Jeff Gordon Ties Dale Earnhardt for career wins
Dale did the 76 victory's in 676 Races
Jeff did the 76 victory's in 482 Races
Jeff did the 76 victory's in 482 Races
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Gordon is by far the better driver.
Clouder..0 -
Earnhardt was more entertaining to watch. 0 -
Not only was Earnhardt more entertaining, he was a much better driver IMO. He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
Jon0 -
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
You've got that wrong actually he drove in an era where HE would spin his or your mother out to win a race. It was fine if he was doing it but let somebody else do it to him and he'd cry tears as big as horse turds. Racing is a lot safer today because he's not on the track.
Smitty0 -
+1 smitty 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
Not only was Earnhardt more entertaining, he was a much better driver IMO. He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
Jon
+1
These drivers today do not understand the term rubbing is raceing! The older drivers did. From time to time on the comentaries you will even hear DW make coment of this.
But sadly those days are gone![:(]0 -
quote:Originally posted by Smitty500mag
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
You've got that wrong actually he drove in an era where HE would spin his or your mother out to win a race. It was fine if he was doing it but let somebody else do it to him and he'd cry tears as big as horse turds. Racing is a lot safer today because he's not on the track.
Smitty
+20 -
I thought it was a pretty classy act to do the victory lap the "3" flag. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Joe Drees
I thought it was a pretty classy act to do the victory lap the "3" flag.
Yes and no!
On one hand it could be seen as a tribute.
But on the other hand it could be interprited as saying that "I am better than you"!
Alot of my probem with Jeff Gordon stems from his early years. Back in his first few years in the cup serries he had the "I am better than you" attitude and was very cocky. I have never liked him because of this.
He has mellowed this attitude down alot. It took him loseing most of his team (the original rainbow warriors) and haveing a few loseing seasons to do this. He realized that it is a team sport and the driver is only one part of that team.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
Not only was Earnhardt more entertaining, he was a much better driver IMO. He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
Jon
amen brother! you hit the x ring w/that one, LOKO [8D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by Smitty500mag
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
You've got that wrong actually he drove in an era where HE would spin his or your mother out to win a race. It was fine if he was doing it but let somebody else do it to him and he'd cry tears as big as horse turds. Racing is a lot safer today because he's not on the track.
Smitty
+30 -
quote:Originally posted by MT357
quote:Originally posted by Smitty500mag
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
You've got that wrong actually he drove in an era where HE would spin his or your mother out to win a race. It was fine if he was doing it but let somebody else do it to him and he'd cry tears as big as horse turds. Racing is a lot safer today because he's not on the track.
Smitty
+3
You guys are all wrong!
These drivers of today would never have made it in the old school of NASCAR! Back then it was real raceing!0 -
quote:Originally posted by git_r_done
quote:Originally posted by MT357
quote:Originally posted by Smitty500mag
quote:Originally posted by Jon0322
He also drove in an era where you would spin your mother out to win a race. Back when the racing was much more exciting if you ask me.
You've got that wrong actually he drove in an era where HE would spin his or your mother out to win a race. It was fine if he was doing it but let somebody else do it to him and he'd cry tears as big as horse turds. Racing is a lot safer today because he's not on the track.
Smitty
+3
You guys are all wrong!
These drivers of today would never have made it in the old school of NASCAR! Back then it was real raceing!
+1000 -
Statistically Speaking: A new Intimidator
By Dan Beaver, Yahoo! Sports
April 21, 2007
AVONDALE, Ariz. - Jeff Gordon not only claimed the checkered flag at Phoenix on Saturday, he also tied Dale Earnhardt for sixth on the career wins list with this his 76th victory.
It took Gordon only 481 races and 14-plus years to accomplish what Earnhardt amassed in 676 attempts over the course of 22 full time seasons, but can one driver's accomplishments be judged by another's?
Richard Petty has been asked hundreds of times during the years if any driver's success compares to his 200 career victories, and he always gives the same patient response: "We were racing against the best drivers in the business in our day, and today's drivers are doing the same thing."
Evaluating drivers who entered NASCAR's senior series 14 years apart is like comparing apples to oranges. There are, however, enough similarities between Earnhardt and Gordon to warrant an attempt.
