[Dupont4five]

Most consider Richard Petty, Dale Earnahrdt, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewrat as the 4 greatest NASCAR drivers ever for they're championships, style, atitude and deminer. But look at this

Pettys last Cup championship:1979
Dales first Cup Championship:1980
Dales last Cup Championship:1994
Jeffys first Cup championship: 1995
Jeffys last cup championship:2001
Tonys first Cup Championship:2002

[Mike24]

Wow, that is interesting! Lets hope Jeff can throw a curve ball in those stats and win it this year!

[EmpireWF]

People do love nostalgia. But I doubt Stewart and Gordon's Championship days are over.

[Dupont4five]

I agree with both of you, Jeff can win a couple more but for now it looks pretty

[Mike24]

I don't think Dale's championship days were over either. I think he had atleast 1 more left in him, but we all know that won't happen.

[Dupont4five]

Originally Posted by Mike24

I don't think Dale's championship days were over either. I think he had atleast 1 more left in him, but we all know that won't happen.

What amazes me is that his last season he finished 2nd in the points, so lets blame Bobby Labonte for Big E not surpassing Petty

[Mike24]

Originally Posted by Dupont4five

What amazes me is that his last season he finished 2nd in the points, so lets blame Bobby Labonte for Big E not surpassing Petty

Yep. Kinda like how we have the Chase to blame for Gordon not having 5 championships. But yeah, I wish Dale would have won in his last season. That would have made Dale the king, even though he is still a king. Just think if Dale was still around, no impounding rules, no yellow line rule, no Chase format, man would NASCAR Winston Cup racing be great.

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by Mike24

Just think if Dale was still around, no impounding rules, no yellow line rule, no Chase format, man would NASCAR Winston Cup racing be great.

Now this statement I can totally agree with you on.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by Mike24

Yep. Kinda like how we have the Chase to blame for Gordon not having 5 championships. But yeah, I wish Dale would have won in his last season. That would have made Dale the king, even though he is still a king. Just think if Dale was still around, no impounding rules, no yellow line rule, no Chase format, man would NASCAR Winston Cup racing be great.

Hmmm...? You think the elder Earnhardt really had that much influence over the suits in Daytona Beach? Wow!!

I'll agree that Dale Sr. did affect some NA$CAR decisions, however it appears to me that his overall influence has increased in proportion to the length of time he's been gone. Legend has a way of turning wishful thinking into absolute fact. Very unfortunately, what you propose above is something we are destined never to know for sure.

The only thing I believe we can agree on here is that the Earnheart family and the Brian France family wouldn't have been taking family vacations together.

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by Mike24

Just think if Dale was still around, no impounding rules, no yellow line rule, no Chase format, man would NASCAR Winston Cup racing be great.

Just think if Dale would have started his career at 21 years old with a top shelf team like Gordon did. I'm betting he'd have at least 10 Championships

[Mike24]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Hmmm...? You think the elder Earnhardt really had that much influence over the suits in Daytona Beach? Wow!!

I'll agree that Dale Sr. did affect some NA$CAR decisions, however it appears to me that his overall influence has increased in proportion to the length of time he's been gone. Legend has a way of turning wishful thinking into absolute fact. Very unfortunately, what you propose above is something we are destined never to know for sure.

The only thing I believe we can agree on here is that the Earnheart family and the Brian France family wouldn't have been taking family vacations together.

Well first off, the yellow line rule was invented due to Earnhardt's tragic crash. The safety was implented after Earnhardt's crash, which Earnhardt wouldn't use, Safer Barriers wouldn't be here. The Chase is about luck, and I have a good feeling Earnhardt did not like the word luck. It just goes to show how much of an impact Dale Earnhardt had to NASCAR. After Earnhardt's tragic crash, NASCAR was able to do some things that Earnhardt would not allow.

[Mike24]

Originally Posted by Nevadastars

Just think if Dale would have started his career at 21 years old with a top shelf team like Gordon did. I'm betting he'd have at least 10 Championships

I would not doubt that.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by Mike24

Well first off, the yellow line rule was invented due to Earnhardt's tragic crash. The safety was implented after Earnhardt's crash, which Earnhardt wouldn't use, Safer Barriers wouldn't be here. The Chase is about luck, and I have a good feeling Earnhardt did not like the word luck. It just goes to show how much of an impact Dale Earnhardt had to NASCAR. After Earnhardt's tragic crash, NASCAR was able to do some things that Earnhardt would not allow.

I apologize, but I'm missing your point. It must be my advanced age, Althziemer's or something akin to that.

Your original quote was: "Just think if Dale was still around, no impounding rules, no yellow line rule, no Chase format, man would NASCAR Winston Cup racing be great". Let's take these things abit at a time

(A) Yellow lines, safety barriers and the like: Surely you don't mean Dale was anti-safety? Off the top of my head I can't remember anything he said against making racing safer. He was just for individual responsibility, evidence his preference for an open-faced helmet. I seem to remember that NASCAR had the University of Nebraska to do some studies and experiments with safe barriers back around 1995 or '96. So NASCAR was moving in this direction and Dale's death just speeded up an inevitable action. IRT the "Yellow Line Rule," for some reason I'm not connecting Dale's accident with this. I'm probably wrong but I think this came about because of another incident. If I'm wrong in this assumption, I'll easily stand corrected.

