75 things for NASCAR’s 75th anniversary: Greatest rivalries
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
We are closing in on the final handful of weeks of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, the stock car series’ 75th anniversary campaign. To celebrate, each week through the end of the season, Ryan McGee is presenting his favorite top-five things about the sport.
The five best-looking cars? Check. The five toughest drivers? We’ve got it. Top five mustaches? There can be only one, so maybe not.
Without further ado, our 75 favorite things about NASCAR, celebrating 75 years of stock car racing.
Previous installments: Toughest drivers | Greatest races | Best title fights | Best-looking cars | Worst-looking cars | Biggest cheaters | Biggest what-ifs | Weirdest racetracks | Best racetracks | Biggest scandals | Weirdest announcements | Greatest fights
Five greatest rivalries
As NASCAR’s 75th season winds down to its final three races, we have also entered the most intense stage of our NASCAR 75th anniversary celebration, the green/white/checkers of our top-five countdowns. So, no more of the cutesy stuff. It is time to stand on the loud pedal and let the rough side drag. We just hope someone worthy of the challenge will run door-to-door with us until we get there. In other words, we need a rival. Heck, we all need a rival, but especially racers. They live for them.
As Jean Girard reminded Ricky Bobby: “God needs the Devil. The Beatles needed The Rolling Stones. Even Diane Sawyer needed Katie Couric. Will you be my Katie Couric?”
So, grab a can of Perrier, a loaf of Wonder Bread and keep an eye on that pain in the butt who refuses to stop filling your rearview mirror, as we reveal our top five all-time NASCAR rivalries.
Honorable Mention: Bruton Smith vs. NASCAR
As we have stated so many times during these countdowns, it is impossible to imagine NASCAR becoming what it is without the guiding hands of the France family, from Big Bill to Bill Junior to now, with Jim France, Lesa France Kennedy and Ben Kennedy. But it is equally difficult to make any sort of guess at where the France family’s pet project might be had they not been pushed at every turn by their colleague/arch-nemesis Bruton Smith.
Back in the day, Smith attempted to form a league to rival NASCAR during its formative years and went on to not-so-secretly back other similar efforts over the decades that followed. He brought in Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters to fund the construction of Charlotte Motor Speedway, who in turn went to court vs. the France family trying to form a drivers’ union. During NASCAR’s Modern Era, it was Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc. that bought and built racetracks around the nation in an arms race versus the France family’s International Speedway Corporation.
For a half-century, the France clan and Smith fought, sued and pointed fingers. By the end, they also grew stock car racing into a billion-dollar business.
5. Tony Stewart vs. (insert name here)
When I started writing this entry, it was going to be about Tony Stewart and his feud with fellow sprint car sprint car graduate Jeff Gordon in the early-2000s, a clash of championship titans that raged on for five years and resulted in at least three major crashes. But then I remembered Smoke’s ongoing dustup with Matt Kenseth a decade later, the one that resulted in him hurling his helmet at Kenseth’s car at Bristol. Then I remembered his “little rich kid” rift with Joey Logano. Then I remembered his televised fight with Robby Gordon at Daytona. Then I remembered him going after the entire media center, including me.
An hour after I started writing this entry, I was still coming up with people that Stewart battled with on the track and in the garage. So, yeah, “insert name here.”
4. Darrell Waltrip vs. The Establishment
Before there was Smoke and even prior to a young, reckless Dale Earnhardt being nicknamed Ironhead by the veteran superstars he kept wrecking, there was Jaws. When Darrell Waltrip arrived in the Cup garage of the 1970s, he did so with a silver tongue, introducing the NASCAR world to the art of talking trash.
He angered Richard Petty by declaring The King’s reign was over, ticked off Bobby Allison by calling him a cheater and pissed off Cale Yarborough by questioning the legendary tough guy’s intelligence. It was a frustrated Yarborough who labeled him Jaws, explaining “he’s like that shark in the movies who won’t stop flapping his gums.”
