, they have some of the highest power-to-weight ratios in racing.  Especially on a dirt track, where no two laps are the same and there is a constant maze of lapped traffic, there is no greater challenge.  Nor more dangerous.

Up until the mid-60s, success in a sprint car was the final step before reaching the big time.  Of course the “big time” back then was champ car racing, a bigger version of the sprint car that raced in the Indianapolis 500.  Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Mario Andretti, and many of the top drivers from the 1950s and ‘60s came up through the sprint car ranks.

Rutherford is a good example.  He was running sprint cars, mostly on dirt, when Smokey Yunick spotted him and offered him a ride in a special stock car he was building for Chevrolet to run at Daytona in 1963.  Rutherford had never driven on an asphalt track of more than a half mile at the time.  But he went to Daytona and set a new closed course speed record in qualifying and won his first NASCAR race, one of the Daytona 500 qualifying events. 

That success earned him an invite to Indianapolis and he won his first champ car race later that season.  But like most drivers of the day, he continued to drive sprint cars and that nearly ended his career.  After winning the 1965 USAC sprint car championship, Rutherford seemed on the verge of joining the elite in Indy cars when he headed for an April sprint car race at Eldora Speedway, the track now owned by Stewart.  He was the first driver to top 100 mph and held the track record when he was involved in a terrible crash, breaking both arms and suffering a serious head injury that knocked him out of that year’s Indy 500.  While he returned to racing in 1967, his rapid rise slowed and it it wasn’t until 1974 that he won the first of his three 500s.

1966 was a terrible year for sprint car racing.  In June, Jud Larson was killed along with Red Riegel in a race at Reading, Penn.  In November two more of the best drivers on dirt, Don Branson and Dick Atkins, were killed in a crash at Los Angeles’ famous Ascot Park.  But despite the deaths, two weeks later the drivers were back on a dirt track for the annual Turkey Night Grand Prix, Parnelli Jones beating a field including many of America’s top racers.

Bobby Unser, who’s success on dirt was born on Pike’s Peak and carried over to sprint cars, tried to explain to me awhile back how drivers are able to keep going following such tragic events.  Unser went on to win the Reading race after Larson and Riegel were killed.

“Jud Larson was one of my heroes,” Unser said.  “He was magic on dirt.  Everybody wonders how you keep racing when you just lost two guys 10 feet from you.  Well it’s not hard.  It’s the way I lived.  We’re race drivers.  It’s what I did.  Did I like to see Jud Larson get killed?  Lordy mercy no.  Did it bother me?  Yeah, but it didn’t show.  And somebody’s gonna win that race.  I needed the money and I’m there to race.  I’m a race driver.  We all lived that way.”

A couple of things changed the importance of sprint cars.  First, champ cars moved from front-engine to rear-engine machines.  Car owners started looking for drivers experienced in rear-engine race cars, which in many cases were road racers.  Success in a front-engine sprint car was no longer a guarantee of success in a rear-engine Indy car.  Steve Kinser is a perfect example.  Probably the greatest sprint car driver of all time with 20 series championships and hundreds of feature win, Kinser failed in attempts at both Indy and NASCAR.

The tire wars also exploded about the same time, Goodyear and Firestone spending huge dollars to sign drivers to their brand and the companies took a dim view of drivers risking their lives in sprint cars.  Dirt track racing, at least at the top levels of USAC and NASCAR, faded away.

Of course not all of the top drivers abandoned sprint cars, most notably Foyt.  In fact, when his rear-engine car failed to show up in time for a 1965 race at Milwaukee, he unloaded the dirt track car he had won a race in the night before, qualified on the pole and then led before having to stop for fuel, the rest of the field being able to finish without stopping.

Of course Foyt was – and is – a unique case.  Much like Stewart.  And he was one of the first to leap to Stewart's defense. 

"He ain't no prima donna and life is short, and we don't know how we are going to die or what's going to happen," Foyt told the Associated Press following Stewart’s crash.  "I just hate to see anybody badmouth Tony for anything he's doing, and if they are, they are just jealous. People saying he's putting his businesses at risk?

"Tony is a true racer," Foyt said. "That's one thing I respect about him. A lot of them people go to NASCAR and become a kingpin in one type of car. Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne, they all were sprint car and midget cars drivers first, like Tony, and Tony still is a sprint car driver and it's a shame he got hurt. But I don't see where someone can condemn him for it."