(B) Impound rules. I have no way of knowing how Earnhardt the Senior would have felt about this, one way or another. However, personally, I'd like to see the rule expanded even further. It's too late now but if they would have implemented this rule fifteen years ago, we might have had teams like Junie Donleavey, Bud Moore, the Jackson Brothers, the Stavola Brothers, Gary Betchel, and other small teams around? The mega-teams, with their almost unlimited budgets, have basically all but eliminated the small race team, which was the backbone of NASCAR for years and years. For example, when NA$CAR [finally] did away with the throw-away qualifying motors, they cut a race team's budget by around $25K-$30K. Imagine how much more money they could cut if they went to a "run whut you brung" concept to the track? No qualifying shocks, springs, radius rods, etc., etc.

(C) I guess the manipulating playoff idea (a.k.a. "The Chase") that NA$CAR has come up with, which makes all but the top ten cars virtually invisable to the TV cameras and the announcers, is an item we can heartily agree on, eh? <G>

Good talking to you, Mike. Keep up the good conversation.

[Mike24]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

I apologize, but I'm missing your point. It must be my advanced age, Althziemer's or something akin to that.

Your original quote was: "Just think if Dale was still around, no impounding rules, no yellow line rule, no Chase format, man would NASCAR Winston Cup racing be great". Let's take these things abit at a time

(A) Yellow lines, safety barriers and the like: Surely you don't mean Dale was anti-safety? Off the top of my head I can't remember anything he said against making racing safer. He was just for individual responsibility, evidence his preference for an open-faced helmet. I seem to remember that NASCAR had the University of Nebraska to do some studies and experiments with safe barriers back around 1995 or '96. So NASCAR was moving in this direction and Dale's death just speeded up an inevitable action. IRT the "Yellow Line Rule," for some reason I'm not connecting Dale's accident with this. I'm probably wrong but I think this came about because of another incident. If I'm wrong in this assumption, I'll easily stand corrected.

(B) Impound rules. I have no way of knowing how Earnhardt the Senior would have felt about this, one way or another. However, personally, I'd like to see the rule expanded even further. It's too late now but if they would have implemented this rule fifteen years ago, we might have had teams like Junie Donleavey, Bud Moore, the Jackson Brothers, the Stavola Brothers, Gary Betchel, and other small teams around? The mega-teams, with their almost unlimited budgets, have basically all but eliminated the small race team, which was the backbone of NASCAR for years and years. For example, when NA$CAR [finally] did away with the throw-away qualifying motors, they cut a race team's budget by around $25K-$30K. Imagine how much more money they could cut if they went to a "run whut you brung" concept to the track? No qualifying shocks, springs, radius rods, etc., etc.

(C) I guess the manipulating playoff idea (a.k.a. "The Chase") that NA$CAR has come up with, which makes all but the top ten cars virtually invisable to the TV cameras and the announcers, is an item we can heartily agree on, eh? <G>

Good talking to you, Mike. Keep up the good conversation.

Im not saying Dale was anti-safety, but he didn't want to use the safety device. If Dale Earnhardt had survived that wreck, NASCAR would have most likely kept the safety devices optional to the drivers. So obviously you haven't watched the video where Dale Earnhardt complained about the impound rule at Daytona in 2000? Secondly, Im not sure if Dale Earnhardt would have had a impact on Safer Barriers. NASCAR basically took Earnhardt's death and did some things Earnhardt would not allow.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by Mike24

Im not saying Dale was anti-safety, but he didn't want to use the safety device. If Dale Earnhardt had survived that wreck, NASCAR would have most likely kept the safety devices optional to the drivers. So obviously you haven't watched the video where Dale Earnhardt complained about the impound rule at Daytona in 2000? Secondly, Im not sure if Dale Earnhardt would have had a impact on Safer Barriers. NASCAR basically took Earnhardt's death and did some things Earnhardt would not allow.

I'm still a little in the dark as to what you mean by "the safety device?" But that's inmaterial. I believe we agree on my statement that Dale generally thought the use of safety items was basically a matter of individual responsibility.

I admit to have either never seeing the mentioned video, or maybe it's slid off my increasingly teflon-coated brain. However, in the year 2000, I would have to believe thatDale's feelings were coming from a hugh multi-car team owner's perspective (read: DEI and the "Garage Mahal"), and not a small team's.

Sorry. I'm just an anachronism. The purist in me only wants to see the mega-teams and their massive high-rolling sponsors just go completely away. Personally I'd give up major network TV coverage and uncounted numbers of souvenir trailers with over-priced toy cars, tee shirts, etc., etc., just to see NASCAR the way is was a decade and a half ago. I am not a fan of this new and improved NA$CAR; every day it gets closer and closer to F1.