I don't get it- your favorite driver?

Question

I don't understand how you can have a favorite driver. I hear this talk a lot- but it just doesn't make sense to me.

I can see if someone says they like Larry Bird more than Magic Johnson, or Ali more than Tyson. These atheletes are highly accomplished, but also represent tremendous diffierences in style and idiom.

But NASCAR drivers? Don't they all pretty much do the same thing? Maybe there's a little bit of room for personal style, but not much- the margin of error is too small for it!

So you people with a "favorite driver", help me understand, please. What makes them your favorite?

I understand why people get very heated about questions like this.

Actually, I consider my simplification of NASCAR to be a compliment to the difficulty of their task: the margin of error in NASCAR, like in the highest level of tournament chess, is so very small that any winning competitor must follow more-or-less the same route to success. It was not a perjorative suggestion that "turning left" was boring.

The repeated comment that I should "watch a race" is just a bit silly. I've been watching racing of all kinds since I was a kid. NASCAR is as american as apple pie! How could anyone miss it?

I really should say that I expect people to be fans of the very top drivers _because_ they are so good, and there _is_ some room for style even at this very high level... but I really do believe it has more to do with their off-track behavior and their treatment by the media.

Answer 1

who cares!!! go # 8

Answer 2

You should try and watch a Nascar race and you would notice that all Nascar drivers are not the same. They all have different attitudes and personalities. A lot of fans like a certain driver because they see some of themself in the driver. Maybe the driver is from their hometown or from their home state and they want to cheer on and support a fellow person.

For example...I am a lifetime fan of Dale Jr, Martin Truex Jr, and Casey Mears. Not one of these guys are the same. Sure Dale Jr and Martin are best friends but they are as different as can be. Dale Jr is more outgoing whereas Martin is very shy and will only speak when he has to. Casey is also shy but he is not afraid to speak his mind when he has to.

I became a fan of Dale Jr because I saw that he was a down to earth guy and was not in Nascar for the money and the fame. Dale Jr doesn't even like the attention that he gets...he has said time and time and time again that he only wants attention for when he does something great on the race track. Dale Jr is one of the last classy drivers left on the race track, if he causes a wreck he will go and apologize to the drivers who were caught up in the wreck and he will take full blame for what he did. He doesn't have to be forced to take blame...he just does it.

He doesn't whine and complain and he always thanks his crew, his sponsors and his fans for all of their support. I remember at the Cup Series banquet last December Dale Jr actually gave us Dale Jr fans a shout out and we all were so happy that it wasn't even funny! Dale Jr also admitted that if he was not a Nascar driver that he would be right in the stands with the Nascar fans cheering the drivers on. He's just like us...he loves the sport so much that it's not even funny!

Look at driver such as Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart: COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! Kasey is super shy and always has a deer caught in headlights look. Tony is not PC and will tell you exactly how he feels...NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY! He is not afraid to say exactly what is on his mind.

A Nascar fan can have a favorite driver. None of the drivers are the same...they all have their different ways of going about things, they all have different racing styles. If you were to watch a race you would notice that there are certain drivers that fans cannot stand with a passion...such as Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr, Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, etc. And that is perfectly fine.

I suggest that you watch a couple of races and attempt to become familiar with the sport and then you will see why we have favorite drivers.

Answer 3

Dude- you base it on the same criteria as any other sport.
Are you saying these guys don't have individual styles? You couldn't be more wrong. Unique personalities? Guess again. No margin for individuality? Are you even watching the races?? Maybe you're just mixed up because Nascar drivers don't (with the exception of Mike Skinner) refer to themselves in the third person. I dunno. Personally, I see 43 totally different guys, in 43 different cars, driving 43 different ways.

Personally, I've been watching Jeff Gordon since his first Cup race in 1992, (Coincidentally, King Richard's last) when I was selling DuPont products. I figured "What the H, DuPont pays my bills, lets see how the kid does." Been a fan ever since. His accomplishments speak for themselves.

Answer 4

Let me help you try to comprehend such a complex concept. People are drawn towards particular drivers not unlike they are drawn towards a particular team or individual player of ANY sport. You may like a player and thus their entire team or it may start with the team and you end up liking everybody on that team. Different drivers have different styles and talents like any other person put into a highly competitive environment. You have aggressive drivers that want to get to the front right now and then there's the softer approach of saving your equipment and not showing your whole hand until the final laps. With many different styles of driving there are many different racers that excel on the various types of tracks. It comes down to what do you, as a fan, appreciate the most in a driver. Is it consistency, driving hard all the time or having the most ability? What type of team do you prefer, a large power house, the underdog or the one closest to where you live? When you add the crew chiefs into equation you get another set of variables that will ultimately influence your decision of who you root for. NASCAR drivers "all pretty much do the same thing" (drive) no more or less than basketball players "do the same thing" (play basketball). Are you a dumba$$ or what?

