NASCAR Special Report: A look into the history
Humans are bound to make mistakes, and in NASCAR, these humans who sometimes make good decisions and sometimes come with bad ones are the car owners, drivers or the sponsors. Some of the decisions come under the heading as the worst decisions. We will discuss the top five who fall in this category.
The youngest and the most impressive driver, Casey Atwood became a part of Ray Evernham team when he became the owner in 2000, who enjoyed great success with the great Jeff Gordon. Ray Evernham asked Casey to drive the No. 10 Dodge for 2001season. He finished the season with one pole position and a top 5 finish at Miami. Not having anything extra ordinary about the season.
Casey wasn’t in the form which had brought him at the team by Evernham. This ultimately resulted in him being fired in 2002 season and that also before the season had ended. The success Ray had enjoyed with Jeff Gordon, he couldn’t experience here though. Ray and Casey’s combinations were thought to be a winning combination. Casey however moved back to Busch series and Jeremy Mayfield who replaced him brought in some success. Success, that wasn’t achieved on a regular basis but at least better than it used to be with Casey in the team.
Another decision in 2004 season saw NASCAR’s popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. take the series title seriously and be in contention for it. However, for some reason before the 2005 season, the whole of the Budweiser team and the drivers Dale Jr. and Michael saw Teresa swap their cars and crew. The main reason was to make the NAPA team better, more experienced, and for furnishing Michael as a more competitive driver.
The hiring of Waltrip by Dale Earnhardt was the last that he did before passing away in 2001. It wasn’t the same for both the drivers though, as they did not achieve much after his death. This move made by the owner leads us to believe that this move was one of the bad ones.
2001 looked like a career sparkling year for Steve Park. However, sadly he had to face the death of his car owner. A week after the death of his car owner, he won at Rockingham coupled with a few good finishes helped him to maintain a position in the top 10 in the driver standings. The driver later dedicated his victories in the name of his late team owner.
The Darlington on Labour Day weekend saw Steve face steering problems when eventually it came loose and the car took a sharp turn, in doing so, was hit by chasing Larry Foyt, that resulted in a crushed Steve’s side door. The aftermath saw Steve not driving for the next six months. During this, his place was taken by Kenny Wallace and who did quite well, getting pole positions, following it up with a second position finishes. The interesting thing that happened was that when Steve returned, he was no longer the driver he used to be. Steve got demoted to truck series and was never considered to be a contender again.
Shane Hmiel was on the road of achieving NASCAR glory and becoming a star before his issues with other drivers led him off the track and ruined a promising career. Shane had won the Truck series and was one of the favourites for the 2003 and 2004 Busch series. The start of ruining his career began with Dale Jarrett’s involvement in a crash with Shane. Shane out of anger said that Dale better apologize for what he did or his career would be over as a result. However, the twist in the story was that Shane along with this and three failing drug tests got a lifetime ban in 2005.
1991 saw young Jeff Gordon come up and making a name for him, while driving for Bill and Gail Davis in the No. 1 Ford Thunderbird. The legendary driver set the NASCAR at new standards. 1992 witnessed this driver win three times and secure 11 poles while being a driver of the Bay Ruth Thunderbird. Jeff drove without being on contract with Ford.
Hendrick keeping this in mind had his eye on the 20 year old young, talented driver for whom he later started a sponsorship with Dupont. The arrival of Jeff Gordon took team Hendrick to new heights. Eighteen years in driving now, he has four cup titles and one of the best driving careers in NASCAR. After securing five wins from 1991-93 the Hendrick team became one of the most powerful in NASCAR history. Taking the number of Cups won for the team to a total of 9.
Tags: