Between my increased caregiving responsibilities, updating my master driver list, writing these posts, and adjusting my scale to award more points to the 1920s and 1930s drivers, I didn’t actually get around to watching most of this weekend’s races, so I only saw clips of the O’Reilly race at Las Vegas even though I heard it was apparently a barnburner, I watched no parts of the Petit Le Mans or the F1 race even though I know the former was a memorable shitshow and the latter was entertaining, so all I ended up watching was the Cup Series race, which was probably the worst of the lot. It takes a lot for me to defend a NASCAR race that had no on-track lead changes, especially considering all the competition sweeteners they use to try to facilitate that, and it’s disappointing that the Next Gen car, which used to produce such entertaining intermediate races, has now increasingly stopped doing that. Even worse is that it was yet another win for NASCAR’s most overrated driver, who is really starting to annoy me as he seems to do nothing but consistently take the lead on pit stop exchanges and aero-block. However, what saved it from being an all-time bomb was the wacky finish, where runner-up Kyle Larson wiped himself out and wrecked Tyler Reddick onto pit road with neither of them losing position.
I’ve got to say that as a relative Next Gen defender though, I still find it odd how so many fans on social media seem to think the Next Gen invented aero push. People have been complaining about aero push since the ‘90s! It was a fact of every single generation of car on intermediate tracks, and there really isn’t anything new here. I remember everyone complaining about “cookie cutter tracks” all the time from the ‘90s, 2000s, and 2010s, and now people just show the same two laps from Chicagoland in 2014 and act like that’s what intermediate racing was like most of the time with the old cars. No, I remember the last Gen 6 race at Las Vegas in 2021 when Reddick was unable to pass Denny Hamlin even though he looked faster for an entire stint, and I distinctly remember people calling that one of the worst races they’d ever seen (I certainly thought it was kind of bad, but I didn’t think it was one of the worst races ever). The tracks were just never that good to begin with. The only disappointment here is that the Next Gen intermediate racing used to be better than the intermediate racing with any other type of car since 2001, and now it no longer is. And now with this set of bubble drivers, I will be (almost) finished with the A’s.
John Andretti (15)
Summary: The only driver to win in both CART and NASCAR in the ‘90s, Andretti was a very versatile driver, winning the 1983 USAC Regional Midget championship, one CART race, two NASCAR Cup Series races, four IMSA/Grand-Am races (including the 24 Hours of Daytona), and one USAC Midget race.
Case for: Very few drivers have managed to win in IndyCar, NASCAR, dirt track racing, and sports car racing. He gave his CART owner Jim Hall his only win from 1980-1995, Cale Yarborough his only win as a NASCAR owner ever in 1997, and Petty Enterprises his last win in 1999.
Case against: The more I think about his case, the less I’m impressed. The problem is that although he was pretty good at a lot of things, I don’t think he was very good at any discipline. He only won his CART race at Surfer’s Paradise rather flukily, after he inherited the win when Rick Mears got wrecked by the lapped backmarker Randy Lewis, and Mears himself only inherited the lead because Al Unser, Jr. crashed, and his cousin Michael had brake failure, and although he had two eighth-place finishes in CART points, he only led 7 laps in his entire career. Winning Yarborough’s only race looks impressive, but it was at Daytona and his only top tens that year came on restrictor plate tracks, so this seems like it was car over driver. The Martinsville win is probably his career highlight as he came back from a lap down to win, but he only led four laps that day and in my opinion, he was piggybacking on Bobby Hamilton and Robbie Loomis’s dominant setups at Martinsville from previous years, and he was far less impactful than Hamilton had been there, and I’m not listing Hamilton. After Robbie Loomis left the #43 team, Andretti did basically nothing, and I suspect he wasn’t the leader of his 24 Hours of Daytona team either. Both his open wheel rating (-.113) and stock car rating (-.082) are rather bad. NASCAR competition in the late ‘90s was mediocre, while CART competition in the early ‘90s was even worse. If I think even Allmendinger, who had more longevity, more wins in both Champ Car and NASCAR, and much higher ratings (open wheel .024; stock car .054), Andretti really doesn’t have much of a case.
Verdict: Drop. I was so sure I was going to list him for being pretty good at a lot of disciplines, but I honestly don’t think he was good enough at any one single discipline to feel comfortable about including him. I find my case against much more persuasive than my case for, so as much as I want to list him for nostalgic reasons since I really liked him growing up as a NASCAR fan, I don’t think I can really justify it, especially if I’m going to leave off Ward Burton and Hamilton too.
Tommy Archer (17)
Summary: Archer won a lot of minor league sports car titles in the SCCA, winning four titles in a row from 1986-1989 (the Escort Endurance championship in 1986, 1987, and 1989, and the RaceTruck championship in 1988) and the World Challenge GT title in 2004. I think he was slightly better than his brother Bobby, who co-drove with him for all three of his Escort titles, then won two World Challenge titles in 1990 and 1999, mainly because Tommy had some wins in professional series (three in Trans-Am, two in the highly competitive early ‘90s period, two ALMS class wins, and one FIA GT class win) while Bobby did not.
Case for: 14 Escort wins, 9 RaceTruck wins (which were in solo drives), 10 World Challenge wins, and the aforementioned 6 wins that were closer to major league series seem like a lot.
Case against: The problem is that the vast majority of his wins and titles came in minor league series. SCCA at its core is a series for amateurs and Archer’s career proves it as he was great (admittedly in a bunch of different series) against low-tier competition, but he was only merely okay against the Scott Sharps, Scott Pruetts, and Ron Fellows of the world and he didn’t last very long as a Trans-Am threat. He never came close to contending for a Trans-Am, FIA GT, or ALMS title and he never had any major class wins like the 12 Hours of Sebring that might make a stronger case for him.