Rutherford, Foyt, Unser and their contemporaries went sprint car racing partly because they loved racing, but partly because they needed the money.  Ironically, Stewart and his contemporaries can’t go sprint car racing because there’s too much money at stake. 

What NASCAR Should Do With All That Money

Ford has been using NASCAR to promote EcoBoost engines 

The final pieces of the NASCAR television contract puzzle have been put in place with Fox adding three Sprint Cup races and the first half of the Nationwide series beginning in 2015.  Fox also extended its recently signed new contract by two years, meaning the Fox and NBC deals will run concurrent through the 2024 season. 

The Fox deal is now worth an estimated $3.8 billion compared to the $4.4 billion NBC is spending, the peacock network ponying up a little extra for the right to televise the Chase races.  That works out to about $820 million dollars a year, $25 million a race weekend, or about double what NASCAR is currently collecting.  It is the culmination of a series of brilliant moves by Brian France to secure the financial future of NASCAR and its key partners (the tracks and team owners) for the next 10 years.  And secure it in a very, very, comfortable way.

The financial bonanza presents an interesting dilemma for NASCAR and friends.  What to do with all that money. 

There are a couple of choices.  They can simply take the money and put it in their pockets.  Hey, they earned, right?

But here’s a novel idea.  Invest it in the sport.  Take some of that money and make NASCAR relevant again – before it becomes completely irrelevant.  Before it becomes nothing more than a made-for-TV sideshow.  I’m not talking cutting a race or two here; or adding a road course or dirt track race there.  Or putting in wider seats and video boards, although cheaper tickets would be a nice touch. 

I’m talking about making a real investment in the future of the sport and the auto industry.

During the next 12 years, including the 10 years covered by the new NASCAR television contracts, the auto industry will go through enormous changes.  Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are set to nearly double by 2025, to 54.5 miles per gallon, from the current 29.7 mpg standard.  Greenhouse gasses will need to be cut in half.  That’s easily the greatest increase in standards since they were first established in the early 1970s.  It’s estimated the regulations will increase the cost of the average vehicle by several thousand dollars.  Supporters of the legislation say the added cost will be more than made up for in gas savings over the life of the vehicle.

Currently only the Toyota Prius and similar hybrids, meet the 2025 standards.  The V6-powered Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry and Chevrolet Impala or Malibu will have to nearly double current fuel economy levels.  V8 engines such as the one in mythical Chevy SS?  Forgetaboutit.  You may be able to find a V8 engine in something like a Corvette in 2025, but you’re gonna pay a huge premium. 

To meet the new standards, the industry will undertake a decade of development and innovation unmatched in its history.  One Toyota executive recently went a step further, saying we’ll see more changes in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the previous 100.  That’s a lot of innovation.

We’re going to see electric cars, hybrids, turbocharging, lightweight materials, improved aerodynamics, direct injection and continuously variable automatic transmissions.  More vehicles will be powered by alternate fuels, including diesel, natural gas and hydrogen.

NASCAR has an opportunity to do something it has never really done in the past, play a role in the development of these technologies.  NASCAR Cup cars have been using the same basic 358 cubic inch V8 engine regulations since the ‘70s.  It was only last year that fuel injection finally replaced carburetors, decades after it had become commonplace on production cars.  NASCAR’s main nod to the ecological movement has been the adaptation of ethanol fuel, which has since lost favor with environmentalists and the government.   

IndyCar began using V6 turbo engines last year.  Formula One currently uses normally aspirated V8s, but will move to a V6 turbo formula next year, the first time in 25 years that we’ll see turbos in F1.  Ford has already started using NASCAR as a marketing platform for its line of EcoBoost engines, which a V6 turbo, but no V8s.

So a move to V6 engines seems like a no-brainer – and an absolute must if NASCAR hopes to remain relevant.  NASCAR will point out it tried optional V6 engines 20 years ago in the Nationwide series (then Busch) but abandoned the experiment in 1995.   No options this time around.  A V6 will be a must.  And make it with direction injection.

But why stop there?  F1 allows a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), a type of hybrid system that recovers kinetic energy generated under braking, stores it at a capped level and turns it into additional power, a sort of press to pass button used in IndyCar.  Hybrid technology is expected to be the No.1 source for improving CAFE, so why not make NASCAR a showcase for hybrid development? 

Aerodynamics will play a very visible role in hitting the fuel economy marks.  NASCAR says it is already working on the Gen 7 car.  Get rid of the splitter.  Get rid of the spoiler.  Give the manufacturers back their identity.

