Carl Edwards used to hand out business cards for an opportunity to race. He's now a Nationwide Series champion and the current Sprint Cup points leader.
Kurt Busch was the brash youngster who liked to go head-to-head with the veterans. He's now a Sprint Cup champion.
David Gilliland was once a no-name driver in the Nationwide Series who pulled an upset victory at Kentucky in 2006. He's now a full-time driver in the Sprint Cup Series for Robert Yates.
The fact that all three are currently competing in the Cup Series is not the only thing they have in common.
They're in company with Justin Allgaier, Erik Darnell, Danny O'Quinn, David Ragan, Regan Smith and Todd Kluever as drivers who have competed on the Jack Roush "Gong Show" and found success in NASCAR.
NASCAR owner Jack Roush started The Roush Racing Gong Show, later known as Driver X, as a way to search for potential drivers.
The competition not only involved test sessions on the race track, like Martinsville and Darlington, but also how they handled the media and their fan appeal.
"The idea for the gong show came when we realized we needed to make selections of more than one driver in a fairly predictable time frame every two to three years. We started with road racing and identified several young, talented drivers," Roush said.
"Robby Gordon (now drives in Sprint Cup) was very successful in our road racing cars. We found Wally Dallenbach Jr. (a broadcaster for the NBC races) back in the mid-80’s and won a championship with him.
"We’ve been doing the competition since about 1985 and have not had a competition every year, but have had many since then."
The winner might be lucky enough to get a contract with one of Roush's teams.
In 2005, it was televised on the Discover Channel, and Erik Darnell captured the attention of Roush and the country. He won the competition and currently drives full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series for Roush.
He has one career win and finished second at Las Vegas last weekend to Mike Skinner by mere inches. He sits fourth in points with six events remaining.
He was also named the 2006 Truck Rookie of the Year.
Darnell is just one of the four winners from the Gong Show who have gone on to have successful careers.
In 1999, a kid from Las Vegas was chosen by Roush as the winner. Kurt Busch never looked back. He drove for Roush in the Cup Series from 2000 to 2005, winning 14 races and the series championship in 2004 before joining Penske Racing in 2006. He's currently 18th in points with one victory this season.
Next came Carl Edwards in 2002, and the business cards were no longer needed. After winning the competition, Roush put him in a truck ride full-time in 2003 with Superchips as a sponsor.
He won Rookie of the Year honors, four races in 2003 and 2004, and was chosen to replace Jeff Burton for 2005 and beyond.
He still drives for Roush, and entering Sunday's Camping World RV 400, he leads the point standings with eight weeks left.
Two years later, it was Todd Kluever who enjoyed the victory and then received a contract with Roush in the Nationwide Series.
He split seat time with Greg Biffle and picked up one pole position. He was the 2005 Rookie of the Year in Trucks but is currently jobless in 2008.
7 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Mary Jo Buchanan 9 months ago
Kelly, wonderful read and you hit it - Roush not only is a great technical mind but also has a sharp eye for talent. That's why he is the Cat in the Hat - shrewd and always calculating. We have some photos of Jack at Dover - email me if you want to see them - you might like one for this - just a thought.
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S M Napier 9 months ago
The Cat in the Hat sure can pick-out the talented drivers and he's going to have a tough job in the next couple of years what to do with two driver's on his truck team. Not only do you have Erik Darnell running really well this year in CTS, he really picked it up after his photofinish victory in Michigan and will finish strong in the points. But the driver too watch in the Roush-Fenway organization is Colin Braun, he's starting to put some good runs together in CTS, bonding well with his pit crew and can see he's improved through the year in trucks. I'm expecting him to have a breakout year in 2009, this kid could easily be better than Lagano and being with Roush he'll develop into a great driver.
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S M Napier 9 months ago
Braun's also leading the ROTY standings this season and 14th in the points standing.
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Kelly Crandall 9 months ago
I think it's also interesting to point out that Roush has had influnces over other drivers that don't even drive for him...anymore.
He used to have Kyle Busch in his trucks, Kyle now drives for Gibbs and has dominated, until recently. He also had Joey Logano in some sort of deal, I'm not sure what and now Logano drives for Gibbs.
Roush plays a bigger hand in NASCAR than I think a lot of people realize. :)
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Kelly Ricks 9 months ago
darnell has two career wins, not one. and if you ask me, no need to watch braun-- he's not that good.
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Matt Mercer 9 months ago
I have to respectfully disagree with the last comment - Colin Braun is a definite star in the making. He's making the transition from sports cars, where he had competed for years and recorded wins. He had several top 5 runs this year but ended up crashing or being crashed before the finish. He ran in the top 5 most of the race at Daytona until he was taken out by a teammate. He could win at Talladega this Saturday. His 2009 year will be stout.
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Crabber 1967 . 9 months ago
I recently saw the "Driver X" series on the HD Showcase cable channel an all-HD channel. It was interesting as a look back at recent history.
Colin Braun was making a splash in road racing, and now that he has switched to stock cars, he has, in my opinion, shown that he is a very talented young driver and will show [and already has shown] great improvement. I think he will do well, as he learns that circle track racing is a lot more complicated than the road race boys have always thought.
Kyle Busch is "one that got away" as he decided to go to Hendricks rather than follow his older brother to Roush. (Considering how 'rough' Kyle has been in the past couple years, Roush may be happy he 'lost' him!)
Kurt Busch got a lot of "rough edges" knocked off at Roush but, perhaps unfortunately, a lot of the "polishing" happened in public, so much so that Roush fired him.
Penske got the benefit of all the "public polishing" but Kurt still rubs the wrong way. But then again, Rusty Wallace STILL rubs me the wrong way, and I'd enjoy TV better with him NOT on the broadcast. (And while your at it take that basketball player with you Rusty.)
With the exception of Ryan Newman, I don't quite understand why Penske picked Rusty [well Rusty is part owner of the team] or Kurt as drivers. Maybe it's just me.
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