Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Seen this on another website and decided to see what your top 5 are?

Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers - Sprints (Wing / Non-Wing & Midgets)?
Current and or past drivers - Based off talent, career wins, championships, versatility, ect.

Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Donny Schatz, Kyle Larson, & Bryan Clauson
Notable others - Vogler, Wolfgang, Hewitt, Gaines, T. Stewart.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Going with only those I've seen race and race more than once.
Dick Gaines, Doug Wolfgang, Steve Kinser, Bryan Clauson, Vogler

l’ll take Darland, Clauson, Stanbrough, Elliot(Tony) and Stan Wiggam. But I’m just going off guys that I have personally watched live.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Steve Kinser Doug Wolfgang Sammy Chuck Amati and the Ohio Traveler, man that's tough only 5 lol :D and I"m taking these guys before they had to run napkin holders on top lol

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Opperman

A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Steve Kinser, Rich Vogler, Jack Hewitt

Steve Kinser, Dick Gaines, AJ Foyt, Bryan Clauson. In case you didn’t know, there are 4 faces on Mount Rushmore.

Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, Bryan Clauson, Dave Darland

I can't believe it took until your post for someone to mention AJ and Mario!
Yours is a great list, I'll second it.

Kyle Larson is 26 years old lol

You forgot Robert Ballou

Until I got to your comment I kept wondering why everyone kept saying 5 names lol

Steve Kinser, Rich Vogler, Parnelli Jones, AJ

Steve kinser,darland,BC,hockett

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Steve Kinser
Jack Hewitt
Tony Stewart
Bobby Unser

Going with drivers before the cars became modifieds. hinnershitz,o`connor,nazaruk,ruttman,jones.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Bryan Clauson
Jason Leffler
Jason Johnson
Greg Hodnett

“Some gave all”

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

I didn't forget him, He's not on my top five list. Maybe around 20th of the hundreds of drivers I've watched.
Maybe yours and that's fine too.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

vucky
vogler
foyt
mears

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

I always thought Mears came from off road racing not sprint or midgets :D

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Foyt Hewitt BC Steve Kinser

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Rex Mays, Jimmy Bryan, AJ Foyt, Steve Kinser

.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Il second that chief.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Pancho, Big Al Unser on the miles, A.J , Dave Steele on the pavement.

1. AJ FOYT
2. Steve Kinser
3. Rich Vogler
4. Dave Darland
Then
5. Mario (being an AJ fan I couldn't put him in the top4)
5A. Bobby Unser
5B. Bob Kinser/Dick Gaines
5BC. BC

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Pancho Carter,Rich Vogler,B.C.,Jan Opperman

Steve Kinser
Jan Opperman
Dave Darland
Jack Hewitt

I like the way you think. Personally, any list here without A.J. on it is faulty in my opinion.

Kinser, Rahmer, Hewitt, Foyt

What, no Larry Dickson!

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

And you can't have Dickson without Gary B.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Steve Kinser, Bryan Clauson, Bob Kinser, Jack Hewitt

Here's the skinny for me on my picks, Steve Kinser well because he is simply the best and my favorite of all time! BC is on here not because he is no longer with us but because he is certainly 1A for me as my favorite driver ever. The things I got to witness that kid do in a race car is just simply amazing. Bob Kinser he was one of the first drivers I got to meet as a little boy at the racetrack and he was just one of the guys to beat here in Indiana for along time! Jack Hewitt it's just simply that Jack can drive anything and has and done it all at the highest level.
_________________
Scott McCloskey
"BunkHouse Gang"

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

A.J. Foyt
Mario Andretti
Parnelli Jones
Steve Kinser

So hard to do when mixing generation of drivers. Will try and blend: Andretti, Foyt, S. Kinser, Schatz. I’m going to add a fifth in Jack Hewitt, probably one of the most versatile short track driver ever.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

"Open Wheel" is a big category and is objectively impossible to narrow the field down to just 4. My intent is not to go too far afield but for the sake of fairness I feel specific open wheel categories are necessary.:27:

Indy Car is obvious to anyone who has any sense of history:

A.J.
Mario
Big Al
Rocket Rick

Silver Crown is almost as obvious as Indy Car:

Jack
Chuck
Cody
Sills

Sprint Cars is where it gets very dicey but there are a couple that are obvious:

Steve Kinser
DD
Donnie Schatz
Jack Hewitt---------Jack is in two categories because #1. We all love the guy. #2. He won a ton of races driving both wing cars and wingless cars against some very tough competition in both types of cars.

Midgets are almost as dicey as Sprints but again, a couple are obvious:

Mel Kenyon
Bob Tattersall
Stan Fox
Rich Vogler

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

Tommy Hinnershitz
Ted Horn
Jan Opperman
Steve Kinser

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

A Team
AJ Foyt
Steve Kinser
Rick Volger
Opperman

B Team
Tony Stewart
Gary B
Jack Hewitt
Schatz

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

I am a oldtimer so my picks will be in 2 stages
First stage]: Horn
Foyt
Jones
Andretti
Second stage: S Kinser
Vogler
Hewitt
Schatz
Where does this leave the rest of the greats of open wheel racing? Such as Ruttman, D Carter,Branson, the UNsers, McClusky, Gary B, Dickson, P Carter, O'Connor,Hinnershitz,Hurtibise,Larson,Kenyon,Darla nd,Swindell,Clauson and the list goes on and on.

Re: Your Mount Rushmore of Open Wheel drivers?
 

This is a very tough question. After much deliberation here are my picks: Tommy Hinnershitz, Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell and Donny Schatz. Very difficult to leave out many deserving drivers from both present and the past. Many good votes put in by fellow IOW'ers. Hard to pick just four. Enjoyed reading all of the ones posted.

Bruce Eckel