Waltrip made them all even more livid when he proceeded to start beating them on Sunday afternoons. He wound up winning three championships and a perfect sum of 84 races, which tied him with Allison for what was then-third on the all-time wins list and, even better, gave him one more career victory than Yarborough.
3. Jeff Gordon vs. Dale Earnhardt
Like Stewart, there were so many options here because so many viewed Earnhardt as their biggest rival. All those legendary Cole Trickle vs. Rowdy Burns scenes in “Days of Thunder,” from the door-banging rental car race to the “Japanese inspection” meeting with NASCAR brass, are true stories taken from Earnhardt’s ongoing mid-1980s spat with Geoff Bodine. And I once witnessed two lawyers on a corporate team-building retreat get into a roll-on-the-floor fistfight over an Earnhardt vs. Rusty Wallace debate at the height of their ’90s No. 2 car vs. No. 3 car tension.
But Gordon vs. Earnhardt became bigger than all of those because it was a rivalry of cultures. Earnhardt, aka The Man in Black, was the dominant force in the sport when Gordon arrived in 1992. He was a middle-aged North Carolinian, all belt buckles, blue jeans and beer. In contrast, Gordon was a 20-something Californian with blow-dried hair who dated models and drove a rainbow-colored car.
The reality is that we never got to see them both consistently at the top of their game on the racetrack at the same time, although there were definitely moments (see: the 1997 Daytona 500). After Earnhardt’s resurgent 2000 season, an ’01 showdown felt inevitable, but Earnhardt’s death denied us that dream.
2. David Pearson vs. Richard Petty
The battles between the Silver Fox and The King were so transcendent they become NASCAR’s version of the Steelers and Cowboys or the Dodgers and Yankees, names and battles that were known not merely among auto racing or sports fans, but among every single American, especially during the 1970s. It was smooth vs. rough around the edges, North Carolina vs. South Carolina, Dodge vs. Mercury, Wood Brothers vs. Petty Enterprises.
They rank 1-2 in wins (Petty’s 200 to Pearson’s 105), poles (Petty 123, Pearson 113) and even second-place finishes (Petty 157, Pearson 89). They ran 551 races together, Petty winning head-to-head 290 to 261, but of those 551 races they combined to win 205 of them, both finished in the top five more than half the time and in the top 10 more than 60% of the time. Both. Holy cow. They finished 1-2 a whopping 63 times, Pearson winning 33 to Petty’s 30.
I am working on my next #NASCAR75 Top 5 rankings. It’s going to be rivalries. So, yeah, I’ve just watched the end of the 1976 Daytona 500 six straight times…and the 1974 Firecracker 400 at least that many. pic.twitter.com/rbLC3Lsr6J
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) October 18, 2023
If all they had done was pull off the 1976 Daytona 500 wreck-and-roll finish, that would have been enough to make them legends, but that might not have even been their best race finish at that track (see: Pearson’s fake engine trouble and slingshot victory in the 1974 Firecracker 400). Pearson fans still say that if he’d chosen to complete in more full seasons, he would have won seven championships like Petty. Petty fans still say that’s sour grapes. Even now, decades after Pearson or Petty made their final Cup starts, their rivalry lives on, as I documented in this story from the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
1. Ford vs. Chevy
With all due respect to Toyota, Pontiac, Plymouth, even Studebaker, take your pick, when it comes to auto manufacturers, the Blue Oval and the Bow Tie have been the driving force of both victory and animosity since stock car racing began so many decades ago. They rank 1-2 in all-time Cup wins, with Chevy’s 850 and Ford’s 727. The next closest is Dodge way back at 217. Every single driver in the NASCAR Hall of Fame drove for at least one of them, and most steered both.