Answer 5

You're forgetting one thing. Stats. I love Jeff Gordon, and he is my favorite driver. Simple as that. If you look at his stats it says it all. No he's is never going to be Dale Earnhardt Sr. or Richard Petty, but he still is rewriting all the stats in the record books. He has only been racing 15 years. That's just incredible. In 481, starts, since his first race in Novermber 1992 at Atlanta, he has 76 wins, tied with Sr. and 4 championships, and more poles, at 59, and the only think that Sr. beats him in is championships as starts but Jeff has the same amount of wins in fewer starts. You have to look at how they approach the media and how the drivers race and how they race and respect other drivers on and off the track. It also comes down to personal driving style, would you wreck a teammate for a win? Probably not, would you wreck a driver on purpose? Maybe or maybe not. It depends on morals and how you race. That's what makes Jeff Gordon my favorite driver.

Answer 6

I won't claim to be an expert, but a couple of points:
1) Your complaint is the standard one made about any field by people who have little or no interest in that field, i.e. "all country sounds alike" by the fan of hiphop or "all hiphop artists sound alike" by the fan of country, that kind of thing.
2) In all sports, personality plays a part, lifting "just another guy who smacks a ball" to a different level if the personality happens to do it for you.
3) Some drivers win all the time, some lose all the time, and the vast in between field hover between greatness and mediocrity. In any sport, some people love and root for the always-winner as a hero, while some root for the always-loser, or only occasional winner, as an underdog they want to see break into the consistent winners circle.

I am not a great fan myself, but I know smart and professional people who are great fans, and I respect their choice.

Answer 7

Its all in personal Preference, sponsor, or family heritage. Who's your favorite football team, your have 32 choices, NASCAR isn't just doing the same thing over it alt of skill and determination, drivers that win or are just plain likable have all the fans, but if u don't win or run your mouth whose gunna even notice you, Michael Waltrip cannot make a race let alone win, put down DEI and cheated to qualify for the daytona 500 and now has negative driver and owner points, who likes him about .5% of nascar fans Dale Jr wins, has Budweiser as a sponsor, and has his dad to go off of and has MILLIONS of fans. You tell me outta those 2 witch one do you like?

Answer 8

Well, I'm not so much a NASCAR fan, but I am kinda a monster truck fan. My favorite drivers are the 2Xtreme racing team (Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten), Scarlet Bandit (Brian Manson) and the new Iron Outlaw (Dawn Creten))
The reason I like them is because Jimmy Creten is my Uncle and Dawn Creten is my aunt. Family roots for family. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't know anything about the sport.

Answer 9

Tre, you are killing it today with the answers, I love it!

CORE, you obviously know nothing about NASCAR. Each driver has their own driving style and personality and if you enjoy and watch the sport you will see that... Some guys are aggressive, some are passive, some talk real country, others don't, some are cocky, some are humble... The possibilities are endless really, I could go on forever, but whats the point?? You obviously don't get it and you probably never will and thats probably the best thing for everyone...

Answer 10

IT'S A WAY OF LIFE FOR ME
I WAS BORN AND LIVE 3 MILES FROM MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
AND I LIVE NEAR SEVERAL OTHER TRACKS
I AM 56 YEARS OLD AND HAVE NEVER MISSED A RACE HERE!!
YOU NEED TO GO TO A RACE ,, I AM A JEFF GORDON FAN AND HAVE BEEN FOR 16 YEARS,I LOVE DALE SR.
DALE HELPED JEFF IN A LOT OF WAYS YOU CAN SAY HE TOOK HIM UNDER HIS WING
SR NICKNAMED HIM WONDER BOY FOR THAT WAS WHAT HE WAS WHEN HE WON HIS FIRST RACE
IN LESS THAN 9 YEARS HE HAD 4 CHAMPTIONSHIPS
HE NOW HAS 75 WINS AND 59 POLES
IF HE WINS TONIGHT HE WILL EQUAL DALE SRS WINS AND HE IS ON HIS WAY TO A 5 CHAMPTIONSHIP
NASCAR IS LIKE ANY OTHER SPORT
WE PICK DIFFERENT DRIVERS AND THEY (( FOOTBALL. BASEBALL.BASETBALL)) ETC!! HAVE DIFFERENT TEAMS

Answer 11

Wow. You should watch some races!! Drivers do NOT all do the same thing!! There are many different driving styles, and all guys like something different in their race cars (set-up wise; how they drive).
My favorite driver is Kasey Kahne. He is a great driver who gives 200% all the time. He also has a great personality. He is always positive and very humble. He is very family oriented (almost half his family works for him) and he is very giving. The day after Easter, he took some of him rare free time and went to DC to participate in an Easter egg hunt at the White House.
Overall, he drives hard, does his best and is not hot-headed and arrogant. And, most importantly, he doesn't whine!!