Your 10 favorite and 10 least favorite drivers of all time

[Chewbaccer]

Favorites:
Rusty Wallace
Boris Said
Dale Earnhardt
Tony Stewart
Warn Burton

Least:
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Jimmie Johnson
Michael Waltrip

Nobody has ever been able to give a real reason for hating Dale Jr other than he was popular and not as good as his dad.

If he doesn’t make the HOF, he’ll have the most wins of any eligible driver not in the Hall. Good dude, solid career. Never was a fan, but never hated him either

 

[Myles]

Nobody has ever been able to give a real reason for hating Dale Jr other than he was popular and not as good as his dad.

If he doesn’t make the HOF, he’ll have the most wins of any eligible driver not in the Hall. Good dude, solid career. Never was a fan, but never hated him either

I just preferred to root against him. He was the focus of about 70% of all broadcasts. Suddenly had more fans than anyone else. To be honest, when he went to the enemy in Hendrick, it was the straw. At the time, his fan base hated Gordon and Hendrick Motor Sports more than anything else. Turns out that most of his fans were so in love with Jr that they accepted it.
For me, if one of my favorite drivers didn't win, I was OK as long as Dale Jr didn't win either.

 

[Chewbaccer]

I just preferred to root against him. He was the focus of about 70% of all broadcasts. Suddenly had more fans than anyone else. To be honest, when he went to the enemy in Hendrick, it was the straw. At the time, his fan base hated Gordon and Hendrick Motor Sports more than anything else. Turns out that most of his fans were so in love with Jr that they accepted it.
For me, if one of my favorite drivers didn't win, I was OK as long as Dale Jr didn't win either.

Seems petty, but you do you

 

[Myles]

Seems petty, but you do you

I don't think it is petty at all. Everyone finds reason to root against drivers or teams in other sports. I root against the Yankees, Lakers and Cowboys for similar reasons. When a team has more coverage that warranted, I like to see them knocked down a peg or two.

 

[Chewbaccer]

I don't think it is petty at all. Everyone finds reason to root against drivers or teams in other sports. I root against the Yankees, Lakers and Cowboys for similar reasons. When a team has more coverage that warranted, I like to see them knocked down a peg or two.

Team sports are different.

I could see if Dale Jr was your favorite driver’s main rival, but Dale never had a true rival that I can recall

 

[Bullitt08]

Not a particular order just guys I thought of while making the list except for Pearson & Dale Sr.
Pearson is my all time NASCAR fave.
Dale Sr. is my all time least fave.
*Can't stand Robby Gordon in any series.

Favorites

1. David Pearson
2. Ward Burton
   
3. Ryan Newman
4. Joey Logano
5. Sterling Marlin(Family ties)
6. Buddy Baker
7. Davey Allison
8. Richard Petty(I know, ironic as he was Pearson's natural enemy on the track)
9. Ward Burton
10. Juan Pablo Montoya

Least favorites:

1. Dale Sr.
2. Rusty Wallace
3. DW(Loved him in the booth though)
4. Cale Yarborough
5. Robby Gordon(Tried to run over a guy's wife in Bristol, probably other cities too)*
6. Kyle Busch
7. Tony Stewart
8. Danica Patrick
9. Kurt Busch
10. Dale Sr. (yeah, so much so he made it twice)

Good list but Petty was a Pearson fan. He once said if he was following Pearson and Pearson turned into the infield he was following him.

 

[obxyankeefan]

Favs

1 John Andretti
2 Dale Earnhardt
3 Ward Burton
4 Dale JR
5 Jeff Green
6 Davey Allison
7 Steve Park
8 Tony Stewart
9 Kevin Harvick
10 any one with the last name of Andretti or Earnhardt

Least favs

1 Jeff Gordon
2 Ricky Rudd
3 Dale Jarrett and his asshole dad
4 Jimmie Johnson
5 Bobby Hamilton
6 Kyle Busch
7 Kurt Busch
8 Geoffrey Bodine
9 Darrell Waltrip
10 Tony Stewart

Yes Tony Stewart is on both lists. When he came up and Ned Jarrett was practically blowing him from the announcers box I hated him. The last half of his career I came around to root for him.

 

[Chewbaccer]

Favs

1 John Andretti
2 Dale Earnhardt
3 Ward Burton
4 Dale JR
5 Jeff Green
6 Davey Allison
7 Steve Park
8 Tony Stewart
9 Kevin Harvick
10 any one with the last name of Andretti or Earnhardt

Least favs

1 Jeff Gordon
2 Ricky Rudd
3 Dale Jarrett and his asshole dad
4 Jimmie Johnson
5 Bobby Hamilton
6 Kyle Busch
7 Kurt Busch
8 Geoffrey Bodine
9 Greg Biffle
10 Tony Stewart

Yes Tony Stewart is on both lists. When he came up and Ned Jarrett was practically blowing him from the announcers box I hated him. The last half of his career I came around to root for him.

I never met Ned, but he always seemed like a cool dude, but I met Dale Jarrett and he was a friendly as could be

 

[Myles]

Team sports are different.