Whenever one has achieved an edge on the racetrack, the other has immediately cried foul and their millions of fans and American highway loyalists have hollered along with them. It is Coke vs. Pepsi, Apple vs. Microsoft, and Mastercard vs. Visa only if they were all played out not in corporate boardrooms but on superspeedways covered in steel and traveling 200 mph.
Hey, when’s the last time you saw a sticker in the back window of a pickup truck that showed the kid from Calvin and Hobbes with a Ford logo on his shirt urinating on a Chevy logo or vice-versa? Hell, I saw that on two different vehicles just today.
Also, I mean, if we’re talking NASCAR rivalries…well… pic.twitter.com/iMJ2dkL82D
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) October 18, 2023
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Ryan McGee
Inspirational thought of the week:
Time everlasting
Time to play B sides
Time ain’t on my side
Time I’ll never know
Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I’m not the one to tell you what’s wrong or what’s right
I’ve seen suns that were freezing and lives that were through
But I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
— “Burnin’ For You,” Blue Oyster Cult
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, currently located behind the huge pile of to-go containers that Jess Sims brings home from all of her “College GameDay” road eats segments, we know that where there is smoke, there is also fire. And barbecue. And ash. But hopefully no ash on the barbecue.
There are a lot of chairs being barbecued in college football these days. Hot seats that became kindling, and way too early for an October fall harvest bonfire. UCLA and Virginia Tech became the first FBS teams to part ways in-season with their head coaches, one a legendary former player and the other a legendary former assistant coach. And that has led to a hunka hunka burning “Who’s Next?” hot seat lists.
It isn’t even really CFB Week 4 yet and hot seats are already… pic.twitter.com/WvZIxzD7fs
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) September 14, 2025
It’s enough to make one, well, take a seat, and pause to contemplate their place in this world. Might one day we wake up to find an athletic director standing in the door of our office with a pink slip? Or a booster who sells cars and thinks he’s an expert on the spread offense standing in our door with a buyout check? Or Lane Kiffin standing in the door of our kitchen with a tape measure and fabric samples? And … wait … as we sit here … did someone spill some Tabasco on this chair or did we accidentally get some muscle rub in our drawers?
With apologies to Navy O-lineman Connor Heater, Ole Miss D-tackle Jon Seaton and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 3 Bottom 10 rankings.
The Amherst Amblers fell to 0-3 via a 47-7 loss at Iowa, which was also Kirk Ferentz’s 206th victory, making him the winningest coach in Big Ten Conference history. It was a fitting coincidence considering that Ferentz took the Hawkeyes job while the original Minutemen were still in Massachusetts.
The Bearkats kouldn’t enjoy the bye week on their kalendar bekause they still kouldn’t kover the spread against Open Date U. Now they will kombat Texas and kuarterbacking konundrum Arch Manning.
There are currently 11 0-and-something teams in the FBS, and five reside in #MACtion. Sources have told Bottom 10 JortsCenter that those teams have all asked Ohio if they can have the contact info for West Virginia’s scheduling guy.
In related news, sources are also telling us that after firing head coach DeShaun Foster, UCLA officials attempted to see if the NCAA would let them return to the Pac-2, but their calls kept getting kicked to voicemail because the NCAA lines were tied up with all of the UCLA players ringing the transfer portal hotline.
Since their dramatic run to the College Football Playoff national title game, the Irish are 0-3. It’s not an ugly 0-3. It’s 0-3 against three ranked teams by a combined 15 points — and the two losses this season are by a combined four points. But with no conference championship at their disposal and only one ranked opponent remaining on their schedule, the Irish CFP safety net is thinner than the margin of whether Rudy was or wasn’t offside.
Virginia Tech spent the offseason having its roster raided like a rum runner boat boarded by Jack Sparrow, lost a game to the son of its legendary coach, got run over by Vandy, got blown out by supposed little brother in-state school Old Dominion and fired its head coach so early in the season that the players who were left from the first transfer portal raid could start their own transfer portal exit if they wanted. My pal Marty Smith hasn’t been this upset since I accidentally spilled Swiss Miss on his white Air Jordan Dior’s.
