Who is your favorite driver and why?

June 1, 10:24 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Mark Martin was one of my first favorite NASCAR drivers Getty Images/Sam Greenwood

I would like to thank James who left a great comment on this column telling all of how he became first a Rusty Wallace fan, and now a Kurt Busch fan. There are limitless stories like this among the fans of NASCAR and now I the Detroit NASCAR Examiner would like to know all of yours.

Please leave a comment on this article telling not only me, but your fellow NASCAR fans who is your favorite driver and why.

To get the ball rolling I will start it off.

I started watching NASCAR in 1989 and got really into it in the early 1990’s. This was the time of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Mark Martin, for whatever reason I connected with Martin and by the time I graduated High School in 1994 I was emotionally invested into his success.

Through the 1992 and 1993 season I also became fans of one Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison. I thought Hooters and Havoline were great sponsors and living in Detroit, where your car company is like your religion, my family had always been a Ford family. It made a lot of sense for me to root for the top Ford drivers of the day.

After high school, and the tragedies that rocked the world of NASCAR in 1993 I kind of drifted in my NASCAR fan hood. We are now talking about the beginning of the multi Super teams of NASCAR and I was never that big of a fan of Wally Dallenbach or Ted Musgrave who were among Martin’s first teammates.

Since Ernie Irvan had taken over the #28 car and suffered through a tragedy of his own, I became a fan of Robert Yates racing. I am sure a lot of you remember the duels that Dale Jarrett had with Dale Sr. at this time and that are when I really became a Dale Sr. fan.

Soon there after I went to work for Roush Racing and became a big fan of their stable of drivers. The year was 1997 and guys like Martin, Jeff Burton, Musgrave, Johnny Benson, Chad Little, Joe Ruttman, and Chuck Bown were all part of the Roush family during my employment there. This was also the time when I became aware of one Matt Kenseth and Dale Jr.
These two drivers duel weekly in the then NASCAR Busch series and it was truly great to watch.

By the time we got to the turn of the century so many of my favorite drivers had switched teams and so much other things about NASCAR were beginning to change I really became a fan of NASCAR racing in its entirety.

After working at Roush Racing for so long I still held a bias against all thing associated with Rick Hendrick, but for the most part I was now a fan of the entire NASCAR field.

Here we are almost 10 years later and NASCAR is again my job. This time however I am paid to write about all the teams, drivers, and news items. To do my job successfully I don’t really root for any specific drivers or teams anymore. I have come to be a big Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart supporter, but my job really limit how emotionally invested I get into any one driver or team.

So that is my story of NASCAR fandom, I look forward to reading all of yours.