The best driver from your state/province

So after looking up Pete Hamilton's accomplishments on Racing Reference in regard to drivers from Massachusetts, I got to thinking: who'd be the best driver from each of our home states?

As for as I go, being from Connecticut the list kinda has to start with Joey Logano. He's won a Daytona 500, and very nearly has two MENCS titles to his credit. But we're also the home state of guys like Doug Coby (winner of the last three Whelen Modified Tour championships) and Randy LaJoie. (And the meme known as Rob Moroso.)

So who'd be the best drivers from where you live?

For Michigan, you have to start with Brad Keselowski. While I don't like Brad, I will admit he is pretty good. Johnny Benson deserves number 2 having a truck championship and several wins in his career. Number 3 is Erik Jones and for 1 more, Tim Fedewa.

The_Wall_91 wrote:For Michigan, you have to start with Brad Keselowski. While I don't like Brad, I will admit he is pretty good. Johnny Benson deserves number 2 having a truck championship and several wins in his career. Number 3 is Erik Jones and for 1 more, Tim Fedewa.

Butch Miller and Gordon Johncock say hi. As does Tim Steele.

I should point out that this covers all forms of racing, not just NASCAR.

Well, I'll have to recuse myself from this one. But seeing as how we have members from New Hampshire also, I figure I'll give the other three New England states a try:
MAINE: It would have to be Newburgh's Ricky Craven. Two Cup victories, the legendary Darlington 2003 finish with Kurt Busch and another fantastic duel with Dale Jarrett in 2001, and later a successful career as a broadcaster. Wins at the Busch and Truck level as well.
Runners-up: Only other guys considered would be former Busch winners Andy Santerre (Cherryfield) and Joe Bessey (Scarborough).

RHODE ISLAND: We go outside of the main touring series to bring in 74-time winner and 7-time Modified champion, Coventry's Mike Stefanik. You may remember him for his infamous interview at the Daytona exhibition in 2014.
Runners-up: Yuk. Early days Truck series driver Rob Rizzo of Providence and former Dale Coyne Champ Car hack Geoff Boss (Narragansett) would basically be the only other noteworthy ones.

VERMONT: *Desperately searches for better driver*
*Can't find one*
Sigh. Yes, the pride of Shelburne, KEVIN LEPAGE. Despite owning two career Busch series victories, Kevin is best known for being a start-and-park jobber and... well I think we all know "Lepaging" is not a positive action.
Runner-up (Not good enough for multiple): By actually being someone I've heard of, Brian Hoar of Williston is the 2nd best Vermont driver, owning a K&N East win back in 2003. Special shoutout to Phil Scott, 2002 ACT champion of Barre City, who is now the state's governor!
BONUS FACT: Scott won the ACT title while also serving as a state senator.

Delaware - Nobody

Texas So Probably Terry Labonte or AJ Foyt

Mark Donohue. Enough said.

Ontario - Frank Sprongl. Nuff' Said. 6 time CRC Champion. 4 time North American Rally Championship (CRC & Rally America)
Quebec - Antoine L'estage, Well I could've gone for Jacques (you know who), His F1 title was a fluke, Antoine has 8 CRC Championships, I don't know how many North American, and Twice Triple Crown Champ (CRC,RA & NA)

Kansas- The only one I know of in memory is Clint Bowyer.

conrail1990 wrote:Delaware - Nobody

Brett Lunger was a race car driver from Wilmington, Delaware. He mostly ran races in various Formula series in the 1970's, namely Formula One.

You'd be forgiven for only remembering him as the guy who helped rescue Niki Lauda from his burning car after his infamous accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix. Brett Lunger never really did anything substantial in his career outside of his wins in lower Formula Series, but in your case he's probably the best Delewarean race car driver because he's the only one that turns up on Wikipedia.

Geoff Bodine

Jimmie Johnson, John Force, Jeff Gordon, Dan Gurney, Rick Mears, Jeremy McGrath, Tommy Kendall, Scott Pruett...

And thats just the tip of the Iceberg, there are other drivers like Boris Said, Jimmy Vasser, Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmindinger...