Both drivers entered NASCAR in relatively strong equipment. Earnhardt competed in his first handful of races for several different team owners, but he got his first real break with Will Cronkite. That car owner intended to field a car in the 1978 World 600 for Willy T. Ribbs. When the hot shoe ran afoul of the law after leading local police in a car chase through downtown Charlotte a few days before the race, Earnhardt was pressed into service.
Strong starts
Earnhardt started that race 28th and finished 17th, which earned him three more rides with Cronkite later that year. He finished seventh in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, 12th at Talladega Superspeedway, and 16th on the "Too Tough to Tame" Darlington Raceway in the Southern 500.
Earnhardt's early success caught the eye of Rod Osterlund and together they won a championship in their sophomore season.
Jeff Gordon joined NASCAR's senior series in 1993, 14 years after Earnhardt, who already had amassed 53 victories. He was not worried about the kid he nicknamed Wonder Boy.
Gordon climbed into great equipment from the very start of his career and finished fifth in his first Daytona 500 and sixth or better in two of his next three starts. He failed to win a race in his rookie season and was forced to wait until his 42nd attempt to make his introductory visit to victory lane.
Earnhardt's first victory came in his 16th start (at Bristol Motor Speedway), a race in which he started ninth in a 30-car field. Gordon's first victory came when he bested a 43-car field in the 1994 Coke 600 in front of Charlotte's stock car cognoscenti, and his second win was just as emotional. Gordon made a follow-up visit to victory lane in the inaugural Brickyard 400 in front of his adopted hometown crowd.
Earnhardt switched his allegiance to a young car owner named Richard Childress in 1981. That year, Childress decided to stop being an independent owner/driver and concentrate on being simply an owner, but the cars still were self-prepared and not up to speed.
Earnhardt moved to Bud Moore's operation - at Childress' suggestion - and although the cars were strong, the chemistry was weak, and the pair produced only three victories in two seasons.
He came home to Childress in 1984 and stayed there for the remainder of his career. When he rejoined Childress, Earnhardt had only nine victories to his credit in 158 starts, but the best was yet to come.
Gordon earned his 30th victory in his 158th start, but his formative years were much less traumatic, with only one car owner and one crew chief, which allowed him to develop chemistry.
Further complicating the matter for Earnhardt was the fact that another superstar was stealing his thunder in the early years. Darrell Waltrip scored 53 of his 84 career victories after Earnhardt joined the series in 1979, while Gordon did not have any single competitor with as much success.
When both drivers had momentum, they made the most of it. Earnhardt won back-to-back races 12 times during his career versus Gordon's mark of 14. Twice, Earnhardt won three races in a row, to Gordon's three, and both drivers won four consecutive races once during their career.
In Earnhardt's footsteps
The manner in which each driver won most of their races could not be any more dissimilar, but that is changing.
Earnhardt was an aggressive driver known as The Intimidator, due to his willingness to move another competitor out of the way if he was being held up. In the equation of driver versus machine, Earnhardt's skill was the greater number by far. He could do things with a car in traffic - without making any contact - that defied the laws of physics.
Gordon has always been a calculating driver who will not use up his equipment. When the competition starts to fade, the No. 24 slips by them and races to the checkered flag. All that changed one night in 2002 at Bristol, when Gordon tired of being held up by Rusty Wallace and used the bump-and-run to get around him.
In 2006, Gordon was the victim of the same maneuver at the same track when he was knocked out of third place in the spring race. First, Gordon nudged Matt Kenseth to take the position, but when he allowed the No. 17 to close up on his back bumper the contact was a little more severe and Gordon spun out to finish as the last car on the lead lap.
Gordon climbed out of his car and shoved Kenseth on pit road, drawing a season-long probation from NASCAR that would have made Earnhardt proud. The incident was not forgotten, and Gordon's new aggressive attitude carried over into Chicagoland Speedway last summer when he knocked Kenseth out of his way to get within one spot of Earnhardt's all-time win mark.
A hallmark of both drivers' careers has been how well they run on every track they visited.
Both Earnhardt and Gordon won on nearly every track they raced. Earnhardt won on 17 different courses, with 10 victories at Talladega leading his personal list. He failed to win on nine tracks, though he competed four times or less on six of those.