A shift to CVT automatic transmissions would probably be even more controversial than a move to V6 engines.  But why not?  NASCAR currently used the same 4-speed manual transmission it has been using for, well, forever.  Can you even get a 4-speed manual on a production car?  Outside of Pocono, the two road courses and starts, NASCAR drivers don’t do much shifting.  Racing would be a tremendous test for the CVT and could play a big role in its development.   

Parity has always been a big issue for NASCAR and one of the arguments against innovation and technological advancement.  Somewhere along the line NASCAR decided innovation was a bad idea and that status quo was the target.  Keep everyone fat and happy.

Only how much parity do we currently have?  If the Chase were to start this coming weekend, we’d have four Hendrick Motorsports cars and two other Chevys making up half the field.  Chevy has won 10 races this year.  Ford has two.  Call that parity?

Cost, however, has always been the main issue when it comes to innovation.  The argument against new engines is that such an undertaking would be too expensive.  Well here’s the perfect opportunity to make the move without digging too deeply into anyone’s savings.

The auto companies already spend anywhere from $100 to $125 million each in NASCAR.  Most of that money comes from their advertising budgets.  They could shift some of that money from marketing to development, but additional funds would need to come from somewhere.  That’s where the television contracts come in.  Take a portion of that money and put it towards offsetting the costs associated with bringing NASCAR into the 21st Century.  

Heck, take a lot of it.  The future of the sport is at stake.  Here’s an opportunity to secure not only the financial future of the sport, but the sport itself.

Otherwise, 10 years from now, there won’t be a bidding war to televise a parade of dinosaurs. 

Cha-Ching: NASCAR Cashes In

Don't look for NASCAR on SportsCenter come 2015

Last week was a big one for the future of NASCAR.  Or should it be NASCAR stock futures?

Brian France signed a $4.4 billion, 10-year deal with NBC Sports to televise 20 races in the second half of the Sprint Cup season, beginning in 2015.  That’s a huge increase from the $2.8 billion NASCAR received from ESPN and TNT under the current contract, especially for a sport that has seen both attendance and television viewership decline in recent years.   It also comes on the heels of an eight-year, $2.4 billion deal signed just a few months ago with Fox, which will continue to broadcast the first half of the season.

Media rights account for about half of NASCAR’s revenues.   According to one report, NASCAR takes 10 percent off the top of the television fees.  Another 65 percent goes to the track owners, primarily International Speedway Corporation (controlled by the France family) and Speedway Motorsports (controlled by Bruton Smith and family).  The teams get the other 25 percent.  France also said you can expect purses to go up.  Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching.

The announcement paid immediate dividends as the stock prices of both International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and Speedway Motorsports (TRK) surged to new 52 week highs before falling back slightly on Friday as profit takers cashed in.  Cha-Ching.

The move is clearly good for NASCAR and its partners.  But is it good for the long-term health of the sport?  That’s not so clear. Despite the big bucks, it’s a bit of a gamble.

In making the deal with NBC, NASCAR turned its back – once again – on ESPN.  The timing is especially interesting, the announcement coming just as ESPN was beginning its programming for the year.

Instead of ESPN, 13 of the 20 NBC races will be shown on the NBC Sports Network and Fox has already announced an untold number of its races (although not the Daytona 500) will be shown on the new Fox Sports1 channel, which begins operation next month.  As a result, beginning in 2015, more than half of all NASCAR Sprint Cup races will be shown on fledgling cable networks, one of which doesn’t even exist at the moment.

Quick, what channel is NBCSN on your television?  That’s what I thought.  I have DirecTV and it used to be in the 600s, near Speed.  But it’s since moved to 220, in order to be near, wait for it, the ESPN series of channels.  I usually hit guide, punch in ESPN, and then scroll until I find NBCSN.  Formula One moved to NBCSN this year from Speed and viewership has been cut in about half.

ESPN, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” as it likes to call itself, is clearly the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to sports programming.  As an indication of its domination, ESPN is able to charge cable and satellite operators about $5 for every subscriber.  NBCSN, on the other hand, currently gets about 30 cents a head.   But ESPN viewership also is down nearly 30 percent, mostly the result of a decrease in NBA playoff viewership.

Right now NBCSN is literally more talk than action.  The station has missed out on major league baseball, football and top college conferences.  There is limited live coverage.  NHL hockey, IndyCar, Formula One and European soccer.  And overflow (from NBC) Olympic coverage through at least 2020.  That’s pretty much it at the moment. The rest is news and commentary.  In contrast, Fox Sports1 will be heavy on pro and college football, major league baseball and can pick and choose from a wide range of coverage provided by regional Fox stations.   

