How difficult was it to see how great Davidson’s Stephen Curry played in this year’s NCAA Tournament?
Not that hard, right?
He scored a bunch of points, made a slew of great plays. It was all right there in front of us. Even the novice fan could flip on a Davidson game and immediately pick out the best player on the court.
The same can’t be said of a NASCAR race. Jeff Gordon is great, but other than driving to victory lane, how does the novice fan – or even a diehard fan, for that matter – distinguish what Gordon does from the rest of the field?
To some degree, it’s true that a NASCAR driver is only as good as the car he’s driving. But being inside the car, the driver is not visible, so we have a tough time judging his abilities. So how do you identify the talent of a driver who’s capable of wheeling a decent car – maybe a top-10 – into victory lane?
A simple way to evaluate driver talent is to look at who’s won races on a variety of track types – short tracks, road courses and restrictor-plate tracks. Each is a unique discipline and requires different techniques to win. Gordon and Tony Stewart are two drivers who have mastered all types of tracks.
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