I could see if Dale Jr was your favorite driver’s main rival, but Dale never had a true rival that I can recall

I don't see how it is different.
When I would tune into a Nascar show or pre race show, the topic was Dale Jr at least half the time. He was a good driver, but not one of the best, but the coverage was non stop. That has always turned me away. I've never been much for jumping on bandwagons. In the 80's when I moved to Indiana, nearly everyone was IU fans. So I took the other route and rooted for Purdue. I still root against IU.

If a team becomes popular while I am already a fan, it doesn't bother me. When a team or driver gets attention it has not earned, I typically root against them.

 

[Chewbaccer]

I don't see how it is different.
When I would tune into a Nascar show or pre race show, the topic was Dale Jr at least half the time. He was a good driver, but not one of the best, but the coverage was non stop. That has always turned me away. I've never been much for jumping on bandwagons. In the 80's when I moved to Indiana, nearly everyone was IU fans. So I took the other route and rooted for Purdue. I still root against IU.

If a team becomes popular while I am already a fan, it doesn't bother me. When a team or driver gets attention it has not earned, I typically root against them.

There from about 2002-2006, Jr was one of the top drivers.

 

[Chewbaccer]

Good list but Petty was a Pearson fan. He once said if he was following Pearson and Pearson turned into the infield he was following him.

For my money, David Pearson is the goat. Won the championship pretty much every season he raced full time. Richard Petty has over 1000 starts with his 200 wins. David Pearson has under 600 with his 105

 

[Myles]

There from about 2002-2006, Jr was one of the top drivers.

I was already rooting against him at that time.

 

[Gatorchip]

Schrader is my favorite, because he put Earnhardt into a wall at Daytona. Anyone remember that?

 

[Chewbaccer]

Schrader is my favorite, because he put Earnhardt into a wall at Daytona. Anyone remember that?

Schrader was an innocent bystander. Sterling Marlin was the one who received(unwarranted) death threats.

 

[Gatorchip]

Schrader was an innocent bystander. Sterling Marlin was the one who received(unwarranted) death threats.

Well shoot. I just went off of whatever wikipedia said. I don't know NASCAR other than everyone loved Dale Sr. and hated Jeff Gordon.

 

[Chewbaccer]

Well shoot. I just went off of whatever wikipedia said. I don't know NASCAR other than everyone loved Dale Sr. and hated Jeff Gordon.

Probably a near equal distribution going the opposite way too.

It was a racing accident, but Dale spun right in front of Schrader, literally nothing Ken could have done to avoid it

 

[wingsauce7]

Liked:
Bobby Allison
Bill Elliott
Cale Yarborough
Mark Martin
Jeff Burton
Harry Gant
Dale Jarrett
Dick Trickle
Martin Truex jr


Disliked:
DW
Michael waltrip
Jeff Gordon
Jean Girard

 

[obxyankeefan]

I never met Ned, but he always seemed like a cool dude, but I met Dale Jarrett and he was a friendly as could be

Talladega race in the late 90s. Dale Sr was leading with John Andretti on the outside in 2nd. Dale Jarrett was 3rd. Ned Jarrett got on his sons radio not realizing that he was still on the air and told Jarrett to push Earnhardt, because the other one's Uncle once won a Nascar race and we still don't want any of his kind here.

Paraphrasing what Ned said, but it was along those lines. I remember he refused to say either John or Mario's name. And however he worded his kind you could tell he meant IndyCar drivers.

Dale Jarrett was more about the Robert Yates ride after Davey died. I can't remember a single driver that got a Yates ride I rooted for. Jarrett I rooted against more then the rest.

Benny Parsons on the other hand, I ran into him at the horse trough in Martinsville once. He asked me who I was rooting for and when I told him Andretti, he laughed and made a good natured joke about me being the first Andretti fan he had seen.

 

[Chewbaccer]

Talladega race in the late 90s. Dale Sr was leading with John Andretti on the outside in 2nd. Dale Jarrett was 3rd. Ned Jarrett got on his sons radio not realizing that he was still on the air and told Jarrett to push Earnhardt, because the other one's Uncle once won a Nascar race and we still don't want any of his kind here.

Paraphrasing what Ned said, but it was along those lines. I remember he refused to say either John or Mario's name. And however he worded his kind you could tell he meant IndyCar drivers.

Dale Jarrett was more about the Robert Yates ride after Davey died. I can't remember a single driver that got a Yates ride I rooted for. Jarrett I rooted against more then the rest.

Benny Parsons on the other hand, I ran into him at the horse trough in Martinsville once. He asked me who I was rooting for and when I told him Andretti, he laughed and made a good natured joke about me being the first Andretti fan he had seen.

I think everyone loved Benny.

I never heard that about Ned, that’s unfortunate. He did a lot for Wendell Scott though in the 60’s, and Petty wasn’t dominant until Ned, Junior Johnson and Rex White quit and Joe Weatherly and Fireball Roberts died

 

[Myles]

Liked:

Jeff Burton

I forgot to add Jeff Burton to my favorites list. Always liked the guy.