Montoya had a Brickyard win taken from him with a phantom pitroad violation, I was at that race, the only Cup race I was ever at, he had the field covered. He is/was a much better driver then the equipment given to him in NASCAR.
Who's the most overrated driver in the past 20 years ?
- Thread starter Cola83
- Start date
Once Montoya got to Nascar, it was the pies that got eaten, not the crisps (sorry, chips) lol.
If Nascar is the current choice, then you Aussie boys need to put Marcos Ambrose on the list. Also 2 Cup wins.
Ambrose had a better run of 5 Busch wins compared to Juan's 1.
If Nascar is the current choice, then you Aussie boys need to put Marcos Ambrose on the list. Also 2 Cup wins.
Ambrose had a better run of 5 Busch wins compared to Juan's 1.
He wasn't quite as rated as Juan Pablo in my opinion. JP was probably the third or fourth best driver in F1 at one stage. Ambrose won two VASC championships, sure, but he never was as good as JP prior to NASCAR, and I'd argue that the teams he was at were worse even if CGR's NASCAR has been a dumpster fire
I thought Ambrose came with a little more hype IMO. Coming from driving big heavy V8s, this should have been in his wheelhouse.
RPM stuff was worse than CGR. But Chips heart is open wheel, overflow Target money paid for the Cup stuff.
RPM stuff was worse than CGR. But Chips heart is open wheel, overflow Target money paid for the Cup stuff.
Ambrose wasn't overrated. He was decidedly average.
He didn't even win Bathurst; which pits him in the same league as Glenn Seton. A championship only allows you to write 1 on the door. Bathurst let's you write your name into eternity.
This is a bit of a hard one. I can think of a few drivers, that didn't really put the numbers on the board... but did well. Then there are some, just meh...
F1: Mika Salo, Oliver Panis (although has an F1 win at Monaco), Nick Heidfeld (screwed over by West & McLaren)
I want to say Jacques Villeneuve, he never did anything after his F1 title in '97.
Williams sucked after loosing Renault, BAR was an upstart... just feel he should have done more when he jumped into other series cars. If Montoya can win a Nascar race, an F1 champion should find it easier??
F1: Mika Salo, Oliver Panis (although has an F1 win at Monaco), Nick Heidfeld (screwed over by West & McLaren)
I want to say Jacques Villeneuve, he never did anything after his F1 title in '97.
Williams sucked after loosing Renault, BAR was an upstart... just feel he should have done more when he jumped into other series cars. If Montoya can win a Nascar race, an F1 champion should find it easier??
Exactly.
Mario did.
AJ Foyt did. (3 GPs)
Scott Speed was in 28 GPs and has a Truck series win.
This is hard to come up with some but one I'm going to say is Johnny Sauter.
He takes over the #2 in 2002 and had a win, 3 top 5s, and 5 top 10s. The next year he's sharing a ride with Harvick for the season (while piloting the #43 car in races that Harvick runs the 21). He did get a win that year as well as 6 top 5s, 14 top 10s. That's also the year that the #21 won the owners championship.
In 2004 he moved up to Cup to drive the #30 AOL car. He lasted 13 races before he was replaced by Dave Blaney. Other then one year with Haas (pre-Tony Stewart ownership days when they were bad), his Cup starts from then on have been with backmarker teams like BK Racing and Phoenix Racing.
In Xfinity, he ran for two seasons full time after being released by RCR. He only picked up one more win in his career there (3 total).
He didn't really start being a successful driver until he went back to Trucks. And the past two seasons he hasn't picked up a win (Only 3 Top 5s, 8 Top 10s in 2020).
Now I know he has a championship and 24 wins in the Trucks, but it's the other series mainly I look at. The year that the 21 won the championship - while he was a part of that - it was more to do with how good Harvick was. Harvick drove over half of the races (18 of 34) and only had one finish outside of the Top 10 (14th). Meanwhile look at Sauter's 14 starts in that car (he drove the 29 at Homestead):
5th, 37th, 26th, 2nd, 7th, 10th, 21st, 11th, 17th, 13th, 5th, 27th, 4th, 11th, 34th, 3rd
No wins, 5 Top 5s, 7 Top 10s and this was in a car where Harvick had 3 wins, 11 top 5s, and 17 top 10s.
He wasn't ready to go up to Cup at that point. While those stats aren't bad (a lot of drivers would love to have 7 top 10s in a season), there wasn't a lot of consistency there.
Look at the numbers in the next 2 seasons after he was released from Cup. 1 win, 5 Top 5s, 20 Top 10's in 70 starts. Not exactly impressive. The only reason he got a second chance in Cup with Haas is cause he drove for them the year before in Xfinity and the Yellow Freight sponsorship was following him where he went.
Take the Truck Series out of the equation and he seemed like an okay driver, but not top tier. Could he have succeeded in Cup? Maybe, but RCR definitely rushed him up too quickly.
He takes over the #2 in 2002 and had a win, 3 top 5s, and 5 top 10s. The next year he's sharing a ride with Harvick for the season (while piloting the #43 car in races that Harvick runs the 21). He did get a win that year as well as 6 top 5s, 14 top 10s. That's also the year that the #21 won the owners championship.
In 2004 he moved up to Cup to drive the #30 AOL car. He lasted 13 races before he was replaced by Dave Blaney. Other then one year with Haas (pre-Tony Stewart ownership days when they were bad), his Cup starts from then on have been with backmarker teams like BK Racing and Phoenix Racing.
