4 Burning Questions: The Greatest Driver Is Someone You’ve Never Heard Of

1. How many drivers could’ve been all-time greats in NASCAR but never got the chance?

After finishing 13th in last Saturday’s (Oct. 26) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Chandler Smith revealed that he doesn’t have a ride for next season and may have to give up racing altogether.

Pretending that we’re in a world where money is no object, Smith’s likely departure for Joe Gibbs Racing makes zero sense. He has two wins and 15 top fives on the year, and he still has a shot (albeit an outside one) at winning the championship.

He has put up results that would easily warrant an extension with the team, if not a ride elsewhere. And yet, the money’s not there.

This is nothing new in the grand scheme of auto racing, as it’s always been about the dollar signs. With how expensive it costs to even show up, sponsorship and other financial backing is a necessity.

Let’s also be clear: you would be hard pressed to find a true rags to riches story in the garage. Just about every driver had to have some money, some connections or some safety net to get started and make it this far. But there’s also a difference between having family construction company money (in the case of Smith) and having Fortune 500 company money. It’s not a good sign when the former isn’t enough to pay the bills.

I would be remiss not to mention how frustrating it is for auto racing to be so inaccessible. There are probably thousands of young children that have watched auto racing with dreams of becoming a race car driver, no matter how improbable the odds were. Some 10-15 years ago, I was one of them. Then I got older and found out that running a go kart for 8-10 minutes costs approximately 20 bucks.

Racing isn’t different from other sports in the grand scheme of things, because in today’s world, one needs money to have the best chances for success, whether it be stick and ball sports, swimming, athletics, gymnastics or anything else. Having access to the best coaches, trainers and programs isn’t free, and exceling at any sport requires a huge time commitment — a time commitment for something that only the top 0.0000001% can truly make a living off of. And if you don’t have that time or money, well, you’re out of luck.

But the difference between those sports and auto racing is that there are no additional hurdles for the athletes that have the skills to make it that far. The best players always get drafted to professional sports leagues from college and high school. The fastest swimmers and runners will always make the Olympics and the World Championships.

Being the best race car driver isn’t enough to succeed. Making the big leagues requires money, networking, timing and the perfect team. And when you have a Chandler Smith or a Corey Heim that have more than proved their worth for either an extension or a promotion, skill isn’t good enough on its own.

Let’s turn to late models, sprint cars and local short tracks. How many drivers in those ranks would be good enough to compete in NASCAR, but never had the chance to do so? How many Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty talents are in the local ranks today, with zero chance at upward mobility?

Better yet, how many potential Hall of Famers didn’t even have the money to own their own cars or race every week? How different would NASCAR (and all of racing) history be if money was no object and everyone had a fair shake? How many legends did we never get a chance to watch? How many drivers did we never get a chance to meet?

It’s something we’ll never know. And for all we know, the greatest driver to ever live could be someone that never picked up a steering wheel at all.

2. Can Denny Hamlin come in clutch at Martinsville after several years of near misses?

The story of short track racing in the 21st century can’t be told without Denny Hamlin, who has a total of 14 Cup wins (five at Martinsville Speedway, five at Richmond Raceway and four at Bristol Raceway) at NASCAR’s shortest ovals.

He has two wins a piece at Bristol and Richmond with the Next Gen car, and with an 18-point deficit to the playoff cut line heading into this Sunday (Nov. 3), there’s arguably no better place for Hamlin to point his way in or outright win.

But what’s not on his side is his recent fortune at the track. Hamlin’s most recent win at Martinsville was all the way back in 2015, and he has led 840 laps at the track since 2021 without a win to show for it.

For two straight years, the penultimate race of the season has ended in excruciating defeat. In 2022, he led 203 of the 500 laps and had faded to fifth at the finish, but he was still poised to make the Championship 4 by two points over Ross Chastain.

That is, until he got eliminated in a way that only Denny Hamlin could get eliminated.

