The Greatest Driver Is Someone You’ve Never Heard Of

1. How many drivers could’ve been all-time greats in NASCAR but never got the chance?

After finishing 13th in last Saturday’s (Oct. 26) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Chandler Smith revealed that he doesn’t have a ride for next season and may have to give up racing altogether.

Pretending that we’re in a world where money is no object, Smith’s likely departure for Joe Gibbs Racing makes zero sense. He has two wins and 15 top fives on the year, and he still has a shot (albeit an outside one) at winning the championship.

He has put up results that would easily warrant an extension with the team, if not a ride elsewhere. And yet, the money’s not there.

This is nothing new in the grand scheme of auto racing, as it’s always been about the dollar signs. With how expensive it costs to even show up, sponsorship and other financial backing is a necessity.

Let’s also be clear: you would be hard pressed to find a true rags to riches story in the garage. Just about every driver had to have some money, some connections or some safety net to get started and make it this far. But there’s also a difference between having family construction company money (in the case of Smith) and having Fortune 500 company money. It’s not a good sign when the former isn’t enough to pay the bills.

I would be remiss not to mention how frustrating it is for auto racing to be so inaccessible. There are probably thousands of young children that have watched auto racing with dreams of becoming a race car driver, no matter how improbable the odds were. Some 10-15 years ago, I was one of them. Then I got older and found out that running a go kart for 8-10 minutes costs approximately 20 bucks.

Racing isn’t different from other sports in the grand scheme of things, because in today’s world, one needs money to have the best chances for success, whether it be stick and ball sports, swimming, athletics, gymnastics or anything else. Having access to the best coaches, trainers and programs isn’t free, and exceling at any sport requires a huge time commitment — a time commitment for something that only the top 0.0000001% can truly make a living off of. And if you don’t have that time or money, well, you’re out of luck.

But the difference between those sports and auto racing is that there are no additional hurdles for the athletes that have the skills to make it that far. The best players always get drafted to…