Verdict: Drop. It is too difficult to distinguish most of his championship seasons from Bobby’s and have any idea who was contributing what. His 198 Trans-Am laps led aren’t very compelling to me, especially since 71 came in the 2001 season after the manufacturers left when the series wasn’t competitive anymore. His three ALMS wins seem all right until you realize that his Oreca teammates all won more, with Olivier Beretta winning 14 times, Karl Wendlinger 12, and David Donohue 4. Ultimately, there isn’t enough to distinguish him from too many other sports car drivers.
Art Arfons (15)
Summary: Arfons traded off world land speed records with Craig Breedlove, who I have already covered, setting three world land speed records to Breedlove’s five.
Case for: While many people presumably think I shouldn’t include world land speed record holders on this list, I think I should because historically, many if not most of the land speed record holders were also dominant in circuit racing, even if this was no longer true by the Breedlove/Arfons era. Arfons, Breedlove, and Andy Green were the only drivers to set multiple such records after World War II and I don’t feel Green really deserves it since he was mostly only competing against himself even though he was the only driver to break the sound barrier, so it’s not a long list.
Case against: It basically comes down to how many points I think Arfons’s accomplishments are worth. In the post-World War II period, I gave an E grade (10 points) to anyone who set multiple land speed records in the same year, and an E- grade (5 points) to anyone who set a single land speed record in a year. Breedlove set one in ‘63, two in ‘64, and two in ‘65 for a grand total of 25 points and lock status. Arfons set two in ‘64 and one in ‘65, which puts him at 15 just shy of my current threshold of 17. But if I decide to give both of them elite grades for both seasons since they were basically even (which I may), then Arfons moves to 20.
Verdict: Keep. I think if I’m going to have Breedlove, I need to have Arfons also. I’m not convinced this really applies to Green though.
Richard Attwood (15)
Summary: Most successful as a sports car driver, but successful as an open wheel driver to a lesser extent, Attwood co-drove Porsche’s first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hans Herrmann in 1970, winning two overall World Sportscar Championship wins and four more in class. He also won five races in South Africa’s Springbok Series, including three wins in its marquee event, the 9 Hours of Kyalami. As an open wheel driver, his career highlight is winning his Tasman Series debut in 1966 for BRM in a race where that era’s best F1 driver Jim Clark finished second. In F1, he finished second at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix for BRM and set the fastest lap.
Case for: He beat Jim Clark straight up at a time when not many people were doing that. Contributing to Porsche’s first Le Mans win is a big deal. I only recently discovered the Springbok Series a few days ago and now knowing about all his wins there, that might be worth a couple more points. His .051 open wheel rating is pretty solid, especially considering open wheel racing wasn’t his main “thing”. He feels like a driver I should list on reputation alone.
Case against: It does seem like BRM had the fastest cars that year since Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill swept the top two in Tasman Series points (even though Hill missed three races, where Attwood filled in), so maybe beating Clark in a faster car than Clark’s isn’t as impressive as I’m making it, especially since Stewart retired from that race. Attwood was a good sports car driver, but I believe people give Herrmann most of the credit for developing Porsche’s since he was a better sports car driver and one of the first sports car triple crown winners. His open wheel rating is solid, but it’s nowhere near enough to make him a lock, especially considering his relatively short career. It’s always difficult to determine which driver was contributing to multi-driver sports car teams, so I suspect a lot of my final cuts will be sports car drivers for that reason.
Verdict: Keep. I find both my cases for and against roughly equally convincing, and I can’t make up my mind on this one. I need to do more research, but I don’t think I have enough evidence to eliminate him yet.
Oscar Aventín (15)
Summary: Member of an Argentine touring car dynasty where he, his brother Antonio, and his son Diego all won Turismo Carretera titles, with Antonio winning the 1980 TC title and 10 wins, Oscar winning the 1991 and 1992 TC titles and 24 wins, and Diego winning the 2013 TC title and 16 wins. I think Diego was the best of the three since he also had a Top Race title and 24 wins as well in addition to two wins in TC2000. I have Diego as a lock because he won in all three of the then-major league series while the other two won in TC alone. I definitely think Oscar is better than Antonio, who I think isn’t even on the bubble.
Case for: I’ve always rated the Argentine racing scene higher than most people do, I think most of the Turismo Carretera champions should make the list, and he won the title twice. 24 wins are arguably too much to ignore.
Case against: However, by the time Aventín was competing, there were two different series vying for supremacy in Argentina (TC and TC2000) and I definitely rate the drivers who competed and won in both higher than those who won in TC alone (which is why I rate Diego over him, even though Oscar had more wins and titles in TC). Furthermore, the most dominant driver of his era, Juan María Traverso (who won six TC titles and seven TC2000 titles), was competing (and dominating) in TC2000 for most of Aventín’s heyday while Traverso was not simultaneously competing against Aventín in TC at that time (or at the very least he was doing so very rarely).
Verdict: Drop. The comparison with Traverso tells the story here. Aventín’s entire career lasted from 1979-1993 and Traverso was competing full-time in TC2000 (which Aventín never competed in) for almost that entire period, except for 1983, when Traverso did briefly return to TC (a year Aventín went winless, by the way). I can’t help thinking that if Traverso (who won six TC2000 titles from 1986-1993) had been competing in TC at the same time, Aventin would have been vastly less successful and would have no business being on this list. Which is why I think he shouldn’t be on despite his vast success.