Of the three tracks on which Earnhardt competed most but failed to win, two of these were road courses. He made 20 attempts at Riverside and came close to winning on multiple occasions, with three second-place finishes. He was also 0-for-15 at Watkins Glen International. One of Earnhardt's proudest moments was when he won the 1995 Save Mart Supermarkets 300 at Infineon - his only road course victory. In winning that race, he beat the two greatest NASCAR road racers of the 1990s with Mark Martin in second and Gordon in third.
Gordon now has won on 22 of 24 tracks he's raced in Cup, failing to win only at Homestead-Miami Speedway (in seven starts) and Texas Motor Speedway (in 12 starts), but like Earnhardt, he's come close on these tracks with second or third-place finishes at each.
While Earnhardt struggled on the road courses, Gordon took to them immediately, winning 10 of his 76 races on these tracks. From the 1997 Bud at the Glen through the 2000 SaveMart/Kragen 350, he won six consecutive road races to tie an old record for road course wins shared by Petty, Bobby Allison and Wallace, and then steadily improved on that number.
Earnhardt's final victory came in his 671st attempt in the 2000 Winston 500 at Talladega. He was killed five races later on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 when he crashed while running third behind two of the cars he owned. Those Chevrolets were wheeled by his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip.
The climb continues
Gordon caught Earnhardt quickly, and he is not finished climbing up the grid. Cale Yarborough is the fifth-winningest driver and next superstar in Gordon's sights with 83 victories. Darrell Waltrip (84) and Allison (85) are lined up behind him.
Eight races into the season, Gordon very well could have at least one or two more in him before the checkered flag waves over the 2007 season finale, as he has averaged almost 3.5 wins per year over the last five seasons heading into '07. Just look at how many times he has finished second already.
Once thought to be unassailable, David Pearson's second-place record of 105 victories could also fall if Gordon competes for another eight seasons and doesn't slow down. For the record, in order to catch Petty with his 200 victories, Gordon would have to keep up his current pace into his AARP years.
Milestones
Milestone Jeff Gordon Dale Earnhardt
First Race 11/15/1992 5/25/1975
Rookie Season 1993 1979
Full time seasons 14-plus 22
Championships 4 7
First Victory 1994 Coke 600 (42nd start) 1979 Southeastern 500 (16th start)
10th Victory 96th start 177th start
20th Victory 125th start 244th start
30th Victory 158th start 266th start
40th Victory 186th start 336th start
50th Victory 232nd start 369th start
60th Victory 318th start 454th start
70th Victory 402nd start 515th start
76th Victory 481st start 671st start
Total Races 481 676
Wins per track
Track Dale Earnhardt Jeff Gordon
Atlanta Motor Speedway 9 4
Bristol Motor Speedway 9 5
California Speedway 0 (4 starts) 3
Chicagoland Speedway N/A 1
Darlington Raceway 9 6
Daytona International Speedway 3 6
Dover Downs International 3 4
Homestead-Miami Speedway 0 (2 starts) 0
Indianapolis Motor Speedway 1 4
Infineon Raceway 1 4
Kansas Speedway N/A 2
Las Vegas Motor Speedway 0 (3 starts) 1
Lowes Motor Speedway 5 4
Martinsville Speedway 6 7
Michigan International Speedway 2 2
Nashville International Raceway 2 N/A
New Hampshire International Speedway 0 (12 starts) 3
North Carolina Speedway 3 4
North Wilkesboro Speedway 5 1
Ontario Speedway 0 (2 starts) N/A
Phoenix International Raceway 1 1
Pocono Raceway 2 3
Richmond International Raceway 5 2
Riverside International Raceway 0 (20 starts) N/A
Talladega Superspeedway 10 4
Texas Motor Speedway 0 (4 starts) 0
Texas World Speedway 0 (3 starts) N/A
Watkins Glen International 0 (15 starts) 40 -
Well Cupcake(Gordon)is no prize, that's for sure. 0 -
+4 Smitty 0 -
Nascar used to be cool back in the day... But now it is about as exciting a watching grass grow.
NHRA BABY!!!! 330mhp in the blink of an eye. Hot babes on Pro Stock bikes. 100 plus races in a single day. and you get to meet and talk to the drivers crew ect... And Autographs out the wazooooo!!! It is louder faster prettier and better!!!!0
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