Also fun fact, Bob "I was once Hardcore" Holly was born here, it fits the thread since he had a gimmick of a NASCAR driver during the New Generation Era I guess.

New-Brunswick: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

Ohio- Probably Bobby Rahal...

Florida: Active drivers, probably Ryan Hunter-Reay. For NASCAR specifically, Fireball Roberts and Bobby Allison. And if you want to expand into sports cars, the Taylor brothers.

Ohio - The one that comes to mind is Bobby Rahal, former Indy 500 champion (who I've actually met at a car show in Ohio strangely enough). Sam Hornish Jr., from Defiance, Ohio has to be right up there too as a three-time IndyCar champion. An honorable mentions are Dave Blaney and Lyn St. James, a native of Wilhougby, which is in my corner of the state.

As far as current drivers go, Graham Rahal, Bryan Sellers, and Ryan Blaney (if you count him as an Ohioan) are all accomplished buckeyes.

Dexter249 wrote:Ontario - Frank Sprongl. Nuff' Said. 6 time CRC Champion. 4 time North American Rally Championship (CRC & Rally America)
Quebec - Antoine L'estage, Well I could've gone for Jacques (you know who), His F1 title was a fluke, Antoine has 8 CRC Championships, I don't know how many North American, and Twice Triple Crown Champ (CRC,RA & NA)

If not Jacques, what about Gilles? He was one of the fastest ever in terms of raw speed. I'll admit I had to google Sprongl, but he seems like a pretty impressive guy. Rallying is under appreciated in much of the motorsports world.

Dexter249 wrote:Ontario - Frank Sprongl. Nuff' Said. 6 time CRC Champion. 4 time North American Rally Championship (CRC & Rally America)

That's a bit left-field - I'dve said Paul Tracy. Or alternatively, Ron Fellows or Robert Wickens. Rallying might be underappreciated, but I don't think regional series are that highly regarded.

As for me, as someone who lives in Wales there is only one choice, and that is F1 driver Tom Pryce, who managed some very impressive runs for Shadow back in the mid-70s before his tragic death in the South African Grand Prix in 1977.

The most promising Welsh driver in recent times has been Seb Morris, who made it as far as GP3 in 2015, but was unable to impress and has since gone to British GT3.

São Paulo State: Emerson Fittipaldi
- 2-time São Paulo State Karting Champion (65, 67)
- 1-time Brazilian Formula Vee champion (67)
- 1-time "100 miles of Karting" Champion (68)
- 1-time "12 hours of Porto Alegre" Champion (68)
- 1-time British F3 Champion (69)
- 2-time F1 Champion (72, 74)
- 14 F1 wins
- 2-time Indy 500 Champion (89, 92)
- 1-time CART champion (89)
- 22 CART wins

Unfortunately he's poor af, so....

There's also Ingo Hoffman, he ran F1 a few times for Fittipadi's team, but...his success lies in the Brazilian Stock Car Championship, where he has 12 titles (1980, 1985, 1989-1994, 1996-1998 and 2002) and 76 wins to his name. Between 1979 (innaugural year for Stock Car) and 2008 (his last full-time season), he only missed the opening round of 1979.

The closest driver to "match" him in Stock Car is Rio de Janeiro state native Cacá Bueno who has 5 titles (2006-2007, 2009, 2011-2012), winning his first race in his debut season, the first of 31.

RyanB06 wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:For Michigan, you have to start with Brad Keselowski. While I don't like Brad, I will admit he is pretty good. Johnny Benson deserves number 2 having a truck championship and several wins in his career. Number 3 is Erik Jones and for 1 more, Tim Fedewa.

Butch Miller and Gordon Johncock say hi. As does Tim Steele.

I should point out that this covers all forms of racing, not just NASCAR.

Johnny Benson, Jr. (Grand Rapids) also won the 1995 Busch Series championship, and also holds the distinction of being a member of the "at-least-one-win-in-each-of-the-three-national-series" club.

SpeedDemon37 wrote:

RyanB06 wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:For Michigan, you have to start with Brad Keselowski. While I don't like Brad, I will admit he is pretty good. Johnny Benson deserves number 2 having a truck championship and several wins in his career. Number 3 is Erik Jones and for 1 more, Tim Fedewa.

