January 5th, 2009 
Journo Every so often some news organization does a 50 or 25 greatest drivers list. We have not done this (although I have thought about it), but reader Savannah sparked a good idea for how to do this a little differently. She asked:
If you could pick a fantasy racing league with 10 drivers from any time during the history of NASCAR, who would you both pick? Now, if you could pair these 10 drivers with any 10 crew chiefs from any time in NASCAR history, who would you choose? Now, what driver/ crew chief combination would you have? Lastly, what track would you pick to run your fantasy race?
So before I get into the list, I have a disclaimer. Instead of simply coming up with a list of different drivers and crew chiefs we matched up the driver with one of their actual crew chiefs. It is very hard to say that Kirk Shelmerdine would have been as successful with Jeff Gordon as he was with Dale Earnhardt and vice versa. As we have seen throughout history, success with one driver does not guarantee success with another driver. Now, on to the list.
Dale Earnhardt/Kirk Shelmerdine – I think this one is a no brainer. Dale Earnhardt without a doubt is one of the best drivers to ever get behind the wheel of a racecar. Earnhardt has 76 Cup Series wins and 7 championships. Shelmerdine, Earnhardt’s long-time crew chief was with him for four of those championships.
Richard Petty/Dale Inman- Again this one was another no brainer. Richard Petty has 200 wins and 7 championships. Inman was with him for 198 of those wins and all 7 of those championships. They are arguably the best driver/crew chief combo ever.
David Pearson/Jake Elder- David Pearson was also another no brainer to the list. He has 105 wins and three championships. If given the same equipment and support I would argue he would have had more wins and possibly championships than Richard Petty. We picked “Suitcase” Jake Elder because he was with Pearson during his 1968 and ’69 championships. Despite his lack of longevity at any team he is arguably one of the best crew chiefs the sport has ever seen.
Jeff Gordon/Ray Evernham- This is one of the great crew chief/driver pairings of all time. Together the two won 47 races and three championships. While Gordon went on to win another championship in 2001, he has never performed quite like he did when he was with Evernham.
Glenn ‘Fireball’ Roberts/Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick- This is the pairing of two of the greats of the sport. While they were only together for a very short time they were both very good at what they did. Fireball Roberts died as a result of burns sustained in the 1964 World 600, and Yunick quit NASCAR because of their failure to increase safety following the death of his friend. Who wouldn’t like to see these two together?
Darrell Waltrip/Jeff Hammond- No matter your feelings on either of these men, there is no doubting that they were good together. Between 1982 and 1992 the two racked up over 40 wins and two championships.
Bobby Allison/Gary Nelson- 1983 might not have been his best season wins wise, but it was the season he became a champion. The 85 time winner’s career was on its backside when he had that miracle season. As crew chief of Allison’s car that season, Gary Nelson (also former NASCAR Cup Series Director, VP of Competition and VP of R&D) deserves the right to be a crew chief in this race.
Tim Richmond/Harry Hyde- What I wouldn’t give to have Tim Richmond around today. While he never won a championship in his short life and career, he was far from his peak when he exited. Nine of his 13 wins came in those last two seasons with Harry Hyde. Oh what could have been.
Ned Jarrett/John Ervin- Gentleman Ned is the ‘Seinfeld’ of NASCAR. Exit while you’re still on top. The 50 time winner and two time champion saw most of his success in a six year period. Jarrett went on to become a storied broadcaster.
Junior Johnson/Ray Fox- Junior Johnson never won a championship (although he did win six as an owner) and he too retired in his prime. In just 313 starts Johnson had 50 wins, pretty good if you ask me. It is no wonder he had success considering he was paired with the likes of Ray Fox and Banjo Matthews.
Now there are certainly a ton of others that could be included in this list, but these are the ten TC and I would like to see in a race. As far as where we would have them race, we boiled it down to two different tracks. TC brought up North Wilkesboro, which all of these drivers raced at. We liked it because it is a classic short track and both of us are fans of short track racing.
