Some favorite underrated drivers?

[yodog21284]

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

yes alot of people are like that

 

[moppenheimer]

Yeley had 2 full seasons in the 18 and didnt do anything with it...

 

[yodog21284]

yeah he kinda had his chance

 

[Mo Neenja31]

Travis Kvapil, Robby Gordon, Dave Blaney, JJ Yeley, David Stremme and Reed Sorenson are really underrated IMO.
Travis didn't have alot of sucess in his rookie year when he was driving the #77 Kodak Dodge for Penske in '05, but he was a rookie. But then he changed rides in his 2nd season to drive the 32 Tide chevy and he was basically mediocre...He went back to trucks to dirve for Roush and he had some sucess but he couldn't get decent rides in Cup.

 

[labontefanboy]

Imo Kvapil is not good enough for Cup. He's never struck me as talented. Granted, he hasn't had good equipment, and Penske wasn't fantastic when he ran there, although they were still a Chase caliber team. He still crashes a lot, and he's had the experience to get past wrecking. He blows tires on an almost weekly basis (I know that's little extreme, but you know what I mean), and that's a combination of bad equipment, a bad driving style, a bad setup, and not giving good feedback to his crew. Lots of times the backmarkers blow tires, and DW once mentioned that it was a camber issue because the top teams almost never have tire failures; they're always catastrophic. He should probably just stick to trucks where he's proven his talent and he can get a decent ride. I doubt he'll ever get a chance in a quality ride because he's just not impressive and there are other vets out there who won't tear up cars like Kvapil has a tendency to do. Like what Sadler did, he should race Nationwide and Trucks where he can at least have a shot to contend.

 

[4WideRacing]

Yeley had 2 full seasons in the 18 and didnt do anything with it...

The same #18 Bobby Labonte left because of poor performances.

 

[moppenheimer]

The same #18 Bobby Labonte left because of poor performances.

Your point? If you're saying the eq was bad, A: Smoke was winning lots of races and a Championship during that period, as well as Denny winning, and B: Kyle Busch won 8 races in the same car a year later...

 

[Clutch]

The same #18 Bobby Labonte left because of poor performances.

And then the same #18 that won 8 races the year after Yeley left...

Edit: DAMNIT MOPP

 

[4WideRacing]

Your point? If you're saying the eq was bad, A: Smoke was winning lots of races and a Championship during that period, as well as Denny winning, and B: Kyle Busch won 8 races in the same car a year later...

And then the same #18 that won 8 races the year after Yeley left...

Edit: DAMNIT MOPP

The #11, #18, and #20 teams are different teams. And don't forget that 2008 was the first year Kyle was at JGR and was the first year of Toyota with JGR. So it wasn't really the same.

 

[moppenheimer]

The #11, #18, and #20 teams are different teams. And don't forget that 2008 was the first year Kyle was at JGR and was the first year of Toyota with JGR. So it wasn't really the same.

Yes they are different teams, but it is really rare that 1 of 3 teams is getting bad stuff while the others are getting title caliber stuff....It is even rarer that a team has such bad cars one year, then has the best cars the next...

Yeley never won a truck race, he never won a NNS race and (omg shockingly) never won a Cup race...He had his shot, he didnt get it done.

 

[nascarfreak88]

About the #18, I heard JG would give that car the loose setups that Tony loved and Bobby and JJ absolutely hated.

 

[nascarfreak88]

Yes they are different teams, but it is really rare that 1 of 3 teams is getting bad stuff while the others are getting title caliber stuff....It is even rarer that a team has such bad cars one year, then has the best cars the next...

How about Roush, late 90's?

 

[Shift]

About the #18, I heard JG would give that car the loose setups that Tony loved and Bobby and JJ absolutely hated.

Well, Bobby couldn't have hated it too much...I mean, he did win the title in 2000.


I honestly find it hard to believe though that people consider Yeley an underrated driver.

Yeley's first (and only) two full-time seasons with JGR: 1 pole, o wins, 1 top 5, 6 top 10s.
Best Standings Result: 21st.

Hamlin's first two full-time seasons with JGR: 4 poles, 3 wins, 20 top 5s, 38 top 10s.
Best Standings Result: 3rd.

Logano's first full-time two seasons with JGR: 1 pole, 1 win (Thank Zippy), 10 top 5s, 23 top 10s.
Best Standings Result: 16th.

Stats from Racing-Reference.

Remember, this is one of the top teams in NASCAR as well....it's not like he was Regan Smith driving for Furniture Row.

 

[labontefanboy]

Yeley never won a truck race, he never won a NNS race and (omg shockingly) never won a Cup race...He had his shot, he didnt get it done.

I totally agree. Yeley's only two top 5's in his career came in fuel mileage races as well.

 

[BCHR]

Regan Smith is really underrated. Look at how far that team has come the past couple years.