Butch Miller and Gordon Johncock say hi. As does Tim Steele.

I should point out that this covers all forms of racing, not just NASCAR.

Johnny Benson, Jr. (Grand Rapids) also won the 1995 Busch Series championship, and also holds the distinction of being a member of the "at-least-one-win-in-each-of-the-three-national-series" club.

Michigan is also home to another duel Busch/Truck champion in Jack Sprague, who is from Spring Lake.

Sprague didn't win a Busch championship, but he did win three truck championships  ('97, '99, '01)

The Andrettis would be the obvious ones; besides them, probably Sage Karam, Jimmy Spencer, and Bobby Gerhart. There's also a couple of notable garage figures like Chip Ganassi, Smokey Yunick, Skip Barber, and Kirk Shelmerdine.

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:

Dexter249 wrote:Ontario - Frank Sprongl. Nuff' Said. 6 time CRC Champion. 4 time North American Rally Championship (CRC & Rally America)

That's a bit left-field - I'dve said Paul Tracy. Or alternatively, Ron Fellows or Robert Wickens. Rallying might be underappreciated, but I don't think regional series are that highly regarded.

As for me, as someone who lives in Wales there is only one choice, and that is F1 driver Tom Pryce, who managed some very impressive runs for Shadow back in the mid-70s before his tragic death in the South African Grand Prix in 1977.

The most promising Welsh driver in recent times has been Seb Morris, who made it as far as GP3 in 2015, but was unable to impress and has since gone to British GT3.

Yes, I would've said Paul Tracy as well. You could make a good argument that he was Canada's best driver in terms of raw pace (though both Villeneuves and Greg Moore might come into the picture). I agree with you on Seb Morris. saw Seb Morris at the Rolex 24 this year. I think it was his first time in a prototype (granted that were the first race for the new GP2 cars) and he seemed right on it, every bit as fast as Platinum rated drivers.

bsoyuz wrote:São Paulo State: Emerson Fittipaldi
- 2-time São Paulo State Karting Champion (65, 67)
- 1-time Brazilian Formula Vee champion (67)
- 1-time "100 miles of Karting" Champion (68)
- 1-time "12 hours of Porto Alegre" Champion (68)
- 1-time British F3 Champion (69)
- 2-time F1 Champion (72, 74)
- 14 F1 wins
- 2-time Indy 500 Champion (89, 92)
- 1-time CART champion (89)
- 22 CART wins

Unfortunately he's poor af, so....

There's also Ingo Hoffman, he ran F1 a few times for Fittipadi's team, but...his success lies in the Brazilian Stock Car Championship, where he has 12 titles (1980, 1985, 1989-1994, 1996-1998 and 2002) and 76 wins to his name. Between 1979 (innaugural year for Stock Car) and 2008 (his last full-time season), he only missed the opening round of 1979.

The closest driver to "match" him in Stock Car is Rio de Janeiro state native Cacá Bueno who has 5 titles (2006-2007, 2009, 2011-2012), winning his first race in his debut season, the first  of 31.

Wasn't Senna from Sao Paulo?

Rovenami wrote:

SpeedDemon37 wrote:

RyanB06 wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:For Michigan, you have to start with Brad Keselowski. While I don't like Brad, I will admit he is pretty good. Johnny Benson deserves number 2 having a truck championship and several wins in his career. Number 3 is Erik Jones and for 1 more, Tim Fedewa.

Butch Miller and Gordon Johncock say hi. As does Tim Steele.

I should point out that this covers all forms of racing, not just NASCAR.

Johnny Benson, Jr. (Grand Rapids) also won the 1995 Busch Series championship, and also holds the distinction of being a member of the "at-least-one-win-in-each-of-the-three-national-series" club.

Michigan is also home to another duel Busch/Truck champion in Jack Sprague, who is from Spring Lake.

Sprague didn't win a Busch championship, but he did win three truck championships  ('97, '99, '01)

Whoops, my bad. I keep thinking for whatever reason that Sprague won the 2002 Busch Series title (which was won by Greg Biffle, who is also a Truck Series champion who drove a red, black, and white car that season and moved up to the Cup Series in 2003).