Ultimately though we settled on Darlington Raceway, the track opened by legendary operator Harold Brasington in 1950. We chose this facility because it again is another track that all of our drivers not only raced at, but won at. It is also a track that is not easy to drive. They call it the “Lady in Black” for a reason. This pick though comes with a stipulation. We want the race to be run on the old pavement. After a few laps the tires were slick and the track was even harder to drive on. Any driver who could conquer that is ok in my book. We have no preference on which direction the race would be run.
Finally in addition to Savannah’s question we had to ask ourselves, “what cars would these drivers race?” We settled on the mid-80′s stock car. It is not quite the new ‘nothing stock’ race car, but it is also not a moonshine runner.
So now it is your turn. Tell us which driver and crew chief combo you think would win our fantasy race, assuming they were all in their prime, in the poll below. Also are there any driver/crew chiefs you you think should have been included in the list? Tell us what you think!
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Gordon/Evernham got my vote w/ Dale/Kirk a close 2nd, but the duo of Cole Trickle and Harry Hogge has to be the write in favorite, or maybe Stroker Ace and Lugs Harvey.
What about Cale Yarlboro and Tim Brewer. Woudn’t they atleast get an honorable mention?
Randy: Cale and Tim were certainly a good combo, and we considered them. But we were only allowed ten driver/crew chief combos, so there were a lot of good pairings we had to leave out. I’m sure you could ask this question to 100 people and get 100 different combos…
Still a work in progress but how about Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus?
I know Harry Hyde was a great Crew Chief, but I feel that there was NOONE better at driving a race car set up well or not, than Tim Richmond. Altho his carreer was short, he had the ability to make moves that were unmatched by any other driver in those cars.
On a side note, sorry to hear about the death of Sam Yunick (Smokey’s son) over the holidays. Anyone know what happened?
Everybody- This list was in no way a compilation of every great driver and crew chief combination. We had ten slots so we picked the ten drivers we would like to see in our fantasy race.
As TC said if you asked 100 people there would probably be 100 different answers. This list isn’t a work in progress, these are our picks.
As I said in the post there are a ton of great drivers that could have been included in the list. If we were picking the ten greatest drivers Tim Richmond would not have made the list. Not because he wasn’t good, but because he didn’t live long enough to make the impact that the others made.
While Dale Sr. amassed an outstanding resume the untimely death of Richmond certainly contributed to his domination of the sport. Either team would make a fine choice for top honors. My vote however, has to go to the driver responsible for my interest in Nascar as a boy….the Silver Fox David Pearson. Pearson to me is the definition of a stock car racer and it will forever haunt us Silver Fox fans that he did not race full time like his rivals. Oh what could have been. I fully agree with the 80″s version stock car. It still looked like your car in the driveway but allowed for competative racing at the same time.
From the choices, I’m going with Gordon/Evernham. Those two were dynamite together.
If we’re only looking at one track, Darlington, though, I’m just going to throw Ward Burton/Tommy Baldwin out there. I obviously don’t think this pairing ranks anywhere near those mentioned, not even close, they just had Darlington, a tricky track for both driver & CC to figure out, down pretty good.
Hmmm. No mention of Jimmie Johnson & Cheatin’ Chad Knauss?
Okay. I hope you guys aren’t affiliated with HMS. Nothing personal if you are!
Thank you for your picks for the GOAT.
There’s no possible doubt that David Pearson is top driver on this list, especially at Darlington, but I would have paired him with the Wood Bros.
I would have included Cale in Jr Johnson’s car in place of the Tim Richmond/Harry Hyde duo, which while great simply didn’t accumulate the numbers due to time.
And if you want to use Darlington you probably better put ol’ Buck Baker in play.
Then, just for grins, buy a fifth and give it to Curtis Turner along with anything with “Ford” written on it!
Damn good thread!