Throwdowns > Closed

Schad - Notorious Deadbeat said 04/10, 07:15 PM
Alright, I'm a bit out of my element, but I'll make a go of this:

1. Mark Martin. Constantly the bridesmaid, never the bride. 5 #2 in championship, 40 wins and 428 top tens.

2. Junior Johnson, 50 wins, 148 top tens, but wasn't ever higher than 5th in the season championship race.

3. Fireball Roberts. Tragically, career cut short, would have likely have won a championship, but didn't.

4. Ricky Rudd. 23 wins, 374 top 10's and finished 2nd in 1991 for the championship, won the ROY in 1977, and won the IROC championship in 1992. I know that the IROC championship isn't a NASCAR sponsored event, but these drivers were all in identical cars, yet Rudd was the one who won the championship that year. Tells me that with a better car, would have likely won a championship. These are the guys he beat, in identical equipment:

Dale Earnhardt
Al Unser Jr.
Rusty Wallace
Harry Gant
Geoff Brabham
Davey Allison
Davy Jones
Scott Pruett
Hurley Haywood
Pete Halsmer
Arie Luyendyk

5. Carl Edwards. 2 2nd place finishes in the Championship and has only been racing 1 year longer than Busch. Also only has 1 fewer win, 4 more top 5's and 15 more top 10's. Much more consistent.

Schad - Notorious Deadbeat said 04/12, 07:03 AM
Yes, IROC isn't NASCAR, but at the same time, the cars are identical and he beat several NASCAR drivers. Allison, Earhardt, Gant and Wallace. In identical cars. Yeah, that means something. Shows how good a driver he is.

Lorenzen: 12 years and had 84 top tens. That's 7 a year.
Rudd: 32 years and had 374 top tens. That's almost 12 a year.

Much more consistent. Lorenzen never finished 2nd in the championship, Rudd did in 1991.
I never said he had a "bad ride". Just saying with a better ride he would have won a championship.

Edwards>Busch.

First off, Edwards has already finished 2nd in championship points twice. He has only been racing 1 year longer. Edwards 1 fewer win, almost 20 more top tens and is currently 4th in points.

Busch? 8th.

Edwards is 2nd in the Nationwide series, Busch 3rd.

Edwards has already shown that he can have the consistency over a full year to win a championship, as shown by his multiple 2nd place finishes. The highest that Busch has ever had was 5th. He doesn't have the consistency.

Busch reminds me of a home run hitter who can't hit for average while Edwards won't hit as many dingers but will hit for a much higher average.

Schad - Notorious Deadbeat said 04/13, 07:24 AM
Well, as far as Edwards goes, he has a lot more top-10 finishes and only 1 fewer win. That shows that he is able to stay in contention and not screw himself out of a good finish.

There is a difference between being good and smart and good and stupid. Busch goes into the second category. When you drive in a manner that takes yourself out, you are stupid and aren't capable of winning a championship.

Age has nothing to do with this. Martin was contending into his 50's.

It isn't more wins, it's one more win. Just one. I'll take consistency over that. Just as you can screw yourself out of a win, you can fall into a win as well if something happens in front of you. Because Busch is too busy screwing himself, Edwards puts himself into a position to take advantage of this.

Busch knows the rules of the Chase. If he is too stupid to take that into account with his style, that's his problem, not the Chase. I find the idea of the Chase silly, but that's my opinion.

Right now, Edwards is ahead of Busch.

Oh, Rudd>Lorenzen. I really don't care if he was the first to $100,000. That is more a matter of timing than anything else.

Rudd is in the top-50 drivers as well.