There's several options from the Racing-reference page originally from Indiana that I could could choose, but Wilbur Shaw has to be my pick. He won the Indianapolis 500 three times within four years, and was the last Indiana born driver to do so. Plus, he was a huge part of saving IMS post WW2 when it was in awful shape. Some other notables are:

Pat O'Connor
Frank Kimmel
Ryan Newman
Steve Kinser
Tony Stewart
Howdy Wilcox

SpeedDemon37 wrote:

Rovenami wrote:

SpeedDemon37 wrote:

RyanB06 wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:For Michigan, you have to start with Brad Keselowski. While I don't like Brad, I will admit he is pretty good. Johnny Benson deserves number 2 having a truck championship and several wins in his career. Number 3 is Erik Jones and for 1 more, Tim Fedewa.

Butch Miller and Gordon Johncock say hi. As does Tim Steele.

I should point out that this covers all forms of racing, not just NASCAR.

Johnny Benson, Jr. (Grand Rapids) also won the 1995 Busch Series championship, and also holds the distinction of being a member of the "at-least-one-win-in-each-of-the-three-national-series" club.

Michigan is also home to another duel Busch/Truck champion in Jack Sprague, who is from Spring Lake.

Sprague didn't win a Busch championship, but he did win three truck championships  ('97, '99, '01)

Whoops, my bad. I keep thinking for whatever reason that Sprague won the 2002 Busch Series title (which was won by Greg Biffle, who is also a Truck Series champion who drove a red, black, and white car that season and moved up to the Cup Series in 2003).

You were almost correct in that Sprague led just over half of the season's points in 2002 but had an awful late summer stretch to let Biffle take over.

GamerAzuzu wrote:Also fun fact, Bob "I was once Hardcore" Holly was born here, it fits the thread since he had a gimmick of a NASCAR driver during the New Generation Era I guess.

Legend has it if you turn on iRacing from time to time you might spot him turning laps

Since my fellow Michiganders have already run off names, I'll just give my thoughts.

I'd honestly put Sprague and Benson ahead of Keselowski if but for having more championships. If you're talking just cup success, Keselowski is the tops, but if not, Sprague is honestly the top one.

And since we are covering other forms of racing, Connie and Doug Kalitta, NHRA drivers should be mentioned. Doug is actually in the top five in career wins in top fuel dragsters.

NeverNeutral wrote:The Andrettis would be the obvious ones; besides them, probably Sage Karam, Jimmy Spencer, and Bobby Gerhart. There's also a couple of notable garage figures like Chip Ganassi, Smokey Yunick, Skip Barber, and Kirk Shelmerdine.

What about the late Blaise Alexander?

I'll take this thread a step further since there's a few other Ohioans in this thread already.

Best driver from my county (and only one I know of) is Matt Hutter, who had short stints driving for Frank Cicci and James Finch in the late 90s and early 00s in the Busch Series and ARCA, and whose father is an accomplished engine builder (32 NASCAR championships across Modifieds, Nationwide, and Trucks; still builds for drag racing).

BurningThunder wrote:I'll take this thread a step further since there's a few other Ohioans in this thread already.  

Best driver from my county (and only one I know of) is Matt Hutter, who had short stints driving for Frank Cicci and James Finch in the late 90s and early 00s in the Busch Series and ARCA, and whose father is an accomplished engine builder (32 NASCAR championships across Modifieds, Nationwide, and Trucks; still builds for drag racing).

Going off of that, Roger Penske is probably the best driver, certainly the best team owner, from Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Penske hails from the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

Alpineopossum wrote:

Wasn't Senna from Sao Paulo?

Senna. Was. Not. That. Good.

Alpineopossum wrote:

BurningThunder wrote:I'll take this thread a step further since there's a few other Ohioans in this thread already.  

Best driver from my county (and only one I know of) is Matt Hutter, who had short stints driving for Frank Cicci and James Finch in the late 90s and early 00s in the Busch Series and ARCA, and whose father is an accomplished engine builder (32 NASCAR championships across Modifieds, Nationwide, and Trucks; still builds for drag racing).

