Champions Traits Story and photos by Dwight Drum
© 2004-7 Dwight Drum Web work by Larsen & Drum
NASCAR Contenders, Veterans
David Green Greg Biffle Todd Bodine Michael Waltrip Elliott Sadler Kyle Petty
Champion Traits Quest
Two active seasons in top sanctions gathering nearly 150 answers from highly skilled motorsports racers to one champion-traits question has produced many thoughts and no simple explanation.
The basis behind the single question is looking for a way to measure the complex human ingredients it takes to produce a top sanction champion. If found there would be a mad rush to buy the formula. As we know life and science works in other ways.
That knowledge didn't stop the question or the answers.
One question never needs asking. It takes a very brave person to have the fire to fly on a solid racetrack. The question asked results in many reasons in many minds. The only consolation to this dedicated quest is the more answers, the better.
That said, smart drivers have a bright way of defining what it takes to be the best. Their thoughts are worthy of attention.
Juan Pablo Montoyo Boris Said Ken Schrader Ward Burton David Reutimann Buzzie Reutimann
“We’re all crazy, for starters.”
Greg Biffle
He could see a lot of things happening behind him."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
"They just got it."
Ken Schrader
"Smart enough to get into a fast car and smart enough to surround themselves with smart people."
Michael Waltrip
"Just focus on nothing but the race car."
Scott Riggs
Scott Riggs Dave Blaney Mike Bliss Mike Wallace Marcus Ambrose Ricky Rudd Max Papis
THE Question: Do you believe that NASCAR champions have common traits and abilities, and if so could you identify a few? Something that sets them apart?
David Green (Champion)
"I'd like to think that there is something there. I think the era that you do the championship in obviously it's fluid; meaning what we had to accomplish in 94 when I won the championship is no different that what you have to do now for the most part. Everybody says back then it was easier and now it's more competitive, whatever. It's still the same motions that you have to go through. Yeah, I think the traits are there. You look at all those guys. They started out on their own, working and building their own cars. Maybe they didn't have the silver spoon right off the gitgo. You had to kind of work for it and understand what all that work did in the big scheme of things, not only just winning races but championships. I'd have to say that's the No. 1 ingredient across the board with all those guys."
Todd Bodine (Champion)
"That's a good question. I think anybody in motorsports has kind of the same of traits. Obviously your hand-eye coordination has to be top notch. You have to be able to think and determine the status of a situation in a split second and make a determination of what you are supposed to do. I think all of us understand the value and the position that we're in with our sport, the media and the fans. We embrace and understand that's what makes our sport different from stick-and-ball sports is the accessibility of us to the media and to the fans. That's what sets us apart."
Ted Musgrave (Champion)
"I don't know if there is anything defining. I think if you look at the champions, most of them in the Craftsman Truck series are veterans that have been around a long time that know how to pace themselves and finish races, more or less take care of equipment and not take that ultimate big risk. OK I know I can't get first today but I'm going to salvage a top 5, top 3 out of it because it's going to be a good points day. Methodically thinking drivers are usually the ones that get to the top and turn out to be champions. I think that's the big key and that's the trait that a lot of them have."
Ron Hornaday (Champion)
"Yeah, your team. You're only as good as your team now days. You go out there you just got to keep your nose clean and keep operating. When we won the championships, no DNF's and just run up front. Those kind of drivers are going to win this thing. You've got to have a great team behind you to do any kind of racing any more when it comes to winning championships."
Greg Biffle (Champion)
"I see a little tiny bit, but what I see is those traits and abilities in about all of the top-10 drivers. I see those traits and abilities in Jimmie Johnson, in Ryan Newman, in Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, myself. I see stuff that makes us look similar. I wouldn't say we all think alike and we all do alike, but there are certain characteristics that make these competitive people kind of the same. I think one, we're all crazy, for starters. I see it in a lot of race-car drivers. It's a certain breed. I honestly think that. In anybody that's in Nextel Cup or most of the Busch Series, I see just certain things about the people that make them a race car driver."
