Old-Schooler Is Big on the New Wave

Under a hot noontime sun, more than six hours after arriving at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, Pete Wright lowered his 250-pound frame onto the asphalt to change a gear less than halfway through practice for the Sharpie 500.

“It’s days like this that make you feel old,” he says after pulling himself out from under the U.S. Army Chevrolet.

Armed with experience that money can’t buy, Wright looks back on a career in racing as easily as he watches Joe Nemechek circle the half-mile track during qualifying.

Nemechek is the point man on the team, the driver, the star. Wright has seen a lot of drivers, a lot of stars, since he began living the NASCAR life in 1969.

“There’s definitely a difference between today’s drivers and yesterday’s,” Wright says. “In the ‘70s, drivers didn’t worry about downforce and aerodynamics, except on the speedways. They just drove until they had blisters on their hands. Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, those were drivers who really had to stay on top of their toes because they didn’t have rear spoilers, they didn’t have anything.

“Drivers today have a lot more to think about to make the car drivable.”

One reason that today’s young guns have such success, Wright figures, is that they have grown up with today’s car. The old-timers are less flexible and are getting passed in the process.

“The older drivers try to set their own cars up, and the younger drivers describe the high spots with what the car is doing and leave it to the crew chief to make the changes for it,” he says. “They’re not set in their ways.”

Wright has seen the game from the inside for 35 years, which makes him exceptionally qualified to consider the sport’s stars.

“I was fortunate enough that I got to see drivers like Pearson, Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Benny Parsons,” he said. “Then there was the era of Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd. And now we’re in another spurt with Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, Brian Vickers, Scott Riggs and Scott Wimmer.

“And in between, there was a guy named Jeff Gordon.”

Gordon is the only contemporary driver that cracks Wright’s top 5. He rates Pearson and Yarborough 1-2, and the late Tim Richmond -- a fast-living lightning rod who defied the NASCAR stereotype in the 1980s -- as No. 3.

“And I hate to say it,” Wright says, “but Jeff Gordon over Dale Earnhardt.”

Where’s Richard Petty?

“Everybody else puts Petty on their list,” Wright says. “To me, Richard Petty is NASCAR.”

Pressed, Wright admits he would pick Gordon over Petty, which speaks volumes for the pole-sitter for tonight’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.

The rest of Wright’s top 10, in no particular order, are Mark Martin, Ernie Irvan, Bill Elliott, the late Davey Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

With Nemechek out of the chase for the championship, old-school Wright would like to see another old-school driver take the title if he can squeeze into the top 10 in points over the next three races.

“In the back of my mind, I’m rooting for Mark Martin,” he says. “I watched Mark come in during the ‘80s. It would be disappointing to know someone the caliber and capability of Mark Martin did not win a championship.”

And, with a 10-race series to determine the champion, Wright says, “You better watch out because that’s what he’s about -- that’s his style.”

Another driver who has yet to win a championship is Dale Earnhardt Jr. But right now, Junior’s status as cultural icon is getting in the way of becoming a racing icon, Wright says. Too many appearances, too many commercials, too many commitments and not enough time putting on his game face, as he did for the Daytona 500.

“He has what it takes to be a driver, if he could relax and concentrate more on driving and less on all the other stuff that goes on,” Wright says. “His status, his last name, has stretched him so thin he can’t show everything that he can do.

“The body and the mind start getting tired sometimes.”

For drivers, as well as those who make their cars run.

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Pete Wright, 51, is a NASCAR lifer, a mechanic seemingly riveted to stock cars nearly from the time he saw his first race more than 40 years ago. Martin Henderson will be reporting during the next week his experiences with Wright and the Concord, N.C.-based MB2 Motorsports team as it prepares for the Pop Secret 500 at Fontana on Sept. 5.