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By: Tom Luttermoser NASCAR history, as with any history, is filled with the age old question "What if?" Military history, Political, and sports of all sorts. We've all sat and day dreamed of this "what if" situation and if you say you haven't, you lie. So as I sit here on these slow, cold winter days in the Motor City , I think... What if?  Dale Earnhardt Jr stays with DEI- This topic can go 2 ways. "What if we never lost his father" & "what if he was given his stake in DEI." Dale Earnhardt doesn't pass in 2001.- Dale Earnhardt was pretty clearly on the later end of his career. Now, 49 was not too old back in the late 90's- early 2000's to be racing, just look at Mark Martin and Dale was not losing his competitiveness. 2000 Dale came 2nd in the Winston Cup standings just to prove the point. But his focus was coming more and more on Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and his son's career. Dale's vison for both Jr and DEI was to be competitive and win titles, so in this "what if," Jr races for his father. Dale Jr did see immediate success in his infamous #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, winning at Texas in his 12th career Cup start and scoring 17 Cup wins with DEI before moving to Hendrick in 2008. But had his father run the company, Jr never leaves. Same goes for if he had been given his stake of the business. But had Dale Jr not lost his father, not had his team messed with and not left DEI, I think Dale's already Hall of Fame career ends up even greater on track and rivals what he did off of the track as well. His 26 career wins, I think, end up in the 40's and I honestly do believe he ends up as a Sprint Cup Champion and his 2005 and 2007 season results are much better. DEI surely does not fold or end up absorbed into other teams. DEI ends up with multiple Cup and Xfinity Championships with Jr, Martin Truex Jr. and who knows who else. Image Credit: Sporting News  What if Martin Truex Jr ran a full Tier 1 Cup Career- It's no secret Martin Truex Jr will be a potential Hall of Fame driver. 31 Cup wins, 13 Xfinity wins and a single Truck win to his credit with 3 combined championships. Truex won 3 times in the first 10 years of his Cup career with DEI> Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and then Furniture Row Racing. In the last 7 years he has won 28 times and scored a Cup championship. But what if DEI wasn't on it's downfall (comparable to the Jr what if) when he was in his opening years of his career or what if he was picked up by JGR when he left DEI? What if he ran for a Tier 1 Cup team his whole career? In my opinion, there is no way it takes 10 years to become competitive, Truex could likely have become one of the winningest drivers of his era. he could have easily scored 50-60+ wins in his career and Multiple championships by now. I truly believe he is one of the greatest "what if" drivers of the last 20 years. Image Credit: The Gainsville Sun  What if we never lost Adam Petty- Adam Petty was the 4th generation racer from a family of pure royalty making him the first 4th generation athlete in American professional sports. But sadly, the Petty family lost Adam in turn 3 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to a Basilar scull fracture the same as the late Dale Earnhardt. But what if this doesn't happen? Adam's grandfather reigns supreme as the all-time race winner in the Cup Series and his father had a respectable 8 win career in Cup, but young Adam had only run 50 races in NASCAR's combined series. Adam had not yet found victory lane so it's unknown how he could have performed had he gotten his feet under him. We will never know if he would have had a career like his father or follow in the footsteps of his grandfather. Adam's legacy rests in the Victory Junction Gang Camp in North Carolina. RIP Adam. Photo Credit: Wintheday12 on Redditt  How would Jeff Gordon's numbers look without the Chase- Jeff Gordon was arguably the most dominant force in NASCAR in the late 90's and early 2000's. So much to the point it has been admitted that NASCAR asked his former crew chief Ray Evernham to back it down. After 4 titles in less than 10 years for Gordon, in 2004 NASCAR changed the way championships were won. What if this never happened? Using the old Winston Cup points (obviously they would have raced differently, but this is a hypothetical), Jeff Gordon would be the 3rd 7x Cup champion in place of real world 7x champ Jimmie Johnson. Gordon would have won again in 2004, 2007 and again for the last time in 2014. 93 wins and 7 championships in the Modern Era would have locked him in as THE greatest of all time. Image Credit: Hendrick Motorsports  What if Kyle Larson had a Hendrick Motorsports ride his whole career- Kyle Larson is without question a generational talent. In 2021 he tied himself with Jimmie Johnson for second most wins in a single season in the modern era at 10 in his first season with a tier 1 Cup Series team at Hendrick Motorsports. But what if? What if Kyle left Chip Ganassi Racing in 2015 and took over at Hendrick for Jeff Gordon?
Larson's rookie season at CGR was the best statistical rookie season in NASCAR Cup Series History, even over Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon. Larson in the 24 car for his career, I think beings him (to this point) Kyle Larson could have 2 championships and based on what he did in CGR equipment, over 30 career Cup Series wins. Image Credit: Taurus Emerald
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 By: Tom Luttermoser Image: RCR
Running around Twitter all morning has been the question, Does winning the Daytona 500 define a drivers legacy? Does it? With a race that takes as much luck as it does skill, it's a great question. The Harley J. Earl trophy is easily the most iconic trophy in the sports history and there is not one single driver you can talk to who would say it would not be a defining moment in their lives to have won it. But does it really mean that much to a drivers career? Yes and No are both answers I've seen across Twitter today. Some drivers biggest or even their only accomplishment may be to have won the Daytona 500. It locks you into the sport's history and memories of the fans. Trevor Bayne and Michael McDowell's only wins in the Cup Series both came at the Daytona 500, yet they are memorialized into the history books as Daytona 500 Champions. Michael Waltrip is pretty much only known for winning 2 Daytona 500s including his first win in the Cup Series on that fateful day in 2001. Yet you can go to the other end of the spectrum and look at names such as Petty or Johnson, 7 championships and nearly 300 wins between the two, and that is what they are known for. You typically don't think of them for their Daytona 500 victories, even though Petty won 7 of them. Another instance of a different take is the late Dale Earnhardt, a 7 time champion of the sport and arguably the most iconic moment of his entire career came in February of 1998 at that legendary speedway. "20 years of trying, 20 years of frustration, Dale Earnhardt will come to the caution flag to WIN the Daytona 500! Finally!" My personal opinion, it very well can. As stated above, it can be THE moment of a career or it can be the only moment of a career. In my opinion. It either is or it isn't going to define the driver based entirely on the individual driver. So now I ask you, What do you think. Does it define a driver's career? |