BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. — Mike Kerchner’s recent column challenging readers to appreciate the talent of today’s racers instead of dwelling on the greatness of the heroes of the past, hit the proverbial nail on the head.
In our opinion, running up front in almost any series or type of racing has become harder over the decades due to technical advances. There are more really good, evenly matched cars than ever and to win requires that extra measure of talent and aggressiveness shared by the superstars of all eras.
Drivers can no longer “carry” an ill-handling car, but the talented shoes will adjust and do better than someone else might.
Still, if you listen to winning drivers’ post-race, they universally credit their crew for a car that was better than the others on that particular occasion. In short, a good car allows a talented driver the opportunity to succeed.
That doesn’t lessen the role of the driver in the equation. Most races have a number of top-notch cars and who wins comes down to the best driving performance. Old timers venerate asphalt modified legend Richie Evans, but Matt Hirschman deserves equal respect for being his counterpart in today’s world.
Kyle Larson is certainly the equal of the legends in NASCAR, sprint cars and even dirt late models. And the list could go on and on with such talents as Kody Swanson, Bobby Pierce, David Gravel, Brad Sweet, Matt Sheppard, Mat Williamson, Brady Bacon, Otto Sitterly and a score of others comparing favorably to the short-track giants of the past.
On the NASCAR and Indy car level, today’s top drivers would have been winners in any era. Larson, for example, was as competitive at Indianapolis as A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti were when they ventured to NASCAR.
Attrition alone used to advance those who made it to the checkers a handful of positions from where they should have finished. Today, from the short tracks to the superspeedways, two or three cars may suffer mechanical ills but losing more than that is extremely rare. To get to the front, you have to be fast and pass cars and that’s on the driver!
When we were building cars during the late 1960s, the cars were all homebuilt and the engines, while balanced and blueprinted, were mostly built using high-performance Chevrolet parts with a good aftermarket camshaft.
In a 30-lap feature, it was rare that an engine or two did not expire while spewing a cloud of smoke and laying down a puddle of oil. Today’s engines cost a small fortune but far fewer “blow up” mid-race, allowing drivers to display their talent from green to checkers.
With factory-built chassis and well-engineered bolt-on parts now the norm at all levels of competition, there are also far fewer race ending driveline failures, broken suspension parts and brake problems.
While Richard Petty will always rank among the greatest ever, if he were active today and in his prime, he would not be finishing five or six laps ahead of the runner-up as was common “back in the day.” There will always be backmarkers and field fillers but the gap from front to back is miniscule compared to the past. For affirmation, Google Herman Beam, also known as “The Turtle.”
The late broadcaster Ken Squier used to speak of “common men doing uncommon things” when he described race drivers. That remains true in general but we would posit that the best of the best are beyond common men. And that is the attraction for many, watching guys like C.J. Leary, Stewart Friesen, Bobby Santos and others of their ilk do things with a race car that they know they could never do themselves.
If you have been sitting home lamenting the fact that Dale Earnhardt, Steve Kinser, Bubby Jones, Lealand McSpadden, Dick Trickle and other heroes of your past are no longer racing, get off the couch and go check out the action when racing resumes in 2025.
You will be impressed by the talent level and the close competition and more golden memories will be generated.
The names and faces have changed but the excitement is still there!