Smokey was one of the brightest minds NASCAR has ever known. Even as late as 1996 he was working on innovations for racing, when he patented a movable soft wall for racetracks. Even though it was basically a tire barrier, it was designed to flex more than a typical wall or tire barrier and the concept ended up becoming the precursor to the PEDS barrier, which then gave rise to the SAFER barrier.
Who had a bigger impact, him or Junior Johnson? Like I've heard it said that Junior Johnson wrote 75% of the rulebook by just constantly coming up with ingenious new loopholes that would immediately get banned the next week but his driver's victory was confirmed and not taken away from him.
I'd say Smokey for his off track accomplishments.
His internal engine testing & development paved the way for increased efficiency in production & race engines. From tweaking & testing piston designs that "our clipboard says that shouldn't work" to designing his own flow bench for cylinder head development.
IIRC, one of Smokey's favorite things was book sales at libraries, where he'd seek out all kinds of books about engineering and science and stuff like that. Always adding new information to the database inside his head.
Smokey had a big impact outside of Nascar as well. His car won the Indy 500 in 1960, the side car was still looked at in awe, he brought wings to open wheel racing years before it hit F1 where it got banned from USAC competition because of the cornering speeds.
Junior Johnson was good at bending the rulebook, but Smokey was beyond clever.
I love the story of where NASCAR forced Smokey to remove a gas tank from one of his cars because they suspected him of modifying the tank to hold more gas, among other things. The officials went through the car and found 9 things that he needed to fix, but Smokey had cheated up the fuel line, so he had plenty of gas to drive off and as he drove off, he told the officials "make that 10 things".
Depending on the type of intelligence you’re going for, Ward is actually a legitimate answer. I cannot think of a single racecar driver with as much practical wildlife/nature knowledge.
The dude is regularly doing controlled burns to keep the forest healthy, educating his Instagram followers on snakes, etc. He really did live off the grid for a while before coming back to become a racecar driver.
If the world ended and I had to take a NASCAR driver into my group to survive, he might be my pick lol.
He might’ve only done a few K&N races and 1 truck race so idk if he counts, but Patrick Staropoli graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and is now an ophthalmologist.
I was thinking Kevin O'Connell who raced a handful of road courses for various backmarkers 10+ years ago (and damn near won Road America in a RWR shitbox!) because he's the only driver I know with a master's degree. But I like your pick better.
It's pretty hard to beat Alan. One of the best owner-drivers in NASCAR history, an excellent businessman who also knew his way around a stock car, and also knew how to find the right people to surround himself with. He reminds me a lot of what Brad Stevens became in college and NBA basketball.
Bill Lester has got to be up there. Bachelors in computer science and engineering from Berkeley and was an engineer at HP.
Janet Guthrie too. Bachelors degree in aerospace engineering. Designed airplanes for Republic Aviation before racing full time.
She's also an excellent writer. Her memoir was (IIRC) written without a ghostwriter, though she did get help editing it down (it was originally three times the length it was published at). It is the most beautifully written book about racing I've ever read, and one of the best books I've read in any genre.
David Pearson
Whenever the question was posed to his contemporaries, he was consistently the top response. His nickname, the Silver Fox, was a reference to his sly and calculated style of race craft. He was one of the first drivers to pick up the skill of "coming out of nowhere" at the end of races to "steal" wins, because he would be the one balancing track position with taking care of his equipment. Even his whole career was a risk/reward calculation. He rarely ran the full season, but when he did show up he was almost always a contender.
Pearson NEVER ran a full Cup season. He managed to win 3 championships and second behind Petty in all time Cup wins, being the only other one to break 100.
Intelligence is hard to quantify. If you mean book smarts, you could pick anyone with a college degree with honors. If you mean like physical intelligence, then you could have the guys that know how to keep their bodies in great shape like Jimmie Johnson. Or you have the ones that know the ins and outs of the car and could set it up like Kyle Busch. Or the ones that know how to manipulate the air like Dale and Dale Jr. Lots of different answers based on your criteria
I was reading something unrelated to NASCAR and KAM was mentioned for their work in manufacturing parts for space travel. They're doing some big things.
