I doubt it. Park was in a DEI car for many years and didn't do nearly as well as his teammates. Until this year, Mikey hasn't shown much either.

Jr. is a punk kid, still growing up. I believe he is finally showing some maturity. I think he has a lot of talent, but he hasn't been too focused. Racing was and still is fun to him, but he took it for granted and didn't work too hard for it off the track. For what he was the last few years, I am not impressed. But he could be just as good as his daddy.

I do like Busch's attitude. He loves to race hard, like PBCrisis said. He's a *****, but he does what he has to in order to win.

 

I like the guy that drives the real fast car with the numbers on the door.

 

Both Petty and Earnhardt are great drivers. However in Petty's time it was easier to win because there were not as many rules governing the motors and aerodynamics of the car body. This is why I put Earnhardt a little more on top of Petty, because Earnhardt had a much harder time at winning then did Petty, even if the money was equal (during their times) Earnhardt had much stiffer competition then did Petty.

I like Earnhardt Jr and yes mostly because of his dad. I do cheer for him at times when he is out front, but not like I did with his dad. When Earnhardt was racing I was always cheering for him regardless where he started or how many laps down. I was a huge fan for many of years, since he first got into the Winston series.

Now it is hard, and I don’t really have a favorite. I like a lot of the new guys, the fresh guys, Jr included because they all seem to have the drive that Earnhardt Sr. had till the day he died. The other drivers in the field that came up to Winston cup with Earnhardt did like Martin, Rusty etc do NOT in my opinion have the drive, to me they are just there for the money and ego of being in Winston cup.

I can’t blame them, if I had the opportunity to be there and feel that rush every week I would do so in a heart beat, but since they don’t have the drive or the fire it would be nice for them to step down and get out of the way of those that do.

 

that is why rusty has come close nearly every weekend to win, but either being runner up, someone else crashing him, or just car misfortuine has caused him to to win. I've been a rusty fan all my life (literally) and in the last 8 races he has posted a top-10 finish. How can you say that someone needs to retire when they do that? If that's the case then they:

Rank +/- Driver Points Behind Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Winnings
19 +1 Bill Elliott 1657 -739 16 0 2 3 $1,869,370
20 -2 Joe Nemechek 1639 -757 16 1 1 3 $1,289,440
21 -- Ward Burton 1612 -784 16 0 0 3 $1,763,100
22 -- Jamie McMurray* 1596 -800 16 0 2 3 $1,178,000
23 +1 Dave Blaney 1534 -862 16 0 1 3 $1,394,990
24 +1 Johnny Benson 1528 -868 16 0 1 1 $1,597,210
25 -2 Greg Biffle* 1527 -869 15 0 1 1 $1,025,220
26 +1 Ricky Rudd 1479 -917 16 0 1 1 $1,455,610
27 +2 Jeremy Mayfield 1447 -949 16 0 0 2 $1,302,810
28 -- Kenny Wallace 1427 -969 16 0 0 1 $1,220,210
29 -3 Dale Jarrett 1419 -977 16 1 1 3 $1,987,590
30 -- Jimmy Spencer 1360 -1036 16 0 1 2 $1,230,190
31 +1 Todd Bodine 1355 -1041 16 0 0 0 $1,277,630
32 -1 Jeff Green 1277 -1119 15 0 0 1 $1,266,040
33 -- Steve Park 1257 -1139 16 0 0 1 $1,387,370
34 +2 Casey Mears* 1209 -1187 16 0 0 0 $1,279,260
35 +2 Ken Schrader 1172 -1224 16 0 0 1 $1,097,510
36 -1 Jack Sprague* 1171 -1225 16 0 0 0 $1,060,800
37 +1 Kyle Petty 1148 -1248 15 0 0 0 $1,129,160
38 -4 John Andretti 1137 -1259 14 0 0 1 $1,490,640
39 -- Tony Raines* 1111 -1285 16 0 0 0 $1,029,140
40 -- Mike Skinner 1004 -1392 14 0 0 0 $1,004,150
41 -- Jerry Nadeau 844 -1552 10 0 1 1 $861,628
42 -- Larry Foyt* 585 -1811 10 0 0 0 $605,047
43 -- Mike Wallace 551 -1845 6 0 0 1 $572,033
44 -- Brett Bodine 308 -2088 6 0 0 0 $383,718
45 -- Derrike Cope 258 -2138 6 0 0 0 $370,104
46 -- Christian Fittipaldi 213 -2183 4 0 0 0 $417,842
47 NA Boris Said 155 -2241 1 0 0 1 $90,990
48 NA Ron Fellows 151 -2245 1 0 0 1 $92,927
49 -2 Hermie Sadler 128 -2268 3 0 0 0 $206,271
50 -1 Hideo Fukuyama* 98 -2298 2 0 0 0 $115,229
51 NA Johnny Miller 91 -2305 1 0 0 0 $66,939
52 -4 Jason Keller 67 -2329 1 0 0 0 $49,675
53 NA Scott Pruett 61 -2335 1 0 0 0 $54,825
54 -4 Geoffrey Bodine 46 -2350 1 0 0 0 $78,150
55 -4 Casey Atwood 43 -2353 1 0 0 0 $42,230
56 -4 Kevin Lepage 0 -2396 1 0 0 0 $98,663

