Open-wheel drivers nothing new to NASCAR
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First of all, to invade something you got to have the ability to overtake it, and I'm not sure we are there with this group we got coming in right now.
People always say, "Oh, I've never seen anything like this. Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable."
I hear that all the time, whether it's about technology, something drivers say or do, something that happens in the sport, etc. But folks, we've been through so many trends, so many ups-and-downs.
I went to Daytona Beach in 1967 to run the Saturday race — it was called the Permatex 300 back in the day — and I took an old 1958 Ford from Owensboro, Ky., down there, and that was my first tour of duty down there at Daytona International Speedway. It was an unbelievable experience. At the time, it was the biggest track I had been on. I'd been to Nashville Speedway a couple of times, but that was a half-mile track. Most of my experiences were on quarter-mile venues.
I mention my first experience at Daytona because I want you folks to know that I've been here a while, and I can tell you that open-wheelers are nothing new to the sport. For years and years, there's always been quite a number of them that come and participate in our races.
Back in my day, A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti both won the Daytona 500. Johnny Rutherford ran a lot of races back in the '70s, Parnelli Jones ran a lot of races with us, and Gordon Johncock drove a Hoss Ellington car a number of races. George Fullmer had a full-time ride with Bud Moore Engineering, Dan Gurney won four races in a row and five overall at Riverside International Raceway, Al Unser Sr. and Jr. — these guys have all used to come every now and then. They were a big part of the sport, they all had good rides and they were all pretty competitive.
But all of the sudden, now that we have Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick Carpentier, Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve — along with Juan Pablo Montoya — it's like a lot of people are asking, "Where'd all these guys come from?"
I think the same thing is happening now that happened back in the day. NASCAR is a challenge. When you are driving an Indy car or a Formula One car, you're basically driving a machine that was solely and purposefully built for racing. They are engineering pieces of work. Every aspect of that car is built to be a race car.
When you drive a stock car — and yes, I agree that they have changed — you're driving something that has been adapted to racing. Our cars are big and heavy. I know somebody told me that Dario said, "Man, these things feel like tanks." Well yeah, when you have been in a little 1,800-pound open-wheel car darting around the racetrack at 220 mph, you tend to realize that our cars do not respond as quickly as what you are used to. When you turn the wheel, it doesn't go to were you want it, you gotta get it turned that way. It takes a lot of finesse to drive a stock car.
The keyword that I would use with any of those drivers right now is anticipation. You gotta anticipate where this baby is going to end up if you want to succeed in stock car racing.
And these facts are what open-wheelers have found out in the past.
Open wheelers have come and experimented a little bit with stock cars, but they end up going back to the open wheels because they like responsiveness and quickness for a car that was basically designed and built for nothing but racing. But in NASCAR, we don't have Lola's McClaren or Ferrari Chassis.
That's not what our sport is about. NASCAR is about man power. That's what it takes to get the job done in our sport.
Open wheelers are nothing new. They have been here — they've come and gone before — but I tell people over and over again: I don't care what your skin color is, where you came from, whether you are male or female, a Democrat or Republican, or what your religion is. If you can drive a race car and get results, then we are glad to have you. And if you can do that, people are going to respond to you being here.
But if you are just out there riding around in the back of the pack, I got a pretty good idea you won't be around too long.
Oh, by the way
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Right now, everything is new, nothing is tried and nothing is proven at this point. This is the most exciting time of the year for every driver.
Anticipation, expectations and spirits are all high. Everybody is excited and feels like this is the greatest year we've ever had.
Personally, to some degree, I think it will be. I think with the COT, with the open-wheel drivers coming in and with NASCAR sort of changing their philosophy on how they are going to manage the sport this year — those are all good things and all things we can look forward to seeing how they turn out.
This is the FOXSports teams' eighth year of being together, and it seems like it was just yesterday when we started back in 2001.
We are here in Daytona, and you can get ready because you are going to hear "Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let's go racing boys" a lot in 2008.
Check out the rest of Darrell Waltrip's 'Oh, by the way' comments in his blog.
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