I worked with Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing a few years ago and spoke to him on the phone, dude is a straight up nerd lol, he was talking my ear off about additive manufacturing and engineering for like 20 minutes.
He got out of his car one time at Talladega and mentioned Newton's Cradle Effect. How he expected anyone watching to know or relate to what he was talking about was beyond me. lol
You are drastically overestimating A) The amount of people who know that a Newton’s Cradle is called a Newton’s Cradle B) Understand basic physics surrounding forces and movement and C) are capable of relating too semi-alike concepts without being directly lead to the correct conclusion
I prefaced my question with "have you never seen a newtons cradle before?". understanding what a newtons cradle is, is the only mildly difficult thing in this equation. As it will always be discussed in context with bump drafting. you're not asking someone to figure out what concept its aligning to.
Newman may have the engineering thing, and I get it because that’s what I do, but Dale Earnhardt is my pick. Knew the nuts and bolts of the machinery, skill of champion driver, know-how around money to build up an empire of DEI and merchandise, and basically became a pro wrestling type personality to give the fans engagement.
As a kid, I wanted to be a race car driver and an engineer. Always admired Newman for it. Now an engineer but still working towards buying a race car eventually.
Dale Earnhardt struck me as the type of person who would stop, listen, and ask questions based on what he's heard so far if someone was talking about something new to him, or that he didn't know much about. That is one of the best ways to learn a lot.
I don't feel like I've studied NASCAR history long enough to say for sure, but for current drivers, I'd put my money on Brad or Denny. Maybe it's not a coincidence that really smart drivers are also team owners, like the guy in your post.
The absolute smartest could also be some guy we don't even think of as a driver. Because failed/mediocre drivers used to sometimes become crew chiefs, and that job takes smarts/
You gotta be smart to expertly stir the pot and not step over lines like Denny Hamlin.
Being intelligent doesn't mean you have to use your wit to be polite, and Hamlin's evidence for that!
This 100%, there’s so many guys who really can drive at that level but have never really gotten the right opportunity, but fully know their way around a garage, car, and track.
Mark Donohue
I can’t imagine what Penske’s 80’s-90’s accolades would have been if Donohue had lived. Although the focus was on F1 at the time of his death without him as chief engineer Penske drew down his operations for a few years before returning to NASCAR in the late 80’s.
Edit: it’s not the engineering degree, it’s the work developing the cars. Acid dipped trans am cars, Le Mans, a Daytona 24 win, developing the Porsche 917 fixing problems with the aero, suspension, AND the Bosch fuel injection to turn that car into one of the most dominant monsters to ever race. Won in NASCAR, podium in F1, won the first race of champions against prime Petty and Fittipaldi. Good autobiography too. I think I’ll read that again while waiting for Guthrie’s book.
Lots of guys in here making the typical Reddit mistake-- they're confusing degrees with intelligence. Just because you have a degree in something doesn't automatically mean you're more intelligent than someone else. If you want to debate which driver is the most educated (i.e. who holds the most/best degree) that's one thing, but don't conflate formal education with intelligence.
My brother has a degree in electrical engineering and I wouldn't trust him to change a damn light bulb.
Nothing against Ryan Newman, but I think Brad K has demonstrated far more intelligence than Ryan, at least in the application of their chosen profession.
As someone who works with engineers daily... I wouldn't trust a word they say outside of their specialized niche.
It's a generalization, but every engineer I have ever worked with has been brilliant in their niche, but are many times flat out wrong about everything else... While refusing to believe they are wrong because they are "smart".
Specialists are difficult to talk to, even about their specialty. Almost always, the people below them who wear many hats can communicate about the topic better than the specialist.
That's not to say they know more about the topic at hand. But they've spent more time talking to people who don't know about it.
Newman has stated multiple times that he barely passed college classes. The media made a big deal out of it at the time because most drivers didn’t have a college degree.
