[QUOTE=Billy Nees;706934]
Quote:
Originally Posted by JP1738
I'm sick of seeing all the talent that exists in class racing overlooked in favor of a pretty face.
Ya know Dawson, about a million years ago when Jeff Gordon was just coming up he had an interview (you could probably find it) in which he said something to the effect of "I'm not the best driver out there, the best drivers never get found. I was just lucky."
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During the time I was active, I looked at hundreds - maybe thousands - of computer graphs. I could instantly see who was never going to be a winner and who had skills above all. One amazing graph I saw back in the 4 speed days was a driver who was over/under the shift points for all 3 changes by less than 20 rpm. Yes, that's adding them all together.
I can think of at least 3 drivers who were at the very top in skill but things never fell into place for them to truly fund their program. And a larger number than that with stout sponsorship deals that made me wonder how that happened.
Going back years, it's been that way even though you're noticing it now. I'm not going to spend the time to give a lot of thought to it, but offhand I'm having a problem thinking of many drivers/teams who made it to the big time simply by being really good at racing. Sad but true.