In Xfinity, he ran for two seasons full time after being released by RCR. He only picked up one more win in his career there (3 total).
He didn't really start being a successful driver until he went back to Trucks. And the past two seasons he hasn't picked up a win (Only 3 Top 5s, 8 Top 10s in 2020).
Now I know he has a championship and 24 wins in the Trucks, but it's the other series mainly I look at. The year that the 21 won the championship - while he was a part of that - it was more to do with how good Harvick was. Harvick drove over half of the races (18 of 34) and only had one finish outside of the Top 10 (14th). Meanwhile look at Sauter's 14 starts in that car (he drove the 29 at Homestead):
5th, 37th, 26th, 2nd, 7th, 10th, 21st, 11th, 17th, 13th, 5th, 27th, 4th, 11th, 34th, 3rd
No wins, 5 Top 5s, 7 Top 10s and this was in a car where Harvick had 3 wins, 11 top 5s, and 17 top 10s.
He wasn't ready to go up to Cup at that point. While those stats aren't bad (a lot of drivers would love to have 7 top 10s in a season), there wasn't a lot of consistency there.
Look at the numbers in the next 2 seasons after he was released from Cup. 1 win, 5 Top 5s, 20 Top 10's in 70 starts. Not exactly impressive. The only reason he got a second chance in Cup with Haas is cause he drove for them the year before in Xfinity and the Yellow Freight sponsorship was following him where he went.
Take the Truck Series out of the equation and he seemed like an okay driver, but not top tier. Could he have succeeded in Cup? Maybe, but RCR definitely rushed him up too quickly.
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I think Johnny has the numbers to not be on the list.
Look at Hornaday & Sprague... some drivers are not Cup drivers.
David Gilliland would get my vote. 1 Busch win and gets a full time Cup ride. RYR was on the down, but was still good enough.
Daniel Hemric, has money and had top rides... no Top 3 series wins.
Look at Hornaday & Sprague... some drivers are not Cup drivers.
David Gilliland would get my vote. 1 Busch win and gets a full time Cup ride. RYR was on the down, but was still good enough.
Daniel Hemric, has money and had top rides... no Top 3 series wins.
i may get hate (defenitly will)
Retired from ft cup: Dale jr.
Currently: Chase
Dale didnt live up to the hype that he was getting
Chase is a great driver dont get me wrong, He just isnt living up to the hype yet
Retired from ft cup: Dale jr.
Currently: Chase
Dale didnt live up to the hype that he was getting
Chase is a great driver dont get me wrong, He just isnt living up to the hype yet
This season, absolutely. But Chase has done something Dale never did: win a championship.
Sure, the Chase is kind of a terrible format, but the long and the short of it is he has won one.
The thing is when you look at reasonable expectations, I don’t Junior was overhyped. There’s a lot of his fans that would’ve been okay with a championship, but it never happened.
Problem is that there were a lot of people that thought because he was Dale’s son that he was supposed to have 70 some wins as well and 7 championships. Those people were definitely hyping him up too much. But they were also idiots to think he had to match his dad’s numbers.
I’m a Dale Jr. fan and I’m actually pretty happy with the stats that he’s had. The one thing to me that is missing is the championship, but I don’t think that’s a knock against him. Mark Martin never had a championship either.
The thing with Chase is a lot of it is the same thing. The nostalgia factor, the last name. They’re wanting him to be as good as his dad was. At least in his case those numbers are a little more achievable (Bill only had one championship). The big thing I’ll say about him is that they act like he’s the best driver on the circuit right now at times because of being defending champion. But yet his teammate is one of only two drivers with multiple wins this season. So the brakes might need to be pumped a bit on that.
Nikita Marzipan is pretty overrated.
I thought that he was just the idiot playboy son of a Russian billionaire oligarch, who after groping a woman's breasts (and filming it) was condemned as "abhorrent" by not only the FIA and F1 but also his own team but it turns out, he's also a really unbelievably terrible driver.
You should know you're bad when even Taki Inoue is taking strips off you:
MAZ destroyed super License point system of FIA. He got full point to be valid for his Super License, but he seems to be driving F1 like a Taki Inoue. This proves clearly FIA doesn't need super License point system anymore.
- Taki Inoue, 7th May 2021
View: https://twitter.com/takiinoue/status/1390648861371285509
I thought that he was just the idiot playboy son of a Russian billionaire oligarch, who after groping a woman's breasts (and filming it) was condemned as "abhorrent" by not only the FIA and F1 but also his own team but it turns out, he's also a really unbelievably terrible driver.
You should know you're bad when even Taki Inoue is taking strips off you:
MAZ destroyed super License point system of FIA. He got full point to be valid for his Super License, but he seems to be driving F1 like a Taki Inoue. This proves clearly FIA doesn't need super License point system anymore.
- Taki Inoue, 7th May 2021
View: https://twitter.com/takiinoue/status/1390648861371285509
A rating of literally zero is still an overrating of Nokia Marzipan.
I'm starting to see a split between 'hype' drivers and 'over-rated' drivers.
Dale Jr may have come with a little more hype for being 'Little E' but not overrated. He has the numbers to back it up. 2 Busch Championships, multiple wins, Jr was close to a Cup Championship in '04.
Some drivers would rather have a Daytona 500 win instead of a Championship, Jr has 2 '500' wins.
Add to the fact that DEI imploded....
NASCAR Busts by Black Flags Matter on YouTube has some good vids on the drivers with hype vs stats etc
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