Going off of that, Roger Penske is probably the best driver, certainly the best team owner, from Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Penske hails from the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

I don't think he lives up to Penske, but Paul Newman was also an Ohioan.

We have the greatest F1 driver of all time coming from Ohio as well... Tom Jones. The guy who bought an F1 car and decided to enter the Canadian Grand Prix with it. My dad new him very well, and actually got to drive that car around Nelson's Ledges. It's pretty cool to be able to say "my dad drove an F1 car."

f1fan12 wrote:

Alpineopossum wrote:

BurningThunder wrote:I'll take this thread a step further since there's a few other Ohioans in this thread already.  

Best driver from my county (and only one I know of) is Matt Hutter, who had short stints driving for Frank Cicci and James Finch in the late 90s and early 00s in the Busch Series and ARCA, and whose father is an accomplished engine builder (32 NASCAR championships across Modifieds, Nationwide, and Trucks; still builds for drag racing).

Going off of that, Roger Penske is probably the best driver, certainly the best team owner, from Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Penske hails from the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

I don't think he lives up to Penske, but Paul Newman was also an Ohioan.

We have the greatest F1 driver of all time coming from Ohio as well... Tom Jones. The guy who bought an F1 car and decided to enter the Canadian Grand Prix with it. My dad new him very well, and actually got to drive that car around Nelson's Ledges. It's pretty cool to be able to say "my dad drove an F1 car."

Ah yes, the mysterious Tom Jones. The guy who entered an F1 race with a small team, and ended up owning a metal fabricating company in Cleveland. I believe he passed away a year or two ago.

There's plenty of great local racers in Cleveland, but not a lot of them who have gone pro. Paul Newman is a good one, he was from Shaker Heights as well (what is it with that random suburb?).

That being said, Matt Tift is a Cleveland area guy if I'm not mistaken.

Hmm. When you throw in the county factor, this becomes more difficult.

I live in Bergen County, NJ. Out of all the names that come up on Racing-Reference for New Jerseyan drivers from Bergen County, I don't see any names I recognize right off. The only notable driver I can find from Bergen County is Brett Sandberg, the GTS class champion from last year's Pirelli World Challenge, who was also in the Rolex 24 this year.

Now, if drivers that competed in the Toyota Pro Celebrity Race at Long Beach are to be included, Kevin Jonas is from my county as well. Yes, the one from the Jonas Brothers.

Oh, well. I feel perfectly content having my state represented by Mark Donohue.

bsoyuz wrote:

Alpineopossum wrote:

Wasn't Senna from Sao Paulo?

Senna. Was. Not. That. Good.

I'm not a Senna fan but it seems unreasonable not to rate him as one of the all-time greats.

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:

bsoyuz wrote:

Alpineopossum wrote:

Wasn't Senna from Sao Paulo?

Senna. Was. Not. That. Good.

I'm not a Senna fan but it seems unreasonable not to rate him as one of the all-time greats.

Three championships. For many years more pole positions than any other F1 driver. The man was remarkable for his outright speed (I believe he once out qualified Alain Prost (whom I also consider one of the all time F1 greats) at Monaco by 1.5 seconds, a long time in racing, especially at a relatively short track like Monaco.

We could talk all day about whether he was the greatest in F1 ever, and between him, Fangio, Schumacher, Stewart, Clark, Brabham, Haikkinen, Prost, Mansell... we could talk all day. But I don't see how any assessment of Senna could come to the conclusion that he wasn't at least in the top five or top ten.

Alpineopossum wrote:

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:

bsoyuz wrote:

Alpineopossum wrote:

Wasn't Senna from Sao Paulo?

Senna. Was. Not. That. Good.

I'm not a Senna fan but it seems unreasonable not to rate him as one of the all-time greats.

Three championships. For many years more pole positions than any other F1 driver. The man was remarkable for his outright speed (I believe he once out qualified Alain Prost (whom I also consider one of the all time F1 greats) at Monaco by 1.5 seconds, a long time in racing, especially at a relatively short track like Monaco.

We could talk all day about whether he was the greatest in F1 ever, and between him, Fangio, Schumacher, Stewart, Clark, Brabham, Haikkinen, Prost, Mansell... we could talk all day. But I don't see how any assessment of Senna could come to the conclusion that he wasn't at least in the top five or top ten.

