Gravel’s Move to NASCAR Is a Bright Light
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The
news that David Gravel will get a shot in the Gander Outdoor Truck Series next
season should be welcomed by all traditional NASCAR fans. The 27-year-old
Connecticut native brings a track record with him that harkens back to what we
used to see in prominent new drivers, before the days of the dreaded driver
development programs.
David Gravel after a World of Outlaws sprint car victory
Gravel
is already a legitimate star in open-wheel racing, with a sizeable fan base. He
brings a resume that includes 50 World of Outlaws sprint car victories and a
good number before that with the All-Star Circuit of Champions (in an 11-year
career on those circuits). Even earlier, he became the youngest winner ever
with the regional United Racing Club (called United Racing Company at that
time), standing in victory lane when he was barely old enough to drive there in
a passenger vehicle.
This
is what NASCAR needs, desperately. People like Gravel, Ryan Preece, Stewart
Friesen, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell bring rock-solid reputations with
them, and because they haven’t teethed on the PR/marketing pablum of
don’t-say-anything-unless-it-will-make-your-sponsor-smile, they have genuine
personalities that draw even more fans.
It
may not be easy for Gravel, though. World of Outlaws (WOO) drivers haven’t
always been able to make the transition to stocks easily. I’ve always suspected
that racing with giant wings was part of the problem; it just seemed that
wingless sprints (like in USAC) developed skills that transferred better. Jeff
Gordon and Tony Stewart would lead my exhibits to support that less-than-authoritative
thesis. But dirt specialists (like most of those listed above, other than
Preece) seem to be doing OK these days, whatever their specifics, so I wouldn’t
write David off.
NASCAR
has always thrived on having top drivers from diverse backgrounds (including
those who grew up in the Grand National/Cup world with fathers who raced). In
the earliest days, there was a fair amount of back-and-forth with open-wheel
racing (AAA and then USAC), and drivers like Red Byron and Johnny Mantz were once better known for “big cars” than stocks.
Later, a good number of motorcycle riders – Joe Weatherly and Paul Goldsmith,
for example – ended up as prominent NASCAR racers.
Today it’s hard to
think of future NASCAR stars coming from the ranks of motorcycle racing, but in
the early days, Paul Goldsmith and others showed it wasn’t that unusual.
In
the days when most of the Grand National/Cup events and teams were in the
Southeast, Goldsmith also was a leader among the string of Midwestern drivers
who found success and brought a diversity of sorts. Fred Lorenzen probably
topped the list in the ‘60s, but Dick Hutcherson, Darel Dieringer and others
made their marks as well, with Benny Parsons and Dave Marcis among those who
later joined them. Other regions began creeping as well: Geoff Bodine (and
later his brothers) from the Northeast, Terry Labonte (and brother) from Texas.
Also, as NASCAR began to eclipse Indy Car racing, drivers from that racing
arena (like Tim Richmond) began to consider NASCAR as a full-time move up
rather than a part-time diversion.
Next
came an influx of Midwestern racers from the old ASA circuit – Rusty Wallace,
Mark Martin, Alan Kulwicki and others – and, along with various others from
outside the traditional NASCAR South (Ernie Irvan from California, Ken Schrader
from the Midwest via USAC stock and sprint cars), they gave NASCAR’s top
division a much less regional look. The 1990 Winston Cup standings showed fewer
than half the top 25 drivers with competitive roots in the Southeast.
Before Mark Martin made
his name as a NASCAR star, thousands of racing fans knew him from driving this
and similar cars in the old ASA (American Speed Association) and elsewhere in
the Midwest.
As
NASCAR exploded in popularity, that trend continued: by 2007 (perhaps the last
year before the decline began), Jeff Burton was the only driver in Cup racing’s
top 10 with traditional Southern roots (some also would count Carl Edwards from
Missouri, but if the number of NASCAR races held in a state over the years
determines its place in the NASCAR universe, that’s a hard sell).
Some
caveats: my “diversity” here has been strictly geographical; gender/racial/ethnic
diversity are subjects for another day. Also, the names above are solely
illustrative and not intended to be comprehensive – I know people have been
left out.
The
other thing about all those names above is that nearly every one of them had a
lengthy track record when he began running GN/Cup. Several were champions
elsewhere. Their presence boosted the attraction of a NASCAR race to potential
ticket buyers, and that’s what the sport needs today.
So
say a little prayer that David Gravel succeeds with the trucks next year and
maybe moves up, and say another prayer that others follow him. I still maintain
that somebody should give Bubba Pollard a ride. A Georgian, the 32-year-old
Pollard races late models pretty much all over the country and wins regularly
against all comers. Years ago he had a shot at Jack Roush’s “Gong Show” driver
competition, and he drove a handful of ARCA races, but this guy is in his prime
now and would draw a lot of attention if he got into a NASCAR traveling series
car. Another possibility would be Aaron Reutzel, the
29-year-old Texan who won 16 of 40 races in Tony Stewart’s All-Star Circuit of
Champions sprint car group this year (no other driver won more than four
events).
