Underrated Racing Drivers In American Motorsport You Should Know About

One: David Pearson

You know The King of NASCAR racing Richard Petty? Well, David Pearson, NASCAR Hall Of Fame inductee, was his greatest rival. The two drivers finished first and second to each other 63 times during their racing careers, that’s some close competition. Born in Spartanburg South Carolina in 1934, his nickname is “The Silver Fox”. Richard Petty had this to say about David Pearson…

“Pearson could beat you on a short track, he could beat you on a superspeedway, he could beat you on a road course, he could beat you on a dirt track. It didn’t hurt as bad to lose to Pearson as it did to some of the others, because I knew how good he was. I always felt that if I beat him I beat the best, and I heard he said the same thing about me.” -Richard Petty

Two: Tony Schumacher

Think of this guy as the Lewis Hamilton of drag racing; he’s fairly new to Top Fuel drag racing and he’s been quite successful. He currently holds the record for the most Top Fuel wins at 83 with Larry Dixon as the runner up with 62; his nickname is “The Sarge” and his father is Don Schumacher, an NHRA legend who owns his own racing league.

Three: The Force Family

John Force and his family is a great example of the effects of gearhead parenting. He has 3 daughters who have competed or are competing in NHRA drag racing; Courtney Force, Ashley Force Hood and Brittany Force. John has 16 NHRA Funny Car Championship wins and two Funny Car championship wins as a team owner. Ashley has retired due to becoming a mother although she did beat her father in one race at the Southern Nationals in 2008. Courtney is married to an Indy Car racer, Graham Rahal, and currently has the most Funny Car wins for a female driver ever in the NHRA.

Four: Henry “Smokey” Yunick

Smokey was as much of a mechanic and tinkerer as he was a racer; he was named NASCAR’s Mechanic Of The Year two times. During his teenage years he built a tractor from the remains of a car from a junkyard and later on in his life he modified a Hudson Hornet for the 2nd running of the Southern 500 for Herb Thomas, who ended up winning the race. Yunick raced not only in NASCAR but also the Indy 500 which he won in 1960. He has 9 patents to his name and his crafty ways of making his cars better and faster weren’t received too kindly by NASCAR officials. One example was lowering and modifying the roof and windows and raising the floor of a 1966 Chevelle for better aerodynamics.

Fun Fact: Henry piloted a B-17 bomber during World War 2 named “Smokey And His Firemen” for more than 50 air missions over Europe.

Five: Juan Pablo Montoya

Juan Pablo Montoya is one of the most well rounded racing drivers alive today. The Colombian racer has won races in Indy Car, Formula One, Champ Car and NASCAR; he was also the winner of the Race of Champions in 2017. Pablo had this to say about Formula One versus NASCAR…

“Formula 1 drivers are convinced that they’re so much better than anyone else, When I was in F1, every week I was on the podium. It was cool, but is it satisfying? It wasn’t, because it was the most boring races. It’s boring. It’s a shame, because the technology these cars have and the amount of companies that are involved is unreal. I don’t know how big companies do it for such a long time without results. It’s harder here (in NASCAR), When you run 15th, sometimes you think it sucks, but look at the big picture – 15th here is like sixth or seventh in F1, because there are twice as many cars.” -Juan Pablo Montoya

Montoya went onto say that the big, brash appeal of the US’ premier stock car series appealed to him a lot “with overtaking less of an art form and more of a past-time as up to 40 cars go wheel-to-wheel for three hours solid.” -crash.net/f1

Six: The Drivers Of The Fabulous Hudson Hornet

There were multiple people driving around in cars dubbed “The Fabulous Hudson Hornet” during the early days of NASCAR. To be specific, the drivers were Marshall Teague, Tim Flock and Herb Thomas.

Marshall Teague won 7 races of the 23 he participated in. He also helped Hudson to tune the Hornet’s straight six to it’s maximum potential to aid it’s winning streak in the early days of NASCAR. Teague died at the Daytona International Speedway when testing an Indy Car 11 days before the first Daytona 500 in 1959. Marshall was the inspiration for the Doc Hudson character in the movie Cars.

Tim Flock has 2 championships to his name and also has the highest win percentage in NASCAR history at 21% and has the most pole positions in a single season at 18 in 1955.

Herb Thomas also was an inspiration for Doc Hudson and had 48 race wins in his career which puts him at 14th place for most wins in a career for NASCAR.

Seven: Junior Johnson

Junior Johnson was both a successful racer and team owner in NASCAR. Junior’s racing roots began
when he ran moonshine for the family business and served a one year prison sentence for having an illegal still; however, he was never caught by the police when he ran moonshine. Johnson invented drafting to help him win the 1960 Daytona 500 with a car that was slower than the rest of the competition. While he did win 11 races at super speedways, he was really at home on dirt tracks and short tracks like Wilkesboro Speedway. Johnson also had a brief involvement with NHRA drag racing, winning a race in a 1941 Studebaker; the quarter mile time was 13.13 seconds at 104.04 mph.

Junior’s NASCAR team won 139 races and 6 championships, 3 with Cale Yarborough and 3 with Darrell Waltrip in the 70’s and 80’s. In 1986, Ronald Reagan pardoned Johnson of a moonshining conviction from 1956 which restored his right to vote.

Fun Fact: Junior Johnson voiced a character in Cars 3 named Junior “Midnight” Moon which is a reference to Junior Johnson’s moonshine brand.

Honorable Mentions

Darrell Waltrip
Bobby Allison
Cale Yarborough
Terry Labonte
Wendell Scott
Bill Elliot
Rusty Wallace
Don Garlits