Brett Favres of NASCAR: Drivers Who Simply Need To Retire Before It's Too Late
Retirement from a sport for any athlete must indeed be difficult, but some tend to overstay their time and need to pack it up and be grateful for the time they had doing what they loved.
NASCAR drivers are not unlike the baseball or football player, who just wants to keep doing what they have devoted so much of their life to.
Productivity is usually a barometer that indicates when it is time to move on. On the opposite end, some choose to leave a sport when they still have a good record, their health and dignity.
NASCAR has drivers who may or may not have been stellar drivers during their career. The fact they had records not to be touted for any reason other than longevity has not influenced their decision to climb out from behind the wheel of a stock car.
Just because a driver is physically able to handle driving in NASCAR's top series and make the field does not equate to it being in their best interest or the interest of the sport.
Some fans cheer a driver who has staying power, regardless of performance. Others just wish they would find something else to do besides take up space on the track and perhaps even become a danger to other drivers.
The drivers we are about to look at include those who are still able to contend for wins, will never win again and may just be embarrassing themselves by snatching rides with teams even though it degrades the status they formally held in NASCAR.
There comes a time when a driver just needs to step away from the car.
So in no particular order, let's take a look at some in NASCAR who might want to consider retirement.
Joe Nemechek
1 of 10
The driver known once as "Front Row Joe" because of his ability to qualify at the head of the field finished 38th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings during the 2010 season.
Joe Nemechek runs his own team and struggles to find sponsorship. Often he runs races several laps down if he hasn't pulled in the garage with the start and park drivers.
He seems to have honed his ability to get involved in wrecks as well. The 47-year-old driver has a career record of four Cup wins and 16 NASCAR Nationwide wins.
Nemechek loves to race and has sacrificed much to maintain his team, but it appears to be time for him to retire from the sport. It is unlikely he will ever secure adequate funding to be competitive.
Derrike Cope
2 of 10
Derrike Cope did indeed win the 1990 Daytona 500 when leader Dale Earnhardt ran over a piece of debris. He was able to parlay the notoriety into an image portraying him as a much more talented driver than he really was.
During his career he did win one other Cup race, but mostly struggled with low budget teams and failure to make the field was often problematic.
Like a bad penny, Cope, 52, still makes sporadic attempts at running in the Cup series. Every now and then he makes the field just to be in the way.
It is time for Cope to hang up his helmet when it comes to NASCAR racing.
Michael Waltrip
3 of 10
Michael Waltrip has four Cup wins in his career that began with his first NASCAR top-tier race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1985. He did have two Daytona 500 wins.
The younger brother of three-time Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) Champion, Darrell Waltrip, has never been one to stray far from controversy of one kind or another.
In 2007, Waltrip formed Michael Waltrip Racing. Though he does not attempt to run a regular schedule, he continues to pick and choose certain races he likes to run.
He just announced he will run his 25th Daytona 500 in 2011. He did finish 18th in that race during the 2010 season. His prowess as a driver has been on superspeedways.
Waltrip is pursuing a career as a professional comedian, which is not a stretch considering his television antics as a show host and color commentator for NASCAR. He has his hands full with MWR as well, so perhaps after his 25th Daytona 500, Waltrip should give up his attempts to run NASCAR races.
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Terry Labonte
4 of 10
"Texas" Terry Labonte was the 1984 Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) champion. He amassed 22 Cup wins since his first Southern 500 at Darlington in 1978.
During 2004, Labonte announced it would be his last full-time season as a Cup driver. He then ran a few races each year for low budget teams except for some time in 2005 at Hendrick Motorsports driving their R&D car.
Labonte was a respected driver and remains well-liked, but his futile attempts to come back and try to run with equipment that really is not competitive enough to make decent runs should come to an end.
His inability to step away from NASCAR as a driver demeans the quality record he worked so hard to achieve.
Ken Schrader
5 of 10
Ken Schrader is a true racer and would race any series, any time and probably even if he didn't get paid to do it.
The 55-year-old Missouri native ran his first Cup race in 1984. He has only won four races in the top series of Nascar, the last being in 1991.
Schrader has raced for many teams including Hendrick Motorsports behind the wheel of the No. 25. During the past decade, he just seems to periodically bounce around to different teams in different series.
