Is it money or talent that wins races?

Just watched Nascar Now and they were interviewing Rick Hendricks about the status of Jr's season. Hendrick said that there should be a turnaround in Jr.'s performance because he has over 550 people to draw help and information from. So, is it money or talent that wins races and how would Robby do with 550 people behind him?

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Permalink Reply by jack on March 29, 2009 at 10:58am

it takes both! plus lots of good racing LUCK.

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Permalink Reply by Blues on March 29, 2009 at 11:10am

550 people? That's crazy. The first thing for Robby to do would be to fire about 525 of them!

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Permalink Reply by TOG on March 29, 2009 at 11:21am

I'd rather have luck than 550 people

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Permalink Reply by wilks7 on March 29, 2009 at 8:06pm

HMS will let their trophies speak for themselves

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Permalink Reply by RG4ME on March 29, 2009 at 11:38am

Luck is huge in racing, but if I had that many people and that much money behind me, I would hope I'd be doing better than 27th in points.

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Permalink Reply by gorobbygo7 on March 29, 2009 at 11:41am

Maybe Juyner isn't that good........

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Permalink Reply by Ashley McCreary on March 29, 2009 at 1:11pm

He is not one of the 10 best drivers in CUP. Most of his wins have been where he can hold car wide open. i.e Talladega, Daytona or out of gas briefly Texas, Atlanta, Charlotte. 4th best driver at Hendrick, Newman, Stewart, Busch brothers, Edwards, Kenseth, RG all are better. Probably missed a few as well.

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Permalink Reply by Jaci on March 29, 2009 at 1:17pm

Fifth best driver at Hendrick, gotta count Tony.

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Permalink Reply by 7 Gordon 7 on March 29, 2009 at 1:38pm

I think you need both. Obviously top notch equipment helps you win but you can't do it if you aren't a bad ass driver too. Look at Robby's last year at RCR, finished like 12th in points, won a gatorade 125 and swept the two road courses. Equipment helps alot....but equipment alone (Casey Mears, Earnhardt JR) is not enough. You gotta be a wheel man too.

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Permalink Reply by JoCo on March 29, 2009 at 8:28pm

Talent wins races. Especially with the newer generation of car, there is less R&D that goes into aero and other things like that. No need for extended wind-tunnel testing, etc. No track testing so you can't just go practice on millions of dollars until you master tracks.

Plus, with the newer motors there isn't an enormous gap in performance. Even the old Dodge motors that RPM are still using aren't THAT much worse than a Gibbs Toyota, Yates Ford, or Earnhardt/Childress Chevrolet. Certainly not worse to the point that a superior driver in the inferior car would be unable to win.

It's said that in Formula 1, a good car is worth 10 seconds on the track, but a good driver is only worth 4. Point being that a mediocre driver in an amazing car could handle a great driver in a mediocre car--however, in NASCAR that's not the case

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Permalink Reply by GrayAntiMatter on March 30, 2009 at 5:34am

HMS was not a dominate team before JG arrived.

No one spent more money than Felix Sabates.

Just sayin.....

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on March 30, 2009 at 2:28am

its money and also Goodyear giving you hand picked tires. Don't see many flat tires from the big teams, yet plenty of flat tires from the smaller teams. But then again that is money talking. And about kyle busch, he has always been with big teams, how would he do with a smaller budget team. Its all money, and luck plays a small part in todays Na$car. Before luck played a bigger part, but now it is mostly money.