Champion Traits Story and photos by Dwight Drum
© 2005-7 Dwight Drum Web work by Larsen & Drum
Interviewers: Dwight Drum & Debbie Speicher
37 Champions, 90 Contenders, One Question
Richard Petty Tony Stewart Mario Andretti Jeff Gordon A.J. Foyt Darrell Waltrip
In the fast world of motorsports often little measurable differences separate champions from close contenders. In the highly competitive sport of stock car racing lack of crashes often determine the right moves to grasp the championship trophy. In drag racing the timing of broken parts at high speeds can carry a champion to the next win down the straight track. In open-wheel racing crashes and broken parts during left and right turns can stop or thrust a championship quest. Motorsports has so many variables, human, mechanical, even weather conditions that influence the results of seasonal championships.
Champion Traits
If there were a way to measure the complex human ingredients it takes to produce a top sanction champion there would be a mad rush to buy the formula and hasty searches to find the drivers with the right mix. Life and science doesn't work that way.
Motorsports champions know a lot about driving, winning and communicating, but they can't be expected to identify all it really takes to excel to the top. The human and mechanical variables are simply too complicated. It takes a very brave person to have the fire to fly on a racetrack.
Junior Johnson Kevin Harvick John Force Mike Skinner Sam Hornish Jr. Frank Kimmel
37 Champions
Two seasons ago Dwight Drum asked Tony Stewart what it takes to be a champion. His answer sparked a question quest for professional racers that has generated more than 140 responses to one question. Some champions and drivers answered the same question at Darlington, the track "Too Tough To Tame" where many champions had skills tested and stretched. The King spoke out at Richmond. Andretti and Foyt were vocal at Daytona. Dozens answered at Homestead, Tallageda and Vegas.
Debbie Speciher and Drum asked many drivers via media teleconferences.
No one was expected to be able to identify all that can be known about the chemistry of a champion, but that didn't stop the question or the answers. Racer comments are revealing, especially when displayed one after the other. What wasn't apparent was that the sum of their thoughts could be hot fuel for a lasting learning search.
Time: 2005-2007
Source: Face-to-face questioning, teleconferences, media days, practice, testing and racing events
Racetracks: Daytona International Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Darlington Raceway, Richmond Raceway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gainesville Raceway, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Disney World
NASCAR, NHRA, IndyCar champions: Richard Petty, Tony Stewart, Mario Andretti, Jeff Gordon, A.J. Foyt, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Bobby Allison, Junior Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, John Force, Mike Skinner, Sam Hornish Jr., Dan Wheldon, Jeg Coughlin Jr., David Green, Brian Vickers, Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle, Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday, Ted Musgrave, Joe Amato, Tony Schumacher, Gary Scelzi, Tony Pedregon, Andrew Hines, Angelle Sampey, Gino Scali
THE QUESTION: Do you think that champions have common traits and abilities? If so, can you identify a few?
Tony Stewart
"Wow. I don't know. To be honest, I mean, you look at some of the other champions, we all have a desire to win or we wouldn't be champions. If you don't have that desire, you just won't be successful. I don't care how good you are, you have to have that feeling in your gut that you want to win every week when you go out there.
"I don't know. I mean, I think there's similarities and I think there's differences. That's just people in general. I'm not necessarily sure exactly what all those common traits are other than the fact that you want to be competitive and you want to win every race that you run."
Richard Petty
"No. Everybody's got their own personality. Everybody approaches it different. You can't compare David Pearson with Jeff Gordon or a Richard Petty with Earnhardt or any of that stuff. You know what I mean? We came at different times under different circumstances under a different show. You know what I mean? Everybody faces it a little bit differently. What you see on the racetrack is the guy's true personality. Okay. When you talk to him it's his true personality. He tries to make it come out as good as he can, but that's really what he's got.
"Champions are all winners, OK. I think a lot of times I'm a big believer in fate. Fate puts you in the right place in the right circumstances and the good Lord gives you the ability. The good ones take that all together and they become champions."
What do you think you've got that the average driver doesn't have?
"I'm older than they are."
Jeff Gordon
"I guess the trait is they have a sense and a way to find themselves winning races, surrounding themselves with good people and having confidence in their abilities." Can you identify what makes you a champion?"I would like and hope the things I mentioned. I know I've always been fortunate to get myself surrounded by good people and good equipment and being able to do a lot with it at the same time."