7. Oregon Trail State (You have died of dysentery) (0-3)
Full disclosure: I am currently writing this in a hotel room in Corvallis, where I’m working on a “College GameDay” feature about the platypus trophy that the Beavers and Ducks will play for this weekend. I am … pretty … sure … they’re … messing … wItH … THEE … hOtEl … WHYFY … 2 … kEEp … mE … frum … FY-LING … this … STorY …
I don’t want y’all to get too excited, but I am looking at the schedule and on back-to-back Tuesday nights in November, Weeks 12 and 13, Akron hosts UMess and State of Kent. That rapid clicking you heard was me checking on hotels and flights and then emailing the GameDay honchos to try to convince them to do shows from Akron with me for seven straight days. That one solitary click you heard was them hanging up on me.
The Golden Flashes in the Pan lived up to that name, constructing a NSFW 21-play, 93-yard, 12-plus-minute drive to take a 28-24 lead over the Buffalo Bulls Not Bills with 2:38 remaining … and then surrendering 76 yards on eight plays in 1:29 to lose their 24th straight FBS game, 17th straight MAC game and 11th straight conference game at home. That’s not NSFW, that’s NC-17. Shoutout to a year ago, when the Flashes’ upcoming visit to Florida State would have been the Pillow Fight of the Week.
Speaking of NC-17, have y’all peeped Florida’s schedule? It’s the scariest thing I’ve seen since that time my family visited a Florida truck stop and my daughter bought what she thought was a souvenir rubber alligator, but then a few miles down the road it bit the dog.
Waiting list: Do You Know The Way to San Jose State, Northworstern, My Hammy of Ohio, Western Not Eastern or Central Michigan, Kennesaw Mountain Landis State, No-vada, the team that barely beat No-vada, Baller State, We’re Not In Kansas State Anymore, replay reviews that make on-field refs quit.
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Andrea Adelson
Dabo Swinney defended his program, which has started 1-2, during a fiery news conference Tuesday, saying, in part, that if Clemson was tired of winning “they can send me on my way.”
The Tigers started the season ranked No. 4 with College Football Playoff hopes but fell out of the Top 25 this week after losing to Georgia Tech 24-21. They opened the year with a 17-10 home loss to LSU and trailed Troy at halftime in Week 2, also at home, before rallying to win.
“Hey, listen, if Clemson’s tired of winning, they can send me on my way,” Swinney said. “But I’m gonna go somewhere else and coach. I ain’t going to the beach. Hell, I’m 55. I’ve got a long way to go. Y’all are gonna have to deal with me for a while.”
Clemson has not been in sync on offense, with third-year starting quarterback Cade Klubnik struggling to find rhythm and consistency, and the defense is still learning to adapt to new defensive coordinator Tom Allen.
Swinney said Tuesday that he was confident his team would respond, starting Saturday against Syracuse, because that is what his program has done during hard moments. But he also had a message to critics who have questioned where Clemson goes from here after two tough losses.
“I would just say, if you don’t believe in us because we’ve lost two games down to the last play and we’re 1-2? You didn’t believe in us anyways, so it don’t matter,” Swinney said. “You weren’t all-in anyway.”
Swinney pointed out that in his 17 years as head coach at Clemson, he has had one bad season — going 6-7 in 2010. In 13 of the last 14 years, Clemson has won 10 or more games. That lone season without 10 wins came in 2023, when Clemson started 4-4 but wound up winning five straight to finish 9-4.
“All we’ve done is win,” Swinney said. “We’ve won this league eight out of the last 10 years. Is that not good? I’m just asking. Is that good? To win your league eight out of 10 years, to go to the playoffs seven out of 10 years, be in four national championships, win it twice. Yeah, we’re a little down right now. Take your shots. I’ve got a long memory. We’ll be all right. We’ll bounce back.”