Kyle Petty
You know, I think being around Richard Petty my whole life, being around David Pearson and Bobby Isaac and guys like that when I was younger, and then being around Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett, guys who have won in my time, you know, and basically almost two different generations. I think when you look at it, it's just obviously they have tons of talent, they have tons of ability and all that. But somewhere deep inside they have a desire that's just maybe a little bit different, maybe a little bit more intense, maybe a little bit more drive to get the job done. You know that when it gets down to the very end, they have got a little bit left in reserve where some other guys just don't have it, you're on the line all the time and they are running along right beside of you with a little bit left in reserve and they just reach down and grab a little bit deeper sometimes."
Juan Pablo Montoya
"I don't think you can really identify any, but I think if you can driver one car you can drive another. Look at Jeff Gordon here (Rolex 24 Test) he has been really competitive and look at Jeff when he got into in F1, he was quick straight away as well. I don't think there is a big secret there, you know, you can either do it or you don't. It's that simple."
Michael Waltrip
"Smart enough to get into a fast car and smart enough to surround themselves with smart people and when they get those opportunities, they're good enough to take advantage of them. I guess that's the key to a champion, getting the opportunity and taking advantage of it.
Boris Said
"Not at all. I always study Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon and I haven't figured it out yet what makes them so fast. I don't know. They are just really good at taking one of these cars and put them on the very edge."
Ken Schrader
"I have to be truthful a good racer, they just got it. I mean it's not just any kind of sport or anything. They just got a desire to be the best and beat everybody. Obviously they're good and they're hooked up with good equipment and good people. We all got the same equipment in there, it's just the people that you get to work on it and how they work together to come up with the team. The team is the key factor.
"There are a lot of guys - I mean you could never look at Mark Martin without a championship and say that what was he lacking? Because he ain't lacking nothing. He's got more of everything than most other guys got, but it's just that it's a matter of being in the right situation at the right time and everything falling into place.
Ward Burton
"I certainly think they have a strong desire to be successful in different things. I think a lot of it is the situation has afforded them to be around the kind of people that make them a champion. This is not a sport of a bunch of 'I's', it a sport of a bunch of 'we's'. We win championships not a single person."
Mike Wallace
"I think champions are identified just by that. As a champion what they do in the race world, first of all is have a tremendous desire and passion for what you're doing. Number two you are totally dedicated to paying attention to what the race car is doing all the time. If you can help teammates the best you can then you are very competitive. Second is not OK to a champion. I won the Winston Racing Series Championship. I won 21 out of 26 races. Winning was everything."
Scott Riggs
"I think the thing that all champions that win the championships, that win races, I think the biggest thing is the mental side. I think keeping your confidence where it needs to be, keeping your team's attitude, being a leader for the team like you need to, those are things all the champions seem to do and do well. I think it's easy to get down about last weekend or get confused about some changes you might have made and sort of get you off track. I think the people that keep their minds simplest and just focus on nothing but the race car, the way you need to drive the race car.
"Believe it or not, you can go from one race to the next and actually have to drive your race car a lot different, not because the car's different or the setup's that much different, but if the tire or the track conditions are that much different, I think those are things that are the hardest things to read. The way the tire compounds and the tire constructions change from week to week, I think keeping up with what those tires are going to feel like, no matter if you have a good race car or bad race car, being able to define and keep the difference between what the tire feels like and what your car feels like, those are the hard things to do and stay confident about."
Ricky Rudd
"I think if you sort through champions in any sport, it doesn't matter if it's racing, ball sports it doesn't really matter. It really gets down to a lot of guys have the ability and it all gets back to determination and the sacrifices people make to succeed in whatever they're doing. I think it's more mental and determination than it is so much ability. When you get a garage full of guys like this they all have abilities. It's how bad you want it."
David Gilliland
"Yeah, patience, you know. Part of being a champion you have to have patience because throughout the year there are so many trails and tribulations that you go through. I think patience. I think they are all really good people, good drivers. It takes a special person to be a champion. Unfortunately I haven't been a champion yet, but that's what we are working towards. I copy guys like Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth and them guys each week is what I've been doing, because I want to be a champion."