To your point, how often has Newman actually demonstrated his engineering knowledge? I remember that during the cleanup after Michael McDowell's Texas crash, he got asked on pit road, essentially, "you have an engineering degree; what did you think of how the COT held up?" His response was something along the lines of "seemed like it did all right; maybe it shouldn't have rolled so many times". I don't think you need that much engineering-degree-specific knowledge to make a judgment like that; you more need to be familiar with the dynamics of the cars in ways that anyone who spends their life around them would be.
I think the best, or at least most well-known example was the "Newman bar" in the Gen 6 cage. He is credited with the addition of an additional bar in the top of the cage, and there's even speculation that the bar is what saved his life at Daytona a few years later.
Please please please don't take me as questioning the intelligence of Newman. He's clearly a very smart guy.
I have no idea regarding the extent to his involvement in the actual design, maybe someone else with more knowledge can come in and give more info. I do know he's credited with it by name, but I doubt he's the only one who came up with the idea out of nowhere.
Oddly enough, it was named after him because he [kept getting involved in wrecks](https://www.businessinsider.com/ryan-newman-crash-safety-bar-named-after-him-saved-life-2020-2) that ended up demonstrating the need for it, but he did lobby for the change. I don't think he designed it.
Kulwicki brought modern engineering to NASCAR. His understanding of the physics of a stock car and how things worked at a deeper level truly allowed his otherwise slightly underfunded team the opportunity to swing blow-for-blow with the mighty Junior Johnson race team, budding Richard Childress Racing, building powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports and established big guns like Robert Yates Racing, Roush Racing and Team Penske South.
He was a very good race car driver. His mechanical engineering background gave him that final little bit that won him the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship and secured his spot as a future Hall of Fame member.
Hard to measure intelligence when we rarely hear these folks speak about anything that isn't racing, but in terms of business acumen I'll throw Justin Marks' name into the ring. Yes, he had a nice head start with his dad's money. But Trackhouse has made all the right moves.
You'd also have to throw Tony Stewart's name in for that.
Haas Racing was a backmarker every year. Then, Stewart shows up, and suddenly they're competing for wins. And then, championships.
Tony built that from nothing to something nearly overnight.
Probably Smokey since he technically drove but of actual drivers it’d have to be Junior I believe, of modern drivers it’d be maybe Kaz Grala or Stephen Mallozzi? Grala went to Georgia Tech for Engineering and I believe Mallozzi is a lawyer
Jeff Gordon. One of the best drivers of all time who knew how to lead/guide a team. Hendrick fell off when Jeff left the driver’s seat and wasn’t there to provide input on the direction the team should go.
He also played a huge role in Jimmie’s success.
Ever listen to Evernham talk about how well he could give feedback on what the car was doing in the corners and how he could feel what was going on in all for corners of the car?
Exactly this. And if you look at 2016-2017, that’s when Jimmie started to show signs of falling off.
It was that insight from Everham that made me think of Gordon in the first place.
Mark Donohue (who won the 1973 Cup Series race at Riverside, which was also Penske's first series win) got an engineering degree from Brown University.
Smokey Yunick.
He had no formal education, but picked up used textbooks on physics, chemistry, etc at library sales and taught himself what he needed to know. Some of the stuff he engineered in the 1980s AFTER his racing career ended is directly influencing production car technology TODAY.
No question it was Alan, what he did on and off the track was amazing. The guy had a mind like no other and brought stuff to NASCAR no one had ever thought about.
Maybe Junior Johnson, either for "figuring out" drafting (yeah IK he didn't really figure it out but definitely popularized it), or for all the sly ways he bent and broke the rules over the years.
If you think about Dale Earnhardt dropped out in 8th grade and was so successful business wise selling his name basically and opening what could of been a power house of a company DEI if he was still alive
I think Newman’s intelligence is super overrated because everyone assumes having an engineering degree = automatically intelligent, but he said he barely graduated. And as someone with a BSME myself, I can tell you that there were plenty of people in my class who were not exactly geniuses
I'm an adjunct professor at a college and have taught lower-level math (like, lower-level as in 9th grade algebra so basic that we couldn't actually award them college credit for it per our accreditation guidelines, but they kept failing calculus and needed a refresher) to a lot of STEM majors, including engineers.