Swinney pointed out all the other times Clemson has rebounded from difficult losses — including 2021, after losing to Georgia to open the season, and last season — winning the ACC title and making the 12-team CFP after losing to South Carolina in the regular-season finale.
Clemson lost to Texas in the first round of the playoff 38-24, but the bulk of its team returned for 2025, making the Tigers the heavy favorite to repeat as ACC champions. Instead, the season has not started the way anybody expected.
“If we stink because we haven’t played for the national championship since January of ’20, well, I guess we stink,” Swinney said. “But why are we held to a different standard from all these other teams out there who ain’t ever won nothing?”
Swinney has had to fight off questions about his program nearly every year since it last made the playoff in 2020.
In 2023, Swinney made similar comments about leaving Clemson after “Tyler from Spartanburg” called into his radio show and wondered why the school paid over $10 million to go 4-4.
“I work for the board of trustees, the president and the AD, and if they’re tired of me leading this program, all they got to do is let me know. I’ll go somewhere else where there is an appreciation,” Swinney said at the time. “I don’t know if it’ll be here, but it’ll be somewhere.”
On Tuesday, Swinney returned to the missed plays his team made in the two losses that could have made a difference and said he continues to have “faith in the storm.”
“We’re not perfect, and we may suck this year,” Swinney said. “We may lay a freaking egg and go 6-6. But I don’t think so. I know that’s going to disappoint a lot of people, but I don’t think so. The reason we are the best program in college football is because we’ve always battled. We’ve always responded.
“Let’s respond like we always have and let the story be written.”
Three weeks of college football down, and the race for the Heisman Trophy is even more wide open than it was at the start of the season, according to oddsmakers.
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer is the new favorite for the award at several sportsbooks, with ESPN BET showing +850 odds as of Tuesday afternoon. At some other shops, though, Miami QB Carson Beck is the favorite, getting as short marketwide as +700 at BetMGM.
Either way, it’s the longest odds for a Heisman favorite at this point in the season since at least 2012, according to data compiled by ESPN Research from SportsOddsHistory.com; the previous longest favorite was LSU running back Leonard Fournette at +500 heading into Week 4. It’s largely in line with how bookmakers saw the Heisman race playing out, as Texas QB Arch Manning was the longest preseason favorite in over 15 years at +650.
Manning’s odds to win the trophy have fallen precipitously amid struggles in his first three weeks as the full-time Longhorns starter, as he currently ranks tied for 15th on the board at +3000, per ESPN BET. Due to his name recognition and overall popularity, he is still the most-bet player in the market by tickets and handle at BetMGM and DraftKings, making him a liability with the books.
South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers also was a popular play for bettors before the season and is “currently our biggest liability for the Heisman market,” according to ESPN BET senior trading director Adrian Horton. After he was injured in the Gamecocks’ 31-7 loss against Vanderbilt, Sellers’ odds have lengthened all the way to +5000 from +1400 before the season. Cade Klubnik, who was the second favorite (+900) coming into the campaign, has seen his odds fall all the way to 100-1 amid poor play and a 1-2 record for his Clemson Tigers.
Aside from LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier, who moved from last week’s favorite to tied for third on the board at +1300, the new crop of favorites features somewhat less liability for sportsbooks. Mateer, Beck and Oregon QB Dante Moore (also +1300) were not overly popular preseason plays and have not picked up a ton of momentum with bettors despite strong starts to the season. Moore, for example, is the 10th-most-bet player by handle at ESPN BET but does not even crack the top 10 at either BetMGM or DraftKings.
There are, however, two names to watch outside of the quarterback position as the Heisman race heats up. Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith (+1800) and Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love (+6000) are both listed as significant liabilities at BetMGM, and Love, in particular, has gotten significant action at ESPN BET. “That will have us keeping a close eye on the Irish running back,” Horton said.
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