July 19th, 2010 
T.C. By now, I’m sure most of you have heard the audio from Bristol earlier in the season where Lance McGrew keys his mic and tells Dale Jr. to not lay down on him. The team was facing some adversity with track position, and McGrew was afraid Dale Jr. had thrown in the towel for the race. In typical Earnhardt fashion, Jr. responds angrily with a few choice words for his crew chief, and tells him not to talk about this stuff on the radio. While it may have been a stupid thing to say, McGrew’s fears were not unfounded. There are plenty of drivers out there who, when faced with adversity, will just plain give up.
I’m not going to name any names in this post, but I’m sure if you pay attention to the drivers and get to listen to some scanner audio, you could probably figure it out for yourself. To me personally, there isn’t a bigger sin in any form of competition than to give up. If somebody is just going to give up when the going gets tough, then they shouldn’t be be competing.
I don’t know at what point a driver decides that this is okay behavior, but somewhere along the way some decide that unless the car is handling perfect and the race is playing out in their favor, they can lay down. It’s sort of a “well since the car sucks and we aren’t going to win anyway, I don’t need to try” attitude. For those who work long hours and bust their asses to build race cars, it’s pretty much a giant slap in the face.
What’s interesting to note about drivers and adversity, is that while some choose to give up, there are others who fight harder. That’s the guy I want to work with. It’s a horrible cliche, but “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” describes these guys. We’ve seen plenty of times over the years where a driver got flat, or had a bad pit stop, or was involved in a wreck, only to fight back and finish top ten, top five, or even win.
The fact that this happens at all really makes me ill. It makes me feel bad for the guys that work on the teams with these drivers. How do you possibly stay motivated to perform at your best when you know your driver is just out there riding around waiting for the race to end?
So to all the race drivers out there, remember that it’s not just about you. If you want max effort from your crew all the time, then you should give them nothing less than max effort behind the wheel. Anything less is unacceptable.
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Great racing topic.
Great racing message.
Great living life message.
Great relationship message.
I think the key is communicating that idea while keeping the driver in his element. In the zone. Lance had the right idea; it just came out in a disruptive way to what he & the team were trying to accomplish.
It’s not easy keeping superstars 100% in their element, but when you do, you harness all their massive talent. Communication is at the heart of it. Pops & Tony Jr. did it.
I’m with you.
Go hard until the end and get everything you can… or stay at the house.
Why else be a racer?
That was something I liked about Dale Earnhardt, he might be 3 laps down with 20 laps to go, but he’d still be trying to pass someone.
It isn’t over until the checkers fly.
-W
Interesting insight. I have never looked at the drivers and teams from this perspective before. Would love to know how teams rate the drivers in this regard but I think I can guess some of the better drivers.
I attribute this fact that some drivers will “quit” to the lucrative contracts they have. They know they will make a good living regardless, and some of them just don’t have the drive to “go for it”. As an owner ,I would take notice , and if it happened very regularly the driver would not be working for me when his contract expired or sooner. It should be easy to figure out who is in this category.
A driver who never does that is Tony Stewart. After all he is now the owner. Just look at some of his finishing positions with a car you don’t see leading a race.
I honestly think thats what sets guys like Jimme Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart apart from the rest of the field. Those guys have a way of turning a awful day into a top 10. I cant count the number of times Ive seen Jimmie make a mistake or just run poorly all race and still end up with a great finish.
This is a defining piece of why some drivers have championships, some drivers will have championships, and some drivers will never have championships.
If racing motivation was still about “putting food on the table” rather than guaranteed money, in addition to glory, I think we’d see heckuva more competition.
Good topic. Kyle Busch had a terrible attitude last year. He definatley had “2nd is just the first loser”attitude…and it cost him the Chase. How many points was he behind Brian Vickers??? He learned the hard way. He certainly should have been in the Chase and his talent was much missed. This year his attitude has improved. This is modern NASCAR. Good team communication and keeping the everyone motivated is everything.
If you’re 20 laps down, sure… play it safe so you don’t screw up someone else’s day. But if you’re on the lead lap *anywhere* or *anywhere* near the lucky dog, you have to keep giving it everything.