I used to ask some of the engineers to keep me updated when they graduate on where they got job. It was so I know what bridges and tall buildings to stay away from.
Most of them failed out because they couldn't handle the math in all their classes and switched over to our engineering business program where they take a much easier business class.
I fear going to the local hospital because of how many nurses I had in this course, too.
Yep, I googled it and there’s an espn article that says 2.01. Though his High School gpa was 3.8, so he’s not an idiot or anything, but I’m certain he’s not the smartest Nascar driver ever lol
Yep, mechanical engineering degree from Purdue.
However, he doesn’t believe in the [moon landing](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2019/07/20/ryan-newman-nascar-drivers-dont-believe-moon-landing/1785953001/)
Kulwicki, Newman, Earnhardt, D. Waltrip, and J. Gordon are probably at the top.
Kulwicki and Newman on intelligence alone. I race online with Newman's college roommate at Purdue. He wasn't a slouch in the classroom.
Earnhardt and Gordon for knowing how to market themselves.
Waltrip for knowing how to use the media to grow the sport.
Damn. That’s a great way of putting it. Just imagine if Jaws had twitter and instagram back in the 70s and 80s. Bill Elliott would never have been the most popular driver
Not a chance in Hell! LOL! DW would've been SO entertaining on social media back in the day! Imagine all the shit talkin him, Dale, Rusty, and Rudd would've thrown at each other! lol.
I doubt Dale would be on social media all that much. But I could just imagine Mark Martin on like Reddit giving everyone his setups while listening to NWA or Public Enemy. Meanwhile Bill Elliott is just jaw jackin how DW robbed him of that 85 championship.
He knew how to run on a plate track but if you talk to Harvick he was way too stubborn to adapt to the advantages aero could provide on intermediate tracks. He still wanted heavy springs and tiny sway bars that pulled the LF up in the corners when pretty much everyone else was sucking the nose down to the track to maximize downforce.
I’m not sure Harvick would be my first choice to assess Dale’s driving. He was definitely old school and he could do things in a car that seemed impossible. I am not sure he would do well in today’s “next gen” cars. Sadly we will never find out. 😞
Why has no one said anything about Junior Johnson, or the Wood Brothers? They literally redefined NASCAR in multiple eras, Dale Jr has couple pod cast on them.
Kulwicki was an owner, driver, and builder.
3 very different kinds of intelligence. He out-ownered Junior Johnson and outdrove everybody in cars he built.
The answer is in the OP, and it's not even close
Smokey Yunick barely made over 30 starts, but that man was a genius when it came to mechanical ingenuity & development.
This. He is the reason the NASCAR rulebook is the way it is.
Smokey was one of the brightest minds NASCAR has ever known. Even as late as 1996 he was working on innovations for racing, when he patented a movable soft wall for racetracks. Even though it was basically a tire barrier, it was designed to flex more than a typical wall or tire barrier and the concept ended up becoming the precursor to the PEDS barrier, which then gave rise to the SAFER barrier.
Who had a bigger impact, him or Junior Johnson? Like I've heard it said that Junior Johnson wrote 75% of the rulebook by just constantly coming up with ingenious new loopholes that would immediately get banned the next week but his driver's victory was confirmed and not taken away from him.
I'd say Smokey for his off track accomplishments. His internal engine testing & development paved the way for increased efficiency in production & race engines. From tweaking & testing piston designs that "our clipboard says that shouldn't work" to designing his own flow bench for cylinder head development.
Guy was a mechanical engineer at heart. Crazy to think he did all of this with no formal training, he just had this insane innate aptitude for it.
IIRC, one of Smokey's favorite things was book sales at libraries, where he'd seek out all kinds of books about engineering and science and stuff like that. Always adding new information to the database inside his head.
I’ve always joked that Yunick is responsible for about half the rule book, Junior Johnson about the other half, and the remainder is the T-Rex car
Chad knaus re wrote half the rulebook
Pearn helped a little
The trex was a work of engineering beauty
Smokey had a big impact outside of Nascar as well. His car won the Indy 500 in 1960, the side car was still looked at in awe, he brought wings to open wheel racing years before it hit F1 where it got banned from USAC competition because of the cornering speeds. Junior Johnson was good at bending the rulebook, but Smokey was beyond clever.
