Some favorite underrated drivers?

[nascarfreak88]

Who do you think is/has been underrated in NASCAR? My thoughts:
All the Wallaces
Herb Thomas
All the Flocks
Benny Parsons [known more as a broadcaster]
Ricky Rudd
Bobby Labonte
Matt Kenseth
Marcos Ambrose
AJ Allmendinger

 

[The Captain]

Kenny Schrader. He may not have turned NASCAR on it's head, but the guy will race just about anything with wheels and has done about as well as you could expect that new 32 team to do.

 

[Mike24]

Robby Gordon.

The dude can flat out drive ANYTHING. Stock cars, indy cars, off-road racing trucks, sports cars...

In the Cup garage today, in terms of raw talent/driving ability, he is up in the top 5.

Unfortunately, on the Cup level, he's never been able to refine it, or have a very competitive ride to reach his full potential...but he is still immensely talented.

 

[DBReaver35]

Casey Atwood, and Roy "Buckshot" Jones, I thought were good drives just didnt get the right breaks with the right teams.

 

[Blazityler]

Robby Gordon.

The dude can flat out drive ANYTHING. Stock cars, indy cars, off-road racing trucks, sports cars...
.

Oh... You mean that one guy that crashes on lap 3 in every race??? I'd agree he is really great at off-road driver but he hasn't proved anything to me in Nascar except that he can be a idiot at times.

Anyways I pick Dave Blaney,(Tommy Baldwin) they have been piling some great finishes recently and are probably one year behind Front Row Motorsports.

 

[nascarfreak88]

Casey Atwood, and Roy "Buckshot" Jones, I thought were good drives just didnt get the right breaks with the right teams.

Without a doubt both of them have a good place in my mind. Casey needed something better to break out than Evernham [I read he turned down Hendrick], and Buckshot was a great aggressive driver who always drove mom n pop equipment.

 

[David24]

Oh... You mean that one guy that crashes on lap 3 in every race??? I'd agree he is really great at off-road driver but he hasn't proved anything to me in Nascar except that he can be a idiot at times.

Keep in mind Robby has three wins in Cup. People seem to forget that since he has ran that number seven car out of his own team since what, 2006? He did fairly well at RCR.

 

[Carl Robinson]

Have to agree with some on the Robby Gordon Thing...He has some great talent he just needs great equipment behind him

Also Micheal Mcdowell i would say as my favorite underrated driver..along with casey mears.

 

[Mike24]

Keep in mind Robby has three wins in Cup. People seem to forget that since he has ran that number seven car out of his own team since what, 2006? He did fairly well at RCR.

Exactly.

When he drove the #31 for RCR, he showcased a sliver of his talent. Keep in mind that this was when RCR was still rebuilding itself, when all focus was on the 29 car...and the 31 and 30 were just second and third tier in the pecking order.

Robby also had some decent runs when he drove the 40 for Sabco back in the mid-90s.


Given a better opportunity in Cup, and more stability in his rides....there is no question in my mind that Robby could have won at lot of races over his career, and could have finished in the top 10 in points more often than not.

 

[MONSTARR]

Dave Blaney, finally starting to show some success in the higher levels in sub par equipment, although TBR is on the rise and Dave was just the driver that this team needed, and well he needed TBR. Dave can flat out drive anything, and it saddens me that he wont be at the all star open, because he is excellent at charlotte.

well thats the 2 pennies from a Blaney mark, so yeah. lol

 

[coltsfan93]

My favorite underrated driver is Joe Nemechek. It sucks that a lot of people only know him as a Cup Start-and-parker but this guy can really drive. He finished in the top 20 in the Nationwide Series almost every week without a sponsor. If he recieved a full-time sponsor in either the Sprint or Nationwide Series, I think not only could he contend for top 10's but possibly even a win at some of the tracks he does well at (Richmond, Kansas, Talladega).

 

[Phantomguy24]

Regan Smith anyone? Sure he's probably less underrated after winning at darlington, but his talent level still far exceeds what is expected.

 

[DannyM]

Out of the competitive drivers, it's Kenseth by far. But, my overall vote goes to Dave Blaney. Get him in a solid ride, plus some time to actually build chemistry, and I think he could easily be a top 12 driver.

 

[labontefanboy]

Blaney. He's got talent. He just needs a ride to showcase it.

 

[Jordan Robson]

I agree about Blaney. Aside from the RCR ride (keep in mind when he drove that car it really wasn't all that competitive) he has never really had a 'top tier' ride in NASCAR. I believe if given a better chance in better equipment, Blaney would have a couple wins by now. He should have 2 or 3 as it is when he drove the 93 Bill Davis car. Just didn't have the luck to go along with it.

Also, Robby Gordon. People hate on this guy all the time but they really don't know Robby Gordon and how much talent this guy has. RCR wasn't RCR when he drove for them. That 31 wasn't all that great even when Skinner drove it. But he won 3 races and did rather well. Throw him in a Hendrick car and he'd still be winning races today.

 

[Corey Carpenter]

Dale Jr and Danica Patrick

No, but really, Robby Gordon is really underrated imo. Like you guys said he was driving for RCR when they were using most of their stuff on the 29 and he still got a couple wins and some decent runs. I would of liked to see him run the top car for the top team when he was younger.

 

[yodog21284]

Brian Keselowski he hasn't had enough oppurtunity

 

[Mustang]

Travis Kvapil has lots of Talent, he needs to be put in a consistent car.

 

[yodog21284]

travis always over tightens his car that's how he gets the wall so much

 

[LightningGuy18]

David Gilliland and JJ Yeley. If given good enough equipment, they could definitely place high in the standings. Also Kvapil is awesome.