How many times this year have we seen crazy wrecks push someone who was otherwise having a terrible day in to a lucky top 10 finish?
Strange that you would drag this out of the closet. I listen to JR. s scanner every race and I am amazed that he doesn’t “lay down”. He tells Lance over and over and over during the race what his car is doing and after 3 pit stops it still is not fixed and usually never fixed. Evidently Lance doesn’t know how to make adjustment or else the car is just so totally set up wrong that he can’t fix it. His usual response is 10/4 and gets mad if Jr. asks what changes he is making. I suppose at times Jr. could try to race harder but the times he has been kept out on the track with a bad handling car he usually ends up in the wall. Also he is not the type of driver that will race hard and wreck someone else when he has an ill handling car.
Just remember, without a great pit crew, and especially great tire changers, there is no hope for a driver doing well, no matter how he (or she ; ) feels about their chances of winning.
Great example of LAYING DOWN by Montoya at the Brickyard 400.
I picked that perinial loser quitter in my league (first time I ever picked him, becasue he had a great new fast light car)….. but they made a call to take 4 tires and the other 7 only took 2 tires, this put Montoya back to 8th…and what happened?
MONTOYA LAYED DOWN …
MONTOYA POUTED AND GOT SLOPPY AND WHINED AND CRIED AND THEN THE TEARS CLOUDED HIS VISION ….AND HE WRECKED OUT !!!
MONYOYA LAYED DOWN AND QUIT!!!!!!
WHAT A LOSER!!!
I DESPISE QUITTERS!!!!!
We were rewatching this occur tonight, and I dont have an issue with a mistake call made before the 20 LAPS TO GO.
I can acccept that they blew call taking 4 tires when the others took 2. Watching the pit lane, if Montoya had taken 2…he would have been gone with the wind ….. Instead he came out in 7th pace. Oh well, take it like a man.
THE REALLY COOL PART OF THIS IS …. Kurt Busch’s pit team put on 2 tires, and launched Kurt from 13th to 5th place !!!! with 20 to go ….FKN-AAAA!! Kurt has some badazz tire changin madmen !!! …. as advertised…
It was awesome to behold.
Kurt’s pit crew took him from 13th to 5th,
thank you pit crew… I dont care for Kurt, couldnt care a less, but I admire his pit crew..
anyway…after that…..
poor lil JuanePauttyMontWhineroya did not want anything but 1st …….. FIRST OR NOTHING …. She was so sad, she decided hiotting the wall and 32nd was better than 7th.
While #42 was at it, she wrecked up Jr and then he layed down. She did not even stop on pit road to fix the car LIKE JR DID !!!! ….. lil janey#42 pulled directly into the garage … WHAT A SISSY!!!!
anyway ..the cool part where was a pit stop with 20 laps to go, KurtsBush’s pit crew gained him 8 spots… amazing : ) Kurt finished in 10 place and lil janey was 32nd
Garry: You are flat wrong about Montoya. I don’t know why you think he laid down in in the 400, but what you saw was a driver on a mission to get back to the front. Hitting the wall out of turn four was a product of him driving over his head, not of a guy hell bent on wrecking his race car. He knew he had the best car, and he was going to do whatever it took to get back to the lead, even if it meant taking huge risks and possibly wrecking his race car.
I respect you enough to explain why I feel this way, and I could be wrong, but if there was ever a case (as you describe) of a driver laying down, Montoya did, from what I saw.
Montoya had 4 new tires and had been driving that same corner all day, perfectly. IF ANYTHING he should have been more in control. Biffle took 4 tires too and did not lay down, and finshed 3rd. Montoya had a better car and could have come back to do better than 32nd.
I fhe did not quit and lay down then why did he drive straight to the garage versus stopping on pit lane to see if he could get the car going again?
Junior stopped and tried to fix his car but Montoya ran crying as fast as he could, without talking to reporters, back to his hauler….. He was so mad because of the mistake of taking 4 tires.
Montoya did what your article describes, in my opinion anyway. I could be flat wrong, but I can explain my position.