Posted: May 13, 2006
Speedway Media Online

There’s a saying that women only like NASCAR for the driver’s looks. You know the old saying – we just watch for the cute drivers and the pretty cars going around in circles. People say that women love the pin up good looks of people like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Carl Edwards. People see female fans at a race and automatically think they are there as ‘groupies’, only wanting to get in good with the drivers.

For some women, that’s true. There will always be the women who are only after one thing – that’s evident not only in NASCAR but music, basketball, and every other sport or past time where there are handsome men who make good money. It’s the same reason some men watch dirty movies. They aren’t interested in the great acting that takes place – they’re interested in what they see – the looks of that person.

But not all women are into NASCAR for that reason, looks, only.

There are many women, myself included, who love the sport for the same reasons that men do: the racing, the excitement, the knowledge, the speed, and the team work. There are women who sit and watch every lap of a race where there are some men who simply watch the last twenty laps. There are women who stand for the entire 500 lap race, shouting at the track every time the cars pass when some men simply sit back and enjoy a beer.

But some women can’t deny that there are some very attractive men in this sport.

So I took it upon myself to create ‘The Perfect NASCAR Driver’. He should consist of not only looks, but driving abilities, sense of direction, attitude, personality, and their knowledge of the sport that they are in.

We will start with the most important qualities first…

o Driving Ability – The perfect NASCAR driver’s driving ability should favor that of Tony Stewart or Dale Earnhardt.  The two-time champion and seven-time champion are two of the best drivers in NASCAR history. A small bit of Mark Martin and Richard Petty should be thrown into the mix.

o Sense of Direction – Well Kasey Kahne certainly isn’t going to win this awards since he really likes running into the wall. As much as I hate to say it, Jeff Gordon has a good sense of direction – right to victory lane. Maybe that hasn’t been the case this year so far, but none the less, he knows his way there.

o Attitude – The perfect driver’s attitude should match that of Dale Earnhardt… the Intimidator. Need more be said?

o Personality – It would not match that of Kyle Busch who recently referred to female fans and some male fans as “pit lizards”. The perfect NASCAR driver would have the personality of Kenny “Herman” Wallace. He’s a loveable character who usually always can make you laugh.

o Knowledge of Cars – The first person that comes to mind is Rusty Wallace. The former Winston Cup Champion is the type of driver that knows about what he drives. He takes care of his machine because he remembers the days when he had to work on them himself.

o Knowledge of NASCAR – Every NASCAR fan may say that they have the best knowledge of NASCAR, but a lot of those would never be able to beat the knowledge of old school NASCAR that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has. The man even has his own television show, “Back In The Day with Dale, Jr.” that comes on SPEED where he shows old racing clips from the 60’s and 70’s. He knows his history and he knows it well. The only other person that could beat him are the people that lived it like Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, and Junior Johnson.

Now, let’s go for the looks, you know, that thing that all men say matters most to us women when picking a favorite driver.

o Hair – Jamie McMurray. Does that option need to be explained?

o Eyes – Casey Mears. If you’ve never looked into the blue eyes of this man in person, you’re missing out, seriously.

o Smile – Tony Stewart. That mischievous grin, you couldn’t ask for one better.

o Ears – Ha, not the Busch brothers.

o Body – This is where most people disagree… Carl Edwards would be the obviously choice to most, but some women aren’t attracted to that. So I’m going to go for just a little bit bigger version of Carl… Elliott Sadler.

Those aspects aren’t important when choosing a favorite driver, they’re just for fun and hopefully people will remember that.

What really matters when choosing a favorite driver are the factors listed at the beginning of this article: driving ability, sense of direction, attitude, personality, knowledge of cars, and knowledge of the sport.

Women are sometimes thrown into the “teenybopper mode” and are made fun of for liking the “poster boys” but it must be remembered that it’s not the case for all women.

Just remember, that for every women at a race track, lusting over a driver who she could care less if he drove a Ford or Chevy, there’s three women who are out there cheering for a driver because he’s just that… a great driver and to us women, that’s the perfect NASCAR driver.