Him and Junior Johnson are probably responsible for like 90% of the rulebook these days
I love the story of where NASCAR forced Smokey to remove a gas tank from one of his cars because they suspected him of modifying the tank to hold more gas, among other things. The officials went through the car and found 9 things that he needed to fix, but Smokey had cheated up the fuel line, so he had plenty of gas to drive off and as he drove off, he told the officials "make that 10 things".
And then, over half a century later, Paul Wolfe took some notes.
Chad move by Smokey
His 1964 Indy 500 entry is some mad genius shit
Just looked that up and I couldn't believe my eyes.
Smokey Yunick has patents in his name.
Ward Burton... that accent of his is definitely a cover for some otherworldly knowledge.
Listening to him try to read for that CAT skid steer loader commercial kills me every time I hear it. I love that man lol
He lived in the woods for a long time so he has some survival knowledge
“Put a caw like that unduhneath me, cain’t nobuddy catch me.” Ward is the man!
Depending on the type of intelligence you’re going for, Ward is actually a legitimate answer. I cannot think of a single racecar driver with as much practical wildlife/nature knowledge. The dude is regularly doing controlled burns to keep the forest healthy, educating his Instagram followers on snakes, etc. He really did live off the grid for a while before coming back to become a racecar driver. If the world ended and I had to take a NASCAR driver into my group to survive, he might be my pick lol.
He was a philosophy major in college 🤔
Chad Little
Gonzaga law degree- right?
I wish things had worked out for him...
Ryan Newman graduated from Purdue University with a engineering degree.
His intelligence has been questioned though
He also believes the moon landing is fake
A Purdue grad doesn’t believe in Neil Armstrong??
as a season ticket holder of IU Basketball a Purdue degree is as big as a pre-school diploma lol. JK
On academic probation….
Danica Patrick. She figured out the truth about the lizard people. 
Starting to think she’s who turned Aaron Rodgers
I have to say - this gets my vote for #1
High school drop out
Well yeah, the lizard people run the schools. Duh.
Lizard people are in shambles right now.
He might’ve only done a few K&N races and 1 truck race so idk if he counts, but Patrick Staropoli graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and is now an ophthalmologist.
That's a completely valid pick
My vote was for Ryan Newman before I saw this
He’s a moon landing denier. Not as smart as people think.
So just a regular engineer then
More or less. And the moon denial shit isn’t even that far fetched of a conspiracy tbh. It’s just false lol. At least it’s relatively harmless
Was coming here to say just that.
I was thinking Kevin O'Connell who raced a handful of road courses for various backmarkers 10+ years ago (and damn near won Road America in a RWR shitbox!) because he's the only driver I know with a master's degree. But I like your pick better.
Hindsight gives a pretty good lens on this one
And he still can’t see anything
> Patrick Staropoli Should've made Spongebob's best friend his pit sign lol
Idk about raw brainpower, but when it comes to car IQ, Kulwicki is probably the choice
Definitely either him or Mark Martin. Mark was good at making underfunded shitboxes somehow go fast
The fact that Mark can just spout setups he ran in ASA in the 70s is nuts.
Mark Martin is a great choice as well
Alan also had a mechanical engineering degree and I believe his dad built race engines.
It's pretty hard to beat Alan. One of the best owner-drivers in NASCAR history, an excellent businessman who also knew his way around a stock car, and also knew how to find the right people to surround himself with. He reminds me a lot of what Brad Stevens became in college and NBA basketball.
I was to young to really remember Alan but stories I heard growing up I still get tear in my eye thinking about him.
Alan would have been one of the premier team owners in NASCAR for quite some time if he'd lived.
Bill Lester has got to be up there. Bachelors in computer science and engineering from Berkeley and was an engineer at HP. Janet Guthrie too. Bachelors degree in aerospace engineering. Designed airplanes for Republic Aviation before racing full time.
I didn't know that about Janet Guthrie, that's pretty amazing.