need to retire. Don't give me guff on how rusty need's to retire. When he start's posting only top-30 finishes I will agree with you.

 

Burt are you smokin ? If there werent any rules wouldnt that make it harder to win because you dont know what the other guy has ?

 

You make a very good point, and make my point as well. There were all kinds of motors on the track back in Petty's day. Those that had the big money, like Petty, Allison etc were always up front, those that didn't finished way behind sometime 20 - 30 laps down.

Now yes today some drivers finish 20 - 30 laps down mostly because they are in the garage, the old days when they finished 20 - 30 laps down, they did that and never seen the garage they just could not compete.

How many old races, from Petty's years, do you recall a group of 20 cars driving hard all day in a pack at Daytona? That is my point, back then the big money played a bigger part then today.

Yes, those teams today with the big money have a better shot at winning, but you also see the 1 car teams sometimes riding right up with the big money guys.

It is a lot tougher today, much more competition then in Petty's day, Petty had maybe 5 – 6 cars he had to worry about, today they have 15 – 20 cars that can run all day long together.

It is just a different time today then the old days.

I will say this I think the team concept SUCKS. If they are going to have teams it should be limited to two cars period. I think these 3 or 5 car teams are not right. Actually I would like to see no teams at all, but that won’t happen so it should be limited to two cars period.


Lifeguardjoe:

I hear you on Rusty, he can drive but he just doesn’t have the fire in his eyes anymore. Maybe it is him, or maybe it is the team he is stuck on and that is what is holding him back. Either way he needs to do something or leave and make room for the others with the hunger to win…

The list you posted is for this season alone so it does not reflect what has gone on for the past 10 – 15 years. How often has Rusty visited the stage in the past 10 years for finishing in the top 10?

He is ranked 8th in points and we are only half way through the season. He may stay in the top 10 and he may not, but you can’t just take a picture of the present to make a case that a driver is good or not.

 

Yes I do see where you are coming from. I guess I'm just like everyone else when it come's down to it. They want to see their driver win. But here are some stats

Rank +/- Driver Points Behind Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Winnings

2002
7 -2 Rusty Wallace 4574 -226 36 0 7 17 $4,090,050

2001
7 -- Rusty Wallace 4481 -631 36 1 8 14 $4,272,410

2000
7 -- Rusty Wallace 4544 -586 34 4 12 20 $3,037,720

1999
8 -- Rusty Wallace 4155 -1107 34 1 7 16 $2,167,429

1998
4 -- Rusty Wallace 4501 -827 33 1 15 21 $2,133,435

1997
9 -- Rusty Wallace 3598 -1112 32 1 8 12 $1,505,260

1996
7 -- Rusty Wallace 3717 -940 31 5 8 18 $1,665,315

1995
5 NA Rusty Wallace 4240 -374 31 2 15 19 $1,375,575


Oh well. Guess I'll just bite the bullet and wait for another win or another championship, or just the end. Retirement.

EDIT: Nascar.com only went to 1995

 

Then why did he keep Skinner around for so long?

I think that depends on if she was at a restrictor plate track or not...

 

Now we're talking! Tony kicked *** in the IRL and took it on over to NASCAR - the only diver to ever win championships in top open wheel series and NASCAR.

Oh yeah, I also live in his hometown - Columbus, IN.
I've met him a couple of times down here at autograph sessions- nice guy. My wife also ran into him at the local Dairy Queen (his old sponsor from the go-kart days) and got another autograph from him. My mother-in-law saw him at a restaurant on the west side of Indy and talked to him for awhile and got his autograph, too.

 

If you want to vote for your favorite, go to http://www.mostpopulardriver.com/Submit.asp
My favorite is Michael Waltrip, He's not ashamed to admit he is a Christian when they interview him, he always finishes. He's older and more wiser, maybe not the ***** that Jr. has, Earnhart racing is a top team and the owner is a fox!