Indeed, next year, Earnhardt no longer will have any excuses about not having the equipment to win races and challenge for the championship. Without doubt ‘Junior’ is NASCAR’s most popular driver and biggest draw. By all accounts, he’s a good guy and NASCAR could not have invented - or cloned - a better marketing tool for modern stock car racing. But no other superstar in the sport’s long history has made it to 32 years of age with such a meagre list of accomplishments as Dale Jr. With Hendrick over the next five years, we’ll find out what he’s really made of as a driver and how he stacks up against Gordon and Johnson.
Certainly, there are no doubts about the driving ability of
Lewis Hamilton. At Indianapolis, the young Englishman won his second grand prix in a row, withstanding constant pressure from his team-mate, and world champion,
Fernando Alonso and confirming that he is one of the finest racing talents to come along in many years. To qualify on the pole and win back-to-back races at tracks he’d never seen is a sign that Hamilton is going to be a hard man to beat this year and possibly for many years to come.
He is the first black driver to race and win in
Formula 1, and it’s inevitable that comparisons now will be made between him and Tiger Woods. Like Woods, the 22-year old Hamilton is the product of a mixed-race marriage and it’s beginning to look as if his prodigious driving ability may be the equal of Woods' remarkable skills as a golfer.
“It’s fantastic,” Hamilton said after winning at Indianapolis, “I’m extremely pleased and proud for the team. I would have never thought in a million years that I’d be here today sitting with these drivers here and winning both races in North America. So, a great leap in my career, in my life, and I’m extremely proud and thankful to my family and to God and to the team.”