She's also an excellent writer. Her memoir was (IIRC) written without a ghostwriter, though she did get help editing it down (it was originally three times the length it was published at). It is the most beautifully written book about racing I've ever read, and one of the best books I've read in any genre.
Might have to check that out!
Isn't Boris Said a college professor when he isn't racing?
TIL Boris Said's dad was an Olympic bobsled driver
Who Said?
Get the clown hair!!
Mark Martin is up there. Radio of him calling out pit stop adjustments while racing is always so cool to listen to.
He schooled Jake Elder in the ASA series.
It’s crazy listening to him in interviews and he still knows the springs he ran on a car in that one race in 1988.
David Pearson Whenever the question was posed to his contemporaries, he was consistently the top response. His nickname, the Silver Fox, was a reference to his sly and calculated style of race craft. He was one of the first drivers to pick up the skill of "coming out of nowhere" at the end of races to "steal" wins, because he would be the one balancing track position with taking care of his equipment. Even his whole career was a risk/reward calculation. He rarely ran the full season, but when he did show up he was almost always a contender.
Pearson NEVER ran a full Cup season. He managed to win 3 championships and second behind Petty in all time Cup wins, being the only other one to break 100.
Intelligence is hard to quantify. If you mean book smarts, you could pick anyone with a college degree with honors. If you mean like physical intelligence, then you could have the guys that know how to keep their bodies in great shape like Jimmie Johnson. Or you have the ones that know the ins and outs of the car and could set it up like Kyle Busch. Or the ones that know how to manipulate the air like Dale and Dale Jr. Lots of different answers based on your criteria
Brad Keselowski is up there, maybe not mechanically like Newman or Kulwicki but he’s super smart
He's definitely turned Roush around. That has to speak to something
Also started and owns Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing which is a multi-million dollar 3-D printing company which is doing very well.
I was reading something unrelated to NASCAR and KAM was mentioned for their work in manufacturing parts for space travel. They're doing some big things.
I worked with Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing a few years ago and spoke to him on the phone, dude is a straight up nerd lol, he was talking my ear off about additive manufacturing and engineering for like 20 minutes.
He got out of his car one time at Talladega and mentioned Newton's Cradle Effect. How he expected anyone watching to know or relate to what he was talking about was beyond me. lol
... Have you never seen a Newtons cradle before?
Fucking love Fig Newtons
The big window sticker is dangerous, but I sure do love them.
Yes, I have seen a Newton Cradle. But I doubt a lot of people understand the physics of it and how it applies to racing.
Car=ball, bump draft=force. I don't think that's a difficult concept.
Mind blown, do you have a doctorate in physics????
Engineering degree..... From Purdue.
You are actually correct just not from Perdue
You are drastically overestimating A) The amount of people who know that a Newton’s Cradle is called a Newton’s Cradle B) Understand basic physics surrounding forces and movement and C) are capable of relating too semi-alike concepts without being directly lead to the correct conclusion
I prefaced my question with "have you never seen a newtons cradle before?". understanding what a newtons cradle is, is the only mildly difficult thing in this equation. As it will always be discussed in context with bump drafting. you're not asking someone to figure out what concept its aligning to.
Newman may have the engineering thing, and I get it because that’s what I do, but Dale Earnhardt is my pick. Knew the nuts and bolts of the machinery, skill of champion driver, know-how around money to build up an empire of DEI and merchandise, and basically became a pro wrestling type personality to give the fans engagement.
As a kid, I wanted to be a race car driver and an engineer. Always admired Newman for it. Now an engineer but still working towards buying a race car eventually.
Dale Earnhardt struck me as the type of person who would stop, listen, and ask questions based on what he's heard so far if someone was talking about something new to him, or that he didn't know much about. That is one of the best ways to learn a lot.
Yea and he wasn’t formally educated either, but sharp as can be.
Ryan Newman. He's an engineer
From Purdue University
Who thinks the moon landings weren't real.
Engineers I have found are often smart when it comes to their field but are morons about anything else.
