In today’s racing world, brands are mostly defined by headlight stickers and whichever patch is ironed on to the fire suit of the meat in the seat driving. There’s not real love or loyalty between the racers and the companies underwriting them, there’s also little identity tied between the racers and those companies. Such was not the case back in the day when drivers and teams were clearly defined by the companies who’s stuff they raced. Think about the hullabaloo when Bob Glidden defected from Ford to Plymouth and won the championship in 1979? How few people remember that Sox and Martin got their professional careers started by racing with Mercury before becoming Mopar stalwarts for decades. What about Mark Donohue and Roger Penske? Those guys were dyed in the wool Chevy guys before going the AMC and then Porsche routes.
Lots can be said about stick and ball sports fans who “root for the laundry” and like a player one week until he’s traded to a cross-town rival the next and he becomes public enemy #1. Are racing fans the same way? Have you ever had your heart broken by a driver who swapped brands after running under one flag for a long time? Hell, Smokey Yunick tried ’em all!
Question Of The Day: Has A Racer’s Switch Of Brand Ever Broken Your Heart?
Mark Martin moving over to Chevy un-broke my heart, if that counts?
Mark Martin driving a Toyota is heart breaking.
I just posted the same thing in the Power Tour section of the forum earlier.
Likewise, Kyle Busch going to Toyota was awesome, let all my hate go in one direction.
Tony Stewart going to Toyota with Gibbs sucked, leaving Gibbs because of it to go back to Chevy just made Smoke that much more awesome.
When John Force left GM for the evil empire. I will never forgive him for that.
I haven’t followed him since he went Ford. He might as well have retired.
I thought he did ?
must have been thinking of Beerstine
I didn’t root for ’em UNTIL he left the BANKRUPT, bailout-swilling “GOVERNMENT MOTORS” for the PROMISED LAND of Ford Motor Company!
GO FORCE!
That’s the best move he ever made. The only way he could improve now is to switch to Mopar.
How about when toyota came into NASCAR period.
amen brother
Or in to NHRA PRO STOCK ! he he
Tony Stewart in a Toyota. That just wasn’t right!
When Raymond Beadle switched the Blue Max to an Arrow….
I’m a diehard GM pro stock fan and remembered back in the mid-80’s when Frank Iaconio switched from GM to Ford. I lived only about 1/2 hour from his shop back then.
When “King Richard” jumped ships—OK ,he jumped back
Was Glidden’s year in a Mopar really just the universe balancing out Petty’s year in a Ford?
Yea but the ship had a hole in it
When Bill Jenkins left Dodge to go to Chevrolet. Best move ever.
When Richard Petty started driving Pontiacs.
When Earnhardt drove Bud Moore’s Ford. He fixed it, though!!!
I was disappointed when Ron Fellows left the Ford camp to run a Camaro in the Trans-Am series, and more so for him when Chev got out of Trans-Am. But it worked out well, because they were putting the money in to the Corvette Le Mans program, so he got to race over there (and win!)
Brand switching really doesn’t “break my heart” because I recognize that nearly all of the pros (except the Wood Brothers) are for sale to the highest bidder and have no loyalty to anyone but themselves.
Besides, nearly all of the greats have spent time racing Fords until greed and opportunism got the better of ’em.
Shelby’s “comeback” switch to Dodge in the ’80s was probably the most disappointing of the brand switches. (and the products he helped create for Mopar, save the Viper, were dismal at best)
I just start rooting against the gutless, flip-flopping mopes, like that washed-up has-been Mark Martin, the late, Intimidated, “Man-in-Back,” Not-so-Ironhead Earnhardt Sr., that silly, crash-prone moron Michael Waltrip,and that greedy, boring, traitorous stooge Matt Kenseth.
Drivers and teams. . . they come and they go . . . brands and heritage continue to endure. GO FORD!
Being from Columbus Ohio, 2 Heart breaks “Jeggie in a Mopar, and Larry Morgan in a Ford”
Face it most of us hate change , we get comfortable with the way things are and most (well me ) don’t like it .Be it brand loyalty or team loyalty,or even how rules change classes around.like when pro stock started having lift off one piece frontends that was called an alter or a gasser .but it’s just change
No driver has ever broke my heart by switching brands. I’ve had to scratch my head wondering why sometimes. Like when King Richard went from Mopar to the Got Mechanic Called Corporation (GM).