My, my.... The nose-in-the-air crowd likes to bash the NASCAR drivers, I see.
Maybe they might recall back in 2002 when Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson represented the USA in the Race of Champions. They won the Nation's cup, with a field containing no less than 6 F1 drivers. Moreover, they were driving cars they hadn't even seen until a couple of days prior, in a completely foreign format. Then there was Gordon matching Montoya's lap times in Montoya's Williams on the Indianapolis F1 course, never having driven an F1 car previously, and with less than 45 minutes of seat time. Montoya tried Gordon's car, with far less impressive results.
NASCAR has come light years from the redneck days... The fields are loaded with very good drivers, who have won in many different disciplines. Sprint cars, Midgets, Off Road, Indycar and road racing. Johnson has won 5 NASCAR championships in a row. No one else has won more than 3 in a row, and that happened only once. Gordon has four championships to his credit. F1 drivers have not been successful in NASCAR to date.. Montoya has the best result, but still can't win away from a road course.
On the other hand, we live in a country where Larry the Cable Guy's tour draws bigger crowds than an F1 race... But, that doesn't mean the top tier NASCAR drivers give up anything in talent to the F1 geeks... They don't. Just a different form of equally difficult motorsports.