You guys don't understand. Gabe is not a Senna fan.

I mean I agree with you, but in his defense, I think there's a reason he's saying that.

Alpineopossum wrote:Three championships. For many years more pole positions than any other F1 driver. The man was remarkable for his outright speed (I believe he once out qualified Alain Prost (whom I also consider one of the all time F1 greats) at Monaco by 1.5 seconds, a long time in racing, especially at a relatively short track like Monaco.

We could talk all day about whether he was the greatest in F1 ever, and between him, Fangio, Schumacher, Stewart, Clark, Brabham, Haikkinen, Prost, Mansell... we could talk all day. But I don't see how any assessment of Senna could come to the conclusion that he wasn't at least in the top five or top ten.

Nelson Piquet Sr. also has three championships.

Juan Manuel Fangio has outqualified Giuseppe Farina (who is arguably one of the best early F1 drivers of his era and history) in Monaco by 2.6 seconds.

If those were criteria to define the best driver in F1 history, then Senna wouldn't be close to it. Pole Positions aren't also the best thing to define how good a driver can be. Being multidisciplinary, having lonegvity and consistency while having it are my criteria.

Senna mostly stayed put in F1, while Fittipaldi went from category to category, and kept being fast despite aging, being a contender for the brazilian GT3 championship at 62 years old.

bsoyuz wrote:

Alpineopossum wrote:Three championships. For many years more pole positions than any other F1 driver. The man was remarkable for his outright speed (I believe he once out qualified Alain Prost (whom I also consider one of the all time F1 greats) at Monaco by 1.5 seconds, a long time in racing, especially at a relatively short track like Monaco.

We could talk all day about whether he was the greatest in F1 ever, and between him, Fangio, Schumacher, Stewart, Clark, Brabham, Haikkinen, Prost, Mansell... we could talk all day. But I don't see how any assessment of Senna could come to the conclusion that he wasn't at least in the top five or top ten.

Nelson Piquet Sr. also has three championships.

Juan Manuel Fangio has outqualified Giuseppe Farina (who is arguably one of the best early F1 drivers of his era and history) in Monaco by 2.6 seconds.

If those were criteria to define the best driver in F1 history, then Senna wouldn't be close to it. Pole Positions aren't also the best thing to define how good a driver can be. Being multidisciplinary, having lonegvity and consistency while having it are my criteria.

Senna mostly stayed put in F1, while Fittipaldi went from category to category, and kept being fast despite aging, being a contender for the brazilian GT3 championship at 62 years old.

That's not exactly a fair comparison, considering Senna died well before he reached Fittipaldi's age.

While Fittipaldi was quick and competitive in multiple disciplines, and indeed a champion in CART and F1, I never got the impression he was especially respected in any of them - certainly not to the extent of Clark/Foyt/Andretti.

I'd rate someone like Alain Prost above Fittipaldi, whose consistency and speed was sufficient to battle for 9 WDCs. While Senna's sample size is much smaller, and there is the question mark of how much he was favoured by Honda, that he was so close a match for Prost indicates his general ability is similar to Prost's.

In terms of como, I believe the only successful driver I know that came from here is Arturio Merzario who won the Targa Florio and the 1000km of Spa for Alfa Romeo and Ferrari respectively, with some other sports car wins for the same factories and Abarth too.

For Lombardy in general, the choice is a bit larger due to Monza. Alberto Ascari is definitely the regions greatest historical driver with 2 F1 titles and a Mille Miglia victory amongst a large list of non-F1 Grand Pri wins. In more recent times, Michele Alboreto's 5 F1 wins, and the '97 Le Mans and the '01 Sebring endurance victories are un-matched..although Piercarlo Ghinzani's F1 records were equally as impressive

Gonna do my mom and dads home states then mine.

Virginia - Ooooooh tough, definitely a close race between Ray Hendrick and Tommy Ellis with Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton batting for 3rd.
Wisconsin - Probably Dick Trickle
Tennessee - Depends on if you want to consider DW a Tennessean or not. He was from KY but raced mostly around here. If not there's always Slammin Sammy Swindell.