September 30, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

It is always interesting sitting down to talk racing with my dad. He came up to visit this weekend, and as we sat down over lunch on Friday, we talked about the race at Dover last week. That led us to talk about the whole “Kyle vs. Denny” incident, at which point my dad looked at me and asked “So, what is more important, a good driver, or a good car?”

An interesting question posed by a man who is even more of a novice at the whole racing thing than I am. When he looks at the cars on the track, he sees 43 cars who qualified to be out there to race on that weekend. He doesn’t know histories or car abilities other than a basic education. To him, it is a good driver in a fast car who earned the right to be out there. But he sees and hears all the debate over slower vs. faster cars, and he asks the question “What makes the car fast? Is it the car…or the driver?”

I look at it somewhat like a “chicken and the egg”.

You can have a good driver…and a garbage car. The best driver in the world is going to have a hard time getting a garbage car to victory lane.

You can have a great car, and a sub-par driver….and that driver is going to have a hard time getting that great car to the checkers first.

In NASCAR today, you have different pairings of these two parts.

If you look at the Hendrick Motorsports teams, you have the best of both worlds. You have talented drivers…who are in the best equipment NASCAR has to offer. All four of that team’s drivers have won at least one race this year. Three of the four are in the Chase. Two of the three are serious contenders.

Then you have teams like Roush Fenway Racing. Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth are in the Chase and doing well (if you don’t count last weeks blown engine). Then you look at Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, and David Ragan. All are talented drivers…they wouldn’t be in Cup if they weren’t. McMurray has even won a race this year. But all three seem to be unable to match their teammate’s achievements, even though their cars are built by the same people.

If you look at Evernham Motorsports, you know Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne are talented drivers. Kasey won six races last year. But this year, both teams have struggled mightily to finish a race, much less finish well. You know EMS has been able to build good cars in the past. So what has happened? Are they now seen as “field fillers” because they haven’t been able to win or even be truly competitive this year? Or are they just having a bad year, and they are given credit for past achievements and knowledge that somehow, they will get it turned around?

The drivers at Dale Earnhardt Inc. have hardly set the world on fire this year. They have one driver in the Chase, Martin Truex Jr. The Junior everyone expected to be in the Chase is on the outside looking in, and is looking to pack his bags and leave in 8 weeks. Paul Menard, who took over driving the No. 15 car full time this season, is more of an afterthought than a contender. This team, which was the one to beat from 2001 to 2004 when Junior and then-teammate Michael Waltrip dominated the plate races and Junior couldn’t seem to be stopped on anything larger than a mile and a half, has now become one mired in engine failures and less than stellar finishes. Other than Truex’s one win this year, they haven’t seen Victory Lane since May of 2006. Does this mean the talent of the drivers has faded, or the cars have failed? How can a team that used to build such dominant cars now have such a hard time matching their past success?

Petty Enterprises used to be the benchmark in NASCAR. With 271 victories to its name, the company has the most storied history in racing. It was once virtually unbeatable, and the King Richard Petty earned his crown by beating the other drivers on the track into submission with victory after victory. In recent years, PE has struggled just to stay in the top 35 in points, the cheers of VL long since faded away. Kyle Petty, who had been seen as the heir to the empire, has 8 wins in his career, with a highest year end finish of 5th. He had planned on retiring long ago….until tragedy stuck and the heir apparent, his son Adam, was killed in a crash 7 years ago. Petty has been struggling to regain a piece of what used to be. The addition of Bobby Labonte last season seemed to add a spark to that hope. Bobby currently sits in 17th, a far cry from the Chase, but the best a PE car has been seeded in years. With the team moving from the historic location in Level Cross to be closer to the rest of the NASCAR teams in the greater Charlotte area, maybe PE will find a way to re-light that spark and get back into winning form.

In my eye, every driver in the Cup Series has talent. They wouldn’t be in the Cup Series if they didn’t. You can’t just pick up a dirt tracker or a road race and put them in the Cup Series and expect them to be competitive right off the bat. Juan Pablo Montoya, with all the accomplishments he has had in his life up until he joined NASCAR, is still in 19th place in the points. Being the best in what a driver has always done doesn’t mean they will be a success in the highest level in stock car racing. Sometimes, the driver has all the talent in the world, but they are with a team that can’t get a car to run or handle right on the track. Sometimes, the team has the best cars on the track, but they can’t get their driver to drive them up to expectations. If you are lucky, you get a Jeff Gordon or a Tony Stewart or a Carl Edwards, who can come in to a good team with their talent, and with the guidance of a good crew chief and support of a good car crew…can make that combination click and win on a regular basis.

Someone explained it to me this way: “A driver can't succeed without being given a competitive car and a solid team behind them. However, I don't think you can throw a completely untalented driver into a great car and expect that they're going to win a Championship. The best teams are the ones that have the complete package - a talented driver, competitive cars on a consistent basis, a talented crew chief, and a solid crew.”

As for Denny’s claim last weekend that Kyle Petty was just a “field filler” who shouldn’t be on the track, I disagree.

The top 35 rule was set up to eliminate the field fillers. Almost every weekend, every team that shows up to qualify has the potential to be competitive. Potential “field fillers” are quickly shown the door because they can’t get into the race to begin with. Sure, not every team is at the same level. Not every team can be a 24 or a 48 or a 99 or a 20. Every race has 43 cars, which means at some point, you will have cars that just aren’t as good as those top 12. Does that mean they don’t deserve to be there? Someone has to be 43rd, right? That 35th spot is just as precious to the team that holds it as a Chase position is for the cars that are in it.

If you don’t believe that, just look at the lengths teams like the Wood Brothers have gone to to get in to the top 35. Toyota has no cars in the top 35, and is looking at the possibility of having only the three Joe Gibbs Racing cars making the Daytona 500 for certain in February. Unless they get their program turned around quickly in the off season, Denny could very easily find himself in a position that he has never been in before….and one that he so easily dismissed last week. A car running in the back of the pack. Does that mean he will be any less talented as a driver? I don’t think so. It will just mean he has some work to do before getting to the front.

Just like every other driver out on the track on any given weekend.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.