Still, there is reason to be hopeful about the move to NBC.  If NBCSN can hold on to IndyCar and Formula One through 2015, it will become the first channel to have all three major racing series at the same time.   If it does, it should mean an increased emphasis in motorsports coverage.  Also means increased coverage of NASCAR on NBC.  Heck, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., already has been on the Today Show plugging the move and Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is an acknowledged NASCAR fan.  Of course, don’t be surprised if you see less NASCAR on SportsCenter.

And what impact will all this have on the fans?  Many have expressed hopes online that there will be fewer commercials.  Don’t get your hopes up.  You don’t spend $4.2 billion to run fewer commercials.  Others are hoping for new broadcasters.  NBC said it had made no decisions in that area and probably won’t for some time.

Finally, there are still three races unaccounted for.  NASCAR says a package including three Cup races and nearly a half season of Nationwide races is still available.  NBC said it bought everything that was available to it.  Why would NASCAR hold back three Cup races?  Could it mean the schedule will be trimmed by three?  Some have been campaigning for a shorter season.  More likely, he races will be offered to Fox as a goodwill gesture. 

Stay tuned.  If you can find the channel.

 

Second Half Preview: Johnson, Kenseth and the Rest

Kenseth has the wins to challenge Johnson

Midway through the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season and Jimmie Johnson has established himself as the clear favorite for a sixth championship, carrying a big 56 point lead into Indianapolis this weekend.  It won’t get any easier for the field.  Johnson is the defending Brickyard champion and has won four times in 11 Indy starts.  And as noted before in this column, Johnson could easily have another win or two races this season. 

The second half of the year really breaks down into two parts, the races remaining prior to The Chase and then The Chase itself.  Someone needs to get very hot to challenge Johnson.  Chasing (sorry) Johnson is a handful of wannabes, including:

Matt Kenseth.  He may currently only be fourth in points, but Kenseth has just as many wins at Johnson and when The Chase gets underway, that’s what really counts.  What he hasn’t had is consistency.  If Joe Gibbs/Toyota can come up with that magic ingredient, Kenseth may be hard to be beat; Jimmie Johnson or no Jimmie Johnson.

Brad Keselowski.  Might be a surprise to some people, but I still think Keselowski will be right in the middle of it come November.  After getting off to a good start, the defending Cup champion ran afoul of NASCAR’s rule book and free speech police.  He's fallen to ninth in points without a victory.  But don’t count him out.  The Penske Fords have shown renewed speed and Bad Brad has plenty of time to get himself in position for The Chase.

Kyle Busch.  Capable of getting hot and giving Johnson a run for The Chase.  But if the JGR cars do catch fire, his biggest challenge will be teammate Kenseth. 

Kevin Harvick.  One win so far gives him some valuable bonus points for The Chase and he’s been strong at times, but not enough to challenge Johnson.   Still a lame duck, no matter what anyone says.

Carl Edwards.  Easy to overlook the No. 99.  Edwards won the second race of the year at Phoenix, but hasn’t won since.  Really hasn’t even been in competition very often.  But if Roush/Yates can come up with the horsepower to go with its reliability, Edwards can still challenge for title.

Kasey Kahne.  Thought this was gonna be Kasey’s year.  Hasn’t been so far.  Keep thinking that when he finally breaks through, he’ll go on a run.

Clint Bowyer.  Second in the standings, but without an all-important win and bonus points for The Chase.  May finish second again without really contending.

Greg Biffle.  As usual, Biffle has looked unbeatable at times this year, but seldom for an entire race, let alone a series of races.  Still, he has more potential than most to get hot and go on a run.

Tony Stewart.  He hasn’t made his summer run this year and Stewart-Haas Racing doesn’t seem to have what it takes.  But Stewart has a win and has been there a couple of times before.

Martin Truex.  A winner with bonus points, but hasn’t shown the consistency needed to challenge for the top spot.  Still, last year Bowyer showed Michael Waltrip Racing was Chase worthy.  This year it might be Truex.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  After holding second place in the standings much of the year, he’s slipped in recent weeks.   Seems to be headed in the wrong direction.

Jeff Gordon.  He’s within shouting distance, but his string of bad luck now dates back several years.  You’ve got to wonder if retirement will be the only thing to end the string.