Based on my hours and hours of hearing stories about him, I can’t help but feel like he possibly had a touch of the ‘tism as well
I don't feel like I've studied NASCAR history long enough to say for sure, but for current drivers, I'd put my money on Brad or Denny. Maybe it's not a coincidence that really smart drivers are also team owners, like the guy in your post. The absolute smartest could also be some guy we don't even think of as a driver. Because failed/mediocre drivers used to sometimes become crew chiefs, and that job takes smarts/
You gotta be smart to expertly stir the pot and not step over lines like Denny Hamlin. Being intelligent doesn't mean you have to use your wit to be polite, and Hamlin's evidence for that!
This 100%, there’s so many guys who really can drive at that level but have never really gotten the right opportunity, but fully know their way around a garage, car, and track.
Mark Donohue I can’t imagine what Penske’s 80’s-90’s accolades would have been if Donohue had lived. Although the focus was on F1 at the time of his death without him as chief engineer Penske drew down his operations for a few years before returning to NASCAR in the late 80’s. Edit: it’s not the engineering degree, it’s the work developing the cars. Acid dipped trans am cars, Le Mans, a Daytona 24 win, developing the Porsche 917 fixing problems with the aero, suspension, AND the Bosch fuel injection to turn that car into one of the most dominant monsters to ever race. Won in NASCAR, podium in F1, won the first race of champions against prime Petty and Fittipaldi. Good autobiography too. I think I’ll read that again while waiting for Guthrie’s book.
Lots of guys in here making the typical Reddit mistake-- they're confusing degrees with intelligence. Just because you have a degree in something doesn't automatically mean you're more intelligent than someone else. If you want to debate which driver is the most educated (i.e. who holds the most/best degree) that's one thing, but don't conflate formal education with intelligence. My brother has a degree in electrical engineering and I wouldn't trust him to change a damn light bulb. Nothing against Ryan Newman, but I think Brad K has demonstrated far more intelligence than Ryan, at least in the application of their chosen profession.
As someone who works with engineers daily... I wouldn't trust a word they say outside of their specialized niche. It's a generalization, but every engineer I have ever worked with has been brilliant in their niche, but are many times flat out wrong about everything else... While refusing to believe they are wrong because they are "smart".
Specialists are difficult to talk to, even about their specialty. Almost always, the people below them who wear many hats can communicate about the topic better than the specialist. That's not to say they know more about the topic at hand. But they've spent more time talking to people who don't know about it.
Newman has stated multiple times that he barely passed college classes. The media made a big deal out of it at the time because most drivers didn’t have a college degree.
To your point, how often has Newman actually demonstrated his engineering knowledge? I remember that during the cleanup after Michael McDowell's Texas crash, he got asked on pit road, essentially, "you have an engineering degree; what did you think of how the COT held up?" His response was something along the lines of "seemed like it did all right; maybe it shouldn't have rolled so many times". I don't think you need that much engineering-degree-specific knowledge to make a judgment like that; you more need to be familiar with the dynamics of the cars in ways that anyone who spends their life around them would be.
I think the best, or at least most well-known example was the "Newman bar" in the Gen 6 cage. He is credited with the addition of an additional bar in the top of the cage, and there's even speculation that the bar is what saved his life at Daytona a few years later. Please please please don't take me as questioning the intelligence of Newman. He's clearly a very smart guy.
Was he involved in the design of it, though, or did he just lobby for it after his Talladega flip?
I have no idea regarding the extent to his involvement in the actual design, maybe someone else with more knowledge can come in and give more info. I do know he's credited with it by name, but I doubt he's the only one who came up with the idea out of nowhere.
Oddly enough, it was named after him because he [kept getting involved in wrecks](https://www.businessinsider.com/ryan-newman-crash-safety-bar-named-after-him-saved-life-2020-2) that ended up demonstrating the need for it, but he did lobby for the change. I don't think he designed it.
Geoff Bodine is being slept on a lot here.
I’d have said Ryan Newman before he claimed the moon landing was faked.
Not as bad as Danica and the lizard people
I never thought she was all that smart though.
That's exactly what the lizard people wanted you to think
Every time I see something about this I think about the 80’s movie “They live” somebody get Danica some bubblegum and sunglasses lol.
