RIP Dan Gurney

First American to win in Formula 1, Indianapolis-style cars and NASCAR. Co-drove with A.J. Foyt to victory in the 1967 LeMans. Absolutely owned Riverside International Raceway in anything and everything. Designed some of the best-looking race cars ever.

He's on my short list of greatest all-around American drivers ever.

http://www.racer.com/f1/item/146728-dan-gurney-1931-2018#!1959_Portugal_Ferrari

 

Who is the greatest American driver?

 

A.J.

 

I never saw him race, although I did get to see some of his drivers race in the 80s when he was running All American Racing. Some of the old-timers I grew up around used to rave about how good he was in the 60s. Always heard him described as the greatest driver to race the 500 without winning.

As to the greatest American driver? I don't know how you get around Mario Andretti's F1 title, multiple IndyCar titles, Indy 500 and Daytona 500 wins.

 

It's a good question. For me the short list is probably Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney and maybe Phil Hill.

I'll go with Mario.

 

Seriously? Foyt.

 

Gurney stepped out of the cockpit while still young. Same with Penske. Both had incredible accomplishments after giving up driving.
I didn't realize until reading the LA Times obit that Gurney started the trend of spraying with champagne from the victory podium in 1967.
I'd forgotten half of Gurney's accomplishments. It's too bad how most racers today stick to one type of racing. That's why it's so refreshing to see guys like Alonso, Larson, etc.

 

I know next to nothing about racing. But my reservation with calling Foyt the greatest ever is that I don't know how much road racing he did. Foyt was great in USAC and did well when he drove NASCAR. If you want to call Foyt the greatest oval track driver I think I would agree. But Andretti accomplished a lot on ovals and won a Formula One Championship.

 

Foyt and Gurney paired up to win the 1967 LeMans in the Ford GT, but because Gurney overslept and missed a driver change, Foyt drove 18 of the 24 hours. He's won the 24 Hours of Daytona, including setting the fastest lap of the race in a heavy rain. He's won the 12 Hours of Sebring. He won the Bahamas Speed Week, joining names like Gurney, Roger Penske and Phil Hill. He won multiple road course races in USAC.

That makes Foyt the only driver to have won the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, 24 Hours of Daytona, 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring.

He drove in 35 consecutive Indy 500s, is the only driver to win the 500 in both rear-engined and front-engined cars, has seven Indy-car championships (including 10 wins in 13 races in 1964) and his 67 career victories is 15 more than second-place Mario Andretti and 25 more than third-place Michael Andretti. His 138 USAC victories remains a record, even though he hasn't competed in USAC for almost 35 years. He won four USAC stock car titles, seven NASCAR races, is a two-time winner of the International Race of Champions and was named as one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers despite never running that circuit full-time. He also owns the world closed-course speed record at 257.123 mph, which he set at age 52.

Plus he co-designed the Coyote and was heavily involved in the design of the Ford racing engine that powered his cars in the 1970s. He's also won the Indy 500 as a car owner, and fielded a NASCAR team for several seasons.

My favorite line -- and don't know who wrote it -- has always been, "If the Indianapolis 500 was determined by the first driver to put together the car and then race the 500 miles, A.J. Foyt would be sipping milk in Victory Circle before the other 32 drivers found out where the tool box was located."

 

If I'm picking a short list ...

1a. Foyt
1b. Mario (born in Italy, but counts as an "American driver" in this context)
3. Gurney
4. Mark Donohue
5. Phil Hill

David Pearson, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Bill Vukovich are also worthy of inclusion as greatest American drivers, but this is "all-around" best.

 

Kind of a depressingly old list, isn't it? Really shows you how NASCAR-centric racing has become for American drivers. I would have loved to have seen Jeff Gordon competing in F1 or Le Mans, and it's hard to rate him higher without that kind of experience.