Kurt Busch.  Fast, fast, fast at times and probably deserves a victory.  Busch is also a former champion.  But he’s still Kurt Busch.

This Bud’s For Tony

Tony Will Have to Switch to Bud

Tony Stewart may have come up a lap short on gasoline Sunday in New Hampshire, but he was still the weekend’s biggest winner.

Stewart-Haas Racing announced last week that sponsor Budweiser would be joining their team next year along with (as previously announced) Stewart’s new BFF, Kevin Harvick.  Both are leaving Richard Childress Racing.  SHR also announced it has been unable to secure the sponsorship dollars for a fourth car and, as a result, Stewart’s old BFF, Ryan Newman, won’t be returning next year.   It was the second big sponsorship coup in as many years for SHR, which last year landed Danica Patrick and her sponsor, GoDaddy.

It also means Stewart, who has expressed a preference for Schlitz in the past, many because it's cheap, will have to switch brands.  But he should be able to afford it. 

The moves kick off what is sure to be a silly, silly season, with sponsorship dollars – not necessarily drivers – the most sought-after commodity.  

Budweiser is one of the most recognized and valued sponsorships in the sport.  A major NASCAR supporter sport since 1983, it has scaled back its sponsorship in recent years to little more than half a season or 20 races.  But it remains one of the most prized logos in NASCAR.    The company says a key reason for its move was the past investment and relationship with Harvick.   The Bud folks also couldn’t have been happy watching Brad Keselowski and his yard of Miller Lite celebrate their championship last year and may have felt it was time for a change of teams as well.

Despite losing Bud, Richard Childress says he will have at least three cars next year and possibly four.  Two of his cars are secure – Jeff Burton and Caterpillar in the No. 31 and Paul Menard with his family sponsorship in the No. 27.  The No. 29 vacated by Harvick is up for grabs, both in terms of sponsorship and driver.   No word yet on what the part-time sponsors of the No. 29, Jimmy John’s and Rheem, will do next year.  Both are relatively smalltime players, but important links for teams looking to fill in the gaps on a full season of sponsorship.

The unknown at RCR is Austin Dillion, Childress’ grandson, who is ready to move up the Cup ranks fulltime next season.  The move of Budweiser from RCR to SHR increases the already strong likelihood of the No. 3 returning to Cup next year.  Gotta believe there are a number of sponsors who would be interested in signing on for the return of the No. 3, which has raced in more 12 years since Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona, than might otherwise not be interested. 

Newman becomes the lead free agent driver looking for a 2014 ride, with Kurt Busch a close second.  Childress says he’s interested in both.  Jack Roush also says he interested in going back to four cars next year.  But you can bet Busch, who Roush released a few years back, isn’t on his list of potential drivers. 

No matter what the manufacturers say about driver selection being a team choice, they play a key role in who goes where.  Ford helped Roush keep Carl Edwards and Toyota was important to Joe Gibbs getting Matt Kenseth.  Chevy had a role in Harvick going to SHR and will have a say in who goes to RCR.   That might give Newman the edge.  At the moment the math doesn’t add up for RCR to add a fourth car.  But it might if Chevy is willing to pitch in some bucks. 

Adding to the silliness, Busch and Newman have no love for each other, having clashed often in the past, first as while teammates at Penske Racing, and as recently as New Hampshire.  But both would do well to establish a temporary truce.  Sponsors might choose to avoid both drivers if the conflict continues.

What Makes Johnson So Good?

How could this man be considered cutthroat?

At the midway point in the 2013 NASCAR season it is becoming increasingly apparent Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 car are in a class of their own. 

Johnson’s total domination of Saturday night’s Daytona 400 only confirmed what many have already conceded; he’s well on his way to a sixth Sprint Cup championship.  With a little more luck, his four wins in the first 18 races could easily be six, maybe even seven.

So what separates Johnson from the rest?  First, Chad Knaus and company have a leg up on the rest of the garage when it comes to making the extremely aero sensitive Gen 6 car work.   It reminds me of the years Bill Elliott and his Melling Racing Ford put together when the team clearly had an edge on everyone else.   

But most of the credit should go to Johnson himself.  He is calm, calculated and, when he needs to be, cutthroat.  He’ll block, bump, dump or desert any other driver – even a teammate – if that’s what it takes to win a race.  Just ask Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Kasey Kahne.