Last year wasn’t an elimination that got replayed thousands of times, but Hamlin once again led the most laps (156) at Martinsville, only to fade to third behind winner Ryan Blaney, who went on to win it all the following week.

Hamlin certainly has the car and the race craft to make up 18 points, but he’s battling tough competition. The six drivers that are racing for the last two spots in the Championship 4 (Hamlin, Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Kyle Larson) have all won at Martinsville, and they’ve all won at Martinsville this decade — something that Hamlin cannot say.

Just like Homestead last weekend, Martinsville may very well come down to all six playoff hopefuls racing each other for the win. And in order to keep his title hopes alive in a championship window that continues to close each year, Hamlin is going to need the drive of his life on Sunday.

3. What can we expect out of the new personnel changes for the Wood Brothers & 23XI Racing?

After two wins and three seasons of working together, Bubba Wallace and crew chief Bootie Barker will be split at season’s end. Barker will move to an internal role with 23XI Racing and will be replaced by Charles Denike, crew chief for Christian Eckes who has dominated the Craftsman Truck Series in a breakout year, with three wins, 863 laps led and 20 top 10s in 21 races.

Though Wallace has set career highs in top fives (six) and top 10s (13) this season, it’s time to switch something up after a disappointing playoff miss. He now has a winless drought longer than two years, and while he has made steady progression in his four seasons at 23XI, he hasn’t been able to take that leap and have a breakout season the way teammate Tyler Reddick has.

Denike had two wins as a Truck crew chief before getting paired with Eckes in 2023, and the last two seasons have seen Eckes blossom from a semi-frequent contender for wins to a championship favorite and a week-in, week-out contender. On paper, Wallace should be set up for success next season.

As for the Wood Brothers, incoming driver Josh Berry will not have Jeremy Bullins as his crew chief next season, but rather Miles Stanley, who spent the last three seasons as Team Penske’s performance engineer manager.

Stanley’s two Cup races atop the box came with Joey Logano in 2017 on interim basis, but both races ended with crash DNFs.

For Berry, Stanely and the No. 21 team, the good news is that they can start on a clean slate with fewer expectations. Harrison Burton did score an upset win at Daytona International Speedway in August, but it’s otherwise been a dismal three years for the team.

Penske — whom the Wood Brothers have an alliance with — knows what it’s doing. They’ve hired in house, and they’re the two-time defending Cup champions with a chance for three in a row at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 10.

But one wrinkle in this story is the fact that Rodney Childers — arguably Ford’s most decorated crew chief who explicitly expressed a desire to continue working with Berry — instead walked to Spire Motorsports and Chevrolet.

Will be fascinating to see how the two teams perform as a result.

4. Is a one-race suspension for Conner Jones the correct decision?

Something needed to be done beyond the two-lap penalty Conner Jones received after intentionally wrecking Matt Mills at Homestead and sending him to the hospital for two days.

Fortunately, Mills was released and will be back racing this weekend; Jones will not.

NASCAR made the decision to suspend Jones for Friday’s (Nov. 1) Truck Series race at Martinsville, though he will be allowed to compete in the finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Even though I feel the wreck was worthy of sitting home for the final two weeks, I commend NASCAR for getting the call right.

All of the evidence was there, and Jones’ angry tirade on the radio regarding his frustration with Mills was the smoking gun for what went down. It’s been a while since a driver was suspended for an intentional wreck that wasn’t a right rear hook, but given the outcome, it absolutely warranted one.

Paying someone back at a short track is one thing, but intentionally wrecking someone at a high-speed 1.5-mile track is unacceptable. Drivers are not invincible, no matter how many safety improvements have been implemented over the last two decades. With how many safety improvements have been made, the fact that auto racing is still a matter of life or death seems to have been lost over time.

Let’s hope that this incident instills more common sense and more respect for fellow competitors behind the wheel, whether it’s by not intentionally wrecking someone at a dangerous speed or thinking twice before making haphazard, overly aggressive decisions that can lead to disaster. If there is any silver lining to what went down last weekend, please let it be that.