Mario Andretti
"I think we all have our different ways of approaching things, but I think it's passion. Passion for what you're doing will get you there and I think we all proudly share. And the will to win, the will to get it done. Not every race driver wins races. It's just how bad you want it. I guess some of us want it worse than others. That's what it comes down to, the willingness to get it done."
A.J. Foyt
"Well, not really. You know the difference between a race driver and champion is the guy who is a champion has got to drive a little bit harder every time he goes out."
Darrell Waltrip
"Yeah. I think the biggest thing is your persistence. You're optimistic. You're tenacious. And you just never give up. Championships are won by teams that never give up. It's easy to tear your car up, something happened to it, and throw it on the trailer. That's the thing. Championships are won by teams that have that never-give up attitude. You break something you fix it, you go back out. That's the norm and you don't let your attitude - Your attitude has everything to do with it. If you have a bad attitude you're going to have a bad day. If you have a good attitude, you take a bad situation and you turn it in to something good. I've seen it happen time and time again. It's a little easier today. Back in the day to get a lap down you had to earn it back. Nobody gave it back to you. Back in the day when you had problems you had to overcome them on your own. It's not quite as simple and easy as it is today."
Rusty Wallace
"I think a champion will understand when to run fast and when not to run fast. You got to be around at the end to win the race. You've got to have patience at the right times and aggressiveness at the right times. As long as you can balance all that, there's a lot of drivers that could be champions if they used those ways."
Bill Elliott
"I don't know. I think different people have different things. I don't know. I think it's a lot of luck."
Bobby Labonte
"Yeah, I think that -- you know, I think it's a deal where, you know, I think you just, when you win a championship, you just -- it clicks in you what it took to get there and the amount of patience that it took, the amount of pressure that it took, and the amount of, I mean, you know, by gosh, you'd better have it in you, or you're not going to get one, you know, type of deal. You know, I think that goes true from even way back then to now. The guys have that won championships always -- the thing has always been said, you've got to lose one before you win one, and it really is true. I know I finished second in the championship in '99 to Dale Jarrett. 2000, I won it. Man, I mean, it was like what an experience '99 was to get to 2000. And it took so much more and so much -- it wasn't the same thought process. It wasn't the same type of deal.
"So I think the fact that, know, when you look at the whole deal of it, there's only X amount of champions that there are going to be. There's a lot of drivers that are going to try but there's only a few that are going to be there and there's guys that, you know, can win multiple championships, they keep repeating, keep being up there to have a chance at it. You know, it's like Kyle said, you've got that little extra left in you, and you've got -- you're running at 110 percent all the time, and so is the guy beside you, and you don't know it, but you've still got a little bit left over; and that gets you that ten points today and 15 points tomorrow and 30 points the next week to add up at end of the year. It's definitely a different drive trying to win it than just, you know -- or winning it, it's a different drive than it is trying to win it. And once you win it, it's like, boy, I tell you what, that took these things to do instead of those things to do, I didn't realize when I was trying.
Dale Jarrett
"Oh, I don't know. I think we're all probably a little different. The common trait is the competitive nature. There's not one formula out there that you can say - that guy has all the traits of being a champion because we all go about it a little bit differently. The one thing we do have is that desire to win each and every week."
Matt Kenseth:
“I think everybody that runs in our sport in Nextel Cup has common traits and abilities. Obviously they can all drive stock cars and can compete on all the tracks we compete on and be competitive or they wouldn’t be in this sport at all.”
What traits do you have that stand out?
“I don’t know. Like I said, I think there are common traits and abilities to be able to do what we do at a competitive level and I don’t think that goes just for people who have won a championship. I think that goes for everybody we race against on a Sunday. I don’t think they’d be there if there weren’t some common traits and abilities.”
Jimmie Johnson
"I definitely think the drive to succeed is a common one. If you look at the champions over the past few years, they all have different personalities -- from Kurt (Busch) to Tony (Stewart) to Matt (Kenseth). But there is a drive inside that is common to every champion. I would even link that to other sports. The drive to be a champion is pretty common."