I write this with the upmost respect.  I’m no Johnson hater, a line his fans (and, increasingly, Johnson) use all too often in an attempt to deflect any criticism of JJ.  Instead, I see those as traits shared by many previous champions.  Johnson will do exactly what Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt and others did before him, but too few drivers are willing to do today.  It’s what separates him from most of today’s field.   

I don’t even blame him for the late wreck at Daytona, something others have taken to doing.  With only four laps to go, Johnson left Kahne, who had helped him maintain his lead, to move up to block a fast closing Marcos Ambrose.  Only he went a little too far, allowing Ambrose an opportunity to make it three-wide.  Then he moved slightly to his left, a move calculated to brush against Ambrose and make him think twice about coming up the middle.  Ambrose overthought it, turned hard left into Kahne and sent Johnson’s teammate careening into the wall.

For his part, Johnson thought the move was perfectly acceptable for a restrictor plate race.  In fact, he felt he drove a near perfect race.

“I don’t know if I made a bad move tonight,” he said.  “So I’m pretty proud of that.

Johnson also is smart enough to know everything starts over once The Chase gets underway.

“Tonight’s statement doesn’t send the strongest message,” he said. “It’s really what we do on a mile-and-a-half racetrack. There are more mile-and-a-half racetracks than any other throughout the Chase. That’s the message we want to send and the area that we really need to be buttoned up on.”

Of course, Johnson and the 48 team really shine on the mile-and-a-half tracks.  Not exactly good news for the competition.

What Danica Patrick, Jimmy Clark Have In Common

Danica Patrick

Jim Clark

I wrote earlier this year after Kyle Petty did such an outstanding job commentating in the aftermath of the Nationwide race at Daytona and its harrowing finish, that what the sport needed was more Kyle Petty.

He’s continued to be outspoken in his role on Speed and has increased his visibility during the recent TNT Sprint Cup broadcasts.  But he really blew the lid off last week when he said Danica Patrick might be a driver, but she wasn’t a racer.

"She’s not a race car driver,” Petty said.  “There’s a difference. The King always had that stupid saying, but it’s true, ‘Lots of drivers can drive fast, but very few drivers can race.’ Danica has been the perfect example of somebody who can qualify better than what she runs. She can go fast, but she can’t race. I think she’s come a long way, but she’s still not a race car driver. And I don’t think she’s ever going to be a race car driver."

Petty (both of them) made a valid point—not all drivers are racers.  You see it all the time.  Drivers qualify within a few tenths of a second of each other.  But when the racing starts, there’s suddenly a much greater variance of speed.  Whether or not Patrick is a racer is open for debate.  My personal opinion is no, she hasn’t reached racer status yet.  But Kyle could have gone a little further and called out some of the others he considers drivers and not racers.
 

The Pettys aren’t the first people to draw a distinction between drivers and racers.   Perhaps the most controversial driver/racer argument concerns Jimmy Clark, considered by many (including me) to be one of the greatest racers of all time.  But not according to Chris Economaki, the acknowledged dean of motorsports journalists who passed away last year.
 

Economaki wrote in his book, Let’Em All Go! The Story of Auto Racing By The Man Who Was There, that Clark was a great driver, but not a great racer.  He noted that while Clark had won a record 25 Grand Prix at the time of his death in 1968 in a Formula Two race, eight times he led every lap.  He pointed out Clark led 190 of 200 laps in winning the 1965 Indy 500.  To Economaki, Clark was a great driver, a great qualifier (a record 33 F1 pole positions) and a great front runner.  But not a great racer.
 

I don’t for a second agree with Economaki.  He ignored many races where Clark raced from the back to the front.  Clark was especially good in the rain.  At Trenton, in his second oval track race in an Indy Car, Clark lapped the entire field, except second place A. J. Foyt.  It was Foyt who said Clark was the one “furriner” who impressed him.   But the fact that Economaki didn’t consider him a racer, is an indication of how much opinions may differ in this area.




Clark in a Holman Moody Ford Fairlane

Clark at the Rock:  Clark came from the era when racers often drove anything with four wheels -- and sometimes two.  In addition to F1, he drove sports cars and a Ford Cortina in English saloon car races, as close as they came to NASCAR in Europe.  In his first trip to America, he was treated to a trip around Daytona in a stock car driven by Fireball Roberts.  Afterwards he said he was terrified, but he also wanted to try a stock car himself.  He finally got the chance, racing at Rockingham in 1967.  He ran as high as 12th before blowing an engine.  He died before getting another opportunity to drive a stock car.