At left above is Bubba
Pollard following a major 2018 win in Canada (and to his left is teenager
Carson Hocevar, who recently ran the Gander Truck
race at Phoenix and who won his first late model event at age 12). At right is
Aaron Reutzel (with family) after an All-Star sprint
win.
If
you want somebody who brings a little controversy with him, how about
24-year-old Floridian Stephen Nasse, a consistent
late model winner who seems regularly to get into scrapes on and off the track.
In the 2016 Snowball Derby at Pensacola, he was spun by William Byron and,
under caution, turned his car around and drove back around the track to find
and clobber Byron’s car, putting him out of the race. I am not condoning this
kind of thing, but I will note that it keeps fan interest (and ticket sales)
higher.
I’ll
repeat what I’ve said before: the developmental driver norm of “a year in
go-karts, a year in Legends, a year in late model stocks, and a year in
ARCA/K&N” does not develop a fan base. What these drivers accomplished
does. When the new drivers on the circuit were people the fans had heard of and
even seen racing for a few years already, they filled seats, regardless of how
silly NASCAR’s rules or point system were at the time. The sanctioning body’s
current efforts at rebuilding miss this important component, and we all suffer
as a result.
Just one more note:
most of the drivers mentioned above are too old by NASCAR’s (or the corporate
world’s) current thinking, so just as a reminder, I include this photo of Harry
Gant, who began his Cup career in earnest at age 39, won his first race three
years later, and took his last Cup checkered flag at 52. Today he’d never have
had the chance, thanks to idiots in suits.
Frank’s
Loose Lug Nuts
Congratulations
to Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota on their 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR
Cup Series Championship.
Even
though Busch won the championship driving a Toyota (the third time that car has
taken a driver to the championship), Chevrolet won the 2019 NASCAR
Manufacturer’s Championship, and that sent me to RacingReference.info to look
at how the champion’s car and the Manufacturer’s Championship car have aligned
over the years. It turns out that, quite often, they aren’t the same.
For
the record, the Cup champion has driven a Chevrolet 32 times in the series’
71-year history, although in several of those 32 years, the champ also drove
something else; in three of those years, the champ also won driving a second
brand.
Say
what? Well, in the first half of the series’ history, several champions drove
more than one brand of car, either because they changed rides, the owner
changed brands, or the drivers “borrowed” rides in cars other than their
primary ride.
Example
1 – In 1951, Herb Thomas began the season in a Plymouth he owned, but for a
July race in Pittsburgh, he hopped into Hubert Westmoreland’s Oldsmobile and
won the race. Then, in August, he added a Hudson to his team and – for a while
– went back-and-forth between the two cars, winning one race in the Plymouth
and four in the Hudson. He drove the last four races of the year in borrowed
cars, winning one of them in a Marshall Teague Hudson. He ended the year having
won races in three different brands of car.
Everybody remembers
Herb Thomas winning in the “Fabulous Hudson Hornet,” but during his 1951
championship year, he also won in an Oldsmobile and a Plymouth.
Example
2 – In 1963, Joe Weatherly was driving Pontiacs for Bud Moore and was the
defending Grand National Champion, but General Motors had gotten out of racing,
and Moore was having trouble fielding the car for every race. To keep earning
points, Weatherly hopped into cars owned by eight other people over the course
of the year. Most of them were Pontiacs – possibly just a coincidence – but the
champ did compete in a Dodge and a Chrysler along the way. Then, near the end
of the year, Moore switched to Mercuries, but Weatherly still drove his old
Pontiac a couple more times, including once to victory at Hillsborough, N.C.
It
goes on. In 1960, Rex White won the championship in his own Chevy, but he also
borrowed rides in a couple of Fords. Wonder what today’s manufacturer brain
trust would say to that.
Anyway,
for the record, Ford was the ride of the champ nine times (none shared). Dodge
is more-or-less third with five years of being the sole ride of the champ, plus
1956, when Buck Baker won the championship for Carl Kiekhaefer while driving
Chryslers and Dodges sort-of interchangeably (he also bummed a couple of rides
in Fords). Oldsmobile can try to lay claim to seven championships, but that
would include Herb Thomas’ ’51 title, when he only drove an Olds
once.
The
last “shared” championship was in 1979, when Richard Petty drove Oldsmobiles at the restrictor plate tracks (plus three
others) and spent the rest of the year in Chevys.
These
days the teams at the bottom of the pecking order occasionally have more than
one brand in the garage, but we’ve probably seen our last champ with more than
one make posing for the championship photo.