1,000 Greatest Drivers: Jim Paschal
The winningest driver that NASCAR ignores.
Paschal is both the winningest NASCAR Cup Series ever to be snubbed from both the 75 Greatest Drivers list and the NASCAR Hall of Fame and I don’t get it. I completely understand why his contemporaries Jack Smith and Speedy Thompson were snubbed because nobody wants to acknowledge their solid/borderline worthy careers because of Smith’s vehement racism towards Wendell Scott and Thompson wrecking and causing a near-fatal injury to ‘50s legend Herb Thomas via team orders. Acknowledging Smith and Thompson could create some uneasy conversations, so I understand they were left off for morality reasons, which always happens for borderline cases, although admittedly the compilers of the 50 Greatest Drivers List ignored the fact that LeeRoy Yarbrough was accused of strangling his mother, so there seems to be a double standard where on-track bad behavior that overshadows a career leads to being snubbed while off-track bad behavior doesn’t. (I do admittedly think Yarbrough was a much more transcendent talent than any of these other guys, but I don’t look forward to writing about any of them.) However, Paschal doesn’t seem to have anything like that in his career (and he was arguably better than Smith and Thompson), so what gives? He admittedly was probably never the best NASCAR driver of his time at any point, but the same could be said for lots of people who made those lists/the Hall of Fame and even though Paschal was kind of a career compiler, this does feel like a career that should be acknowledged more than it is. I’m not saying he’ll never get in the Hall of Fame: the less talented Donnie Allison just did despite not making the 50/75 Greatest Drivers list, but I’d bet against it simply because nobody talks about him ever.
Having said that, I’m still not ready to declare Paschal the biggest driver snub. Right now, I would say Dick Hutcherson for that because in addition to his highly successful driving career, he also was responsible for championships as a crew chief and chassis designer. I’d also take Fonty Flock (whose snubbing from all these lists is also ridiculous), Ernie Irvan, Harry Gant, and Tim Richmond over him too, but few others (except obviously the recently active legends like Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch once they become eligible…) Hopefully, this brings some much-needed attention to his great but curiously forgotten Cup Series career.