Schrader is a driver who just wants to race, but the time for him to bow out of Cup racing is probably overdue. He will never have quality sponsorship or a steady ride with a well-funded team.
The hard charging driver loves his short track racing and maybe that is the best place for him now.
Morgan Shepherd
6 of 10
Morgan Shepherd is 69 years of age now and hasn't won a NASCAR Cup race since 1993. After some 40 years of racing, he has only won four times in the top series and 15 times in the NASCAR Nationwide series.
His sponsorship comes from faith-based groups and equipment donated from other teams. He primarily runs his own team, but on occasion does get a ride from one of the more well-funded owners in the sport.
It really does not matter whose car he runs, the results are usually the same and Shepherd is just not a contender. This is a case where longevity in the sport is serving no purpose.
Shepherd needs to move on before he gets injured or causes some other serious accident despite his desire to continue racing.
Bill Elliott
7 of 10
Bill Elliott, nicknamed "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville," has had an awesome ride in the NASCAR Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) Series. He was the 1988 champion in the series.
Elliott has an impressive record in the sport with 44 Cup wins and 320 top-10 finishes. He raced for Melling Racing, Junior Johnson and then his own team from 1995 until 2000. Ray Evernham purchased his team.
In 2004, Elliott decided to start racing part-time, and on May 25, 2009, he made his 800th career start at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
In 2010, he raced the famous No. 21 for Wood Brothers racing.
It is understandable how difficult it is to break away from a sport that has given you so much, especially when the will to drive is still strong, but Elliott has made his mark in the history books and the time has come for him to walk away from NASCAR racing.
Elliott has a son, Chase, who is quite the accomplished racer and still in his mid-teens. The time has come for "Awesome Bill" to live vicariously through his son and from the looks of things, his son will make it to the top-tier of NASCAR just like his dad.
Robby Gordon
8 of 10
Robby Gordon debuted in the top series of NASCAR in 1991 driving for numerous teams. He had a Busch (Nationwide) team of his own that he converted to a Cup team in 2005.
Gordon drove his Jim Beam sponsored No. 7 until they dropped their sponsorship in 2010. Career wins for this driver in the Cup series total three, the last being 2003. He finished 34th in points during this past season.
This is a driver who is far more accomplished in his off-road racing and other series besides NASCAR. He continues to fight for sponsorship, but his performance is lackluster at best.
Gordon has never been far from controversy in his racing career. At the age of 42, he still has many good years to race, but it is a futile battle for him to stay in NASCAR.
The money he throws into NASCAR could perhaps serve him better elsewhere. Gordon is just not a good fit in NASCAR, and he should certainly not retire from racing, but just from NASCAR where he has overstayed his welcome.
Dave Blaney
9 of 10
Dave Blaney was a successful Sprint car driver before he moved to the top series of NASCAR in 1992. He has never won in the series, but has 27 top-10 finishes. He does have one win in the Nationwide series with 30 top-10s since he began racing in that series during 1998.
Blaney bounces around from team to team, some of which have been strong teams, while most are low budget, lacking strong sponsorship.
This driver obviously knows racing in other series, but has failed to do much in NASCAR. At the age of 48, Blaney has become known as a start and park driver. When your highest expectation in a given race is when to pull into the garage and park the car, it is time to retire from the series.
Mark Martin
10 of 10
Mark Martin nearly won the NASCAR Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) Championship five times. He came in second in the final point standings in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2009.
The 52-year-old driver is in his final year of a contract with Hendrick Motorsports. For the 2011 season, he gets Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s former crew chief, Lance McGrew, to lead his team. The pairing could work well, but it is really a big question as to whether McGrew can give his driver a competitive car consistently.
Martin has amassed 40 wins and 426 top-10 finishes since his first Cup race in 1981. He went from a strong year in 2009 to finish just out of the Chase in 13th place during the 2010 season.
The Arkansas driver has won titles in other series. He has raced for two of NASCAR's top owners, Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick.
Martin already announced his "Salute To You" farewell tour in 2005, but he did not retire or even drive part-time. He returned in 2006 to drive a full schedule in the Cup series.
His final year at Hendrick Motorsports is the perfect time for Martin to retire from NASCAR's top series. It is best he go out with dignity and not make sporadic runs with lesser teams, thereby degrading his status in the sport.
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