Kurt Busch
"Well, that's an interesting question. I would say that there's a select few individuals that are NASCAR champions. There's 27 of us that have reached this pinnacle, and it's something very special and we all get to share that fact and that glory of being the champion for such a hard fought season. And some of the traits and the qualities that I think a lot of them share, and as a matter of fact all of them have to share, is leadership qualities, whether it's when things go wrong, being able to put the team on your own back and carry them through; whether it's being able to pick the right crew guys and to point out when somebody is doing something very well and patting them on the back. Leadership quality is what makes a champion, and I think that's true in every sport."
Bobby Allison
"I think they have some common traits and abilities but I don't know how to identify them. They go around the personal commitment, personal talent, personal feel. I feel like each guy has to have some really keen personal feel of a car first of all. He's got to be really committed to put up with all of the things you have to put up with to end up being a champion. I think that's one thing that's probably pretty common from all the champions."
Junior Johnson
"It's hard to say. Some guys are not really sure how they won. The thing you know, they had a fast car and just happened to be in the right position in the right time. If you don't win this place (Daytona) you ain't succeeded in any thing national. It's just that tough."
John Force
"I think you have to live it, you have to be dedicated. You can see on my TV show that I haven't lived with my wife for about seven years but we're still married, still honeymooning. The racing, my life, you dedicate yourself to winning championships, try winning 10, and you find out that you give up everything, but that gut ache, every day of your life to win. And that's what Matt's [Kenseth] doing. He's out there fighting the fight and I'm really excited. It's a tough market out there in America today and we're all fighting to bring in the dollars, that's what it's all about. And trying to sell Ford Mustangs, or Taureses or Fusions, whatever's on the list. Mark Martin, that's what he's doing with AAA and Southern Cal and John Force and Matt Kenseth, that's what we're doing.
"Bottom line, it is tough, but you have to dedicate your life to it. You've got to live it. Sometimes the family, it is sad, they get put in the second seat. In NASCAR, there are 40 guys out there trying to beat you and in drag racing there's 30 out there trying to beat you, and you've got to focus on that every day. And it's hurt me in my race for the championship, the focus, because I focus so much on teaching the next generation of drivers. Robert Hight, that drives for us, has moved up to the top of the points chase with me and Ron Capps, and Eric Medlen, and now my daughter Ashley and my two younger girls that are still in college, driving Super Comp.
"But you live it every day. But it's really brought me and the wife closer, because they have finally realized what it was all about because now that the kids want it, she's loving it but she realizes it's full throttle, full dedication on the NHRA POWERade circuit, that's what we do. We race every day, and if you don't do it, you're not going to win."
Go There > MORE CHAMPS= 8 NHRA Champions Go There > MORE DRIVERS= 12 NNHRA Contenders
Kevin Harvick
"Oh I don't know. I guess all the champions win. That would be the main thing."
Mike Skinner
"Well, I don't know about that. I think the common trait is having the patience to put yourself in a position to win a championship and at the same time having the aggressiveness to be up there to win race, to finish in the top five. It's a mix of all of that and a lot of luck. I think you have to have some racing luck to go with it. From what I've seen trying to make your own luck is to get you in a fast car or truck, but you've got to have a little bit of luck on the race track."
Sam Hornish Jr:
"I think every champion has to have a certain amount of traits to be a champion, but I think everybody has a little different road on how to get there."
Frank Kimmel
"I think that anybody who has success in no matter what they do whether it's business or whatever has probably foremost determination. I think you just got to be determined to set a goal and go after it and achieve it. In racing I think patience is important when you run for championships and probably forgiveness and stuff on the racetrack is really important. You just can't get caught up in doing a lot of silly things just because I guess learning to control your emotions. There are probably a few of them."
Richard Childress
Richard Childress Racing
"Most of them are guys that are determined. They don't let pressure get to them. They want it bad enough to get out there and get it done."Do you look for those qualities in drivers you hire?
"I just got all kind of methods for that." Go There > MORE OWNERS= 8 Owners & CEOs
Grand Am Drivers Go There > DRIVERS= 9 Champs & Standouts
USAC Sprint Cars Go There > DRIVERS= 5 Champs and Standouts
USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series Go There > DRIVERS= 12 Champs and Standouts
Crew Chiefs and Team Members Go There > CREW= 4 Crew Chiefs & Crew
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