David Reutimann
"Number one, I think they have the undying desire to do it, because you're going to have a lot more bad days than you're going to have good. You have to the burning desire to just never give up and just keep your head down and work hard and do without a lot of things to get to the point where you are quote, unquote made it or whatever they call it. Any champion I think can look back behind him at the sacrifices that people made for them to race. The sacrifices that they have made to lead a certain life and to do a certain thing which is racing, because it consumes all your time.
"I just think you have to be just completely dedicated to doing one thing and do it well."
Buzzie Reutimann
"All champions have that desire to win. Some where imbedded in there when you get behind that wheel you have a killer instinct. It's also the feeling you get accomplishing what you set out to do. It's no other feeling like that in the world. Some times racing I think is like a football player a place kicker that's going to win the Superbowl in the last second with a 50 yard field goal. I think that's the way it feels every lap when you race. Maybe that's why we do it."
Dave Blaney
"I'm sure they do, if you sat them all down in front of a psychiatrist. As far a me looking at it, yeah you got to have belief in yourself, your talents, your abilities, a lot of confidence. It's just really being smart and doing the right thing at the right time."
Jason Leffler
"I think your work ethic is it. A lot of champions do whatever it takes to win. They're very competitive people in general. Most champions are really aggressive on the side of maybe a bit too aggressive at times. But that's how you win races. You've got to be prepared to take that spot when someone else isn't or take a chance when someone else isn't. You can go down the line, but obviously I think you can see a championship caliber driver early on in his career."
David Stremme
"Oh definitely, especially getting to see Juan Pablo Montoya come over. He has won in the Cart Series. He has competed in Formula. He has brought a lot to our team just mentally on the thinking processes and different things. I think that's going to help myself this year having him as a teammate. They can say he is a rookie, but he is not in motorsports. He definitely carries a champion mentality and it's rubbing off on us and hopefully one of the three of us can contend for a championship in the Chase and go for that."
Marcus Ambrose
"Well, we all talk to each other, which is a good thing. Just last weekend you had Sam Hornish, current Indy 500 champion, and he was one the greatest drivers I've ever seen on any racetrack in IRL cars. He gets in a Busch deal and does good, but he's another driver out there and he doesn't win the race and wasn't really in contention so it shows you how unique NASCAR is I think. If you get an IRL guy who is at the top of his game and comes in and does well, but doesn't set the world on fire. So has Juan Pablo, he's on a learning shuffle too. These guys are champions in their own right and we're all merging toward NASCAR. We're all here and we talk to each other and we respect each other.
"I think a great champion at football is going to have the same attributes as a great champion on a racetrack. So you don't even need to keep it in the motorsports deal, you go outside like great golfers. I read a lot of sports psychology books and I get a lot of why would you do that. Well, I can do better on the racetrack by following the similar principles that they teach great golfers. So you just never know."
Max Papis
"Oh yeah. Champions have the ability to pick out the right moment. They need to be aggressive but at the same time you need to know when is your moment and when is not your moment. I definitely have to say that most of the champions have the same killer instinct, the instinct that when it's time to go you got to go. Doesn't matter what's in front. Doesn't matter the caliber of the car that's in front. Doesn't matter what it takes to make it happen."
Michel Jourdain, Jr.
"I think in all sports you have got to have natural ability for being good at what ever you are doing. But I think the mental part is very, very important. If you ask me I think that is what the most common thing in champions. They have great mentality. They do not crack under pressure and things like that."
Paul Tracy
"Oh. I think so. You look at a Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Tony Stewart. You can pout them in any type of motorsports, whether it's a dirt car or open-wheel or throw them into one of these (Grand Am car) and they'll pick it up right away. So the top level guys, you take the top five, six seven guys in any series and they can adapt to anything quickly. There are always different levels of drivers, high level guys and then mediocre guys and guys that struggle. That's kind of how it is."
Disclaimer: NASCAR® is a registered trademark owned and controlled by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. Nextel Cup and Sprint Cup are registered trademarks. The operators of this site are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the NASCAR organization. The Official NASCAR® website is NASCAR ONLINE® at: www.nascar.com.