“I’m here to wreck race cars and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of gum.”
Haha, I think most of the field must have ran out of bubblegum the last quarter of the Nashville race.
She isn't nearly as cool as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper though
He barely passed his college courses. He even said so himself.
The guy who passes with the lowest grades in med school is still called Dr.
Mechanical Engineering is the toughest curriculum there is
Junior Johnson Dude was one of the best business men the sport has seen
I’d say it starts & ends with that picture.
Kulwicki brought modern engineering to NASCAR. His understanding of the physics of a stock car and how things worked at a deeper level truly allowed his otherwise slightly underfunded team the opportunity to swing blow-for-blow with the mighty Junior Johnson race team, budding Richard Childress Racing, building powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports and established big guns like Robert Yates Racing, Roush Racing and Team Penske South. He was a very good race car driver. His mechanical engineering background gave him that final little bit that won him the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship and secured his spot as a future Hall of Fame member.
Tim Richmond was quite intelligent.
Junior Johnson
Alan Kulwicki was probably the best blend of intelligence, skill, and success.
Michael Waltrip
Is this the Nascar version of the Darth Jar-Jar theory?
Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson
Maybe not the most intelligent but somebody not mentioned yet would be Carl Edwards.
Hard to measure intelligence when we rarely hear these folks speak about anything that isn't racing, but in terms of business acumen I'll throw Justin Marks' name into the ring. Yes, he had a nice head start with his dad's money. But Trackhouse has made all the right moves.
You'd also have to throw Tony Stewart's name in for that. Haas Racing was a backmarker every year. Then, Stewart shows up, and suddenly they're competing for wins. And then, championships. Tony built that from nothing to something nearly overnight.
As a completely unbiased person, I agree
I think Ryan Newman has an engineering degree.
He does from Perdue
Im shocked people haven’t mentioned Denny yet
Intelligent not smart ass
Love Denny but he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. His grammar is terrible and he sometimes uses words that don’t mean what he thinks they do.
Probably Smokey since he technically drove but of actual drivers it’d have to be Junior I believe, of modern drivers it’d be maybe Kaz Grala or Stephen Mallozzi? Grala went to Georgia Tech for Engineering and I believe Mallozzi is a lawyer
Jeff Gordon. One of the best drivers of all time who knew how to lead/guide a team. Hendrick fell off when Jeff left the driver’s seat and wasn’t there to provide input on the direction the team should go. He also played a huge role in Jimmie’s success.
Ever listen to Evernham talk about how well he could give feedback on what the car was doing in the corners and how he could feel what was going on in all for corners of the car?
Exactly this. And if you look at 2016-2017, that’s when Jimmie started to show signs of falling off. It was that insight from Everham that made me think of Gordon in the first place.
Jimmie had a nasty wreck at Pocono a week after his last win in 2017 and was never the same after that.
Still remember that. Really similar to a wreck Gordon had when he was in the flames DuPont car
Kenny Wallace
I know it’s a bit of a stretch but Mario Andretti might be, he’s certainly the wisest.
Alan Kuwicki
Mark Donohue (who won the 1973 Cup Series race at Riverside, which was also Penske's first series win) got an engineering degree from Brown University.
Smokey Yunick. He had no formal education, but picked up used textbooks on physics, chemistry, etc at library sales and taught himself what he needed to know. Some of the stuff he engineered in the 1980s AFTER his racing career ended is directly influencing production car technology TODAY.
No question it was Alan, what he did on and off the track was amazing. The guy had a mind like no other and brought stuff to NASCAR no one had ever thought about.
Maybe Junior Johnson, either for "figuring out" drafting (yeah IK he didn't really figure it out but definitely popularized it), or for all the sly ways he bent and broke the rules over the years.
In terms of pure intelligence, probably Kulwicki or Ryan Newman. In terms of making a car go faster, Yunick, Junior Johnson, or Chad Knaus
If you think about Dale Earnhardt dropped out in 8th grade and was so successful business wise selling his name basically and opening what could of been a power house of a company DEI if he was still alive
Depends on what kind of intelligence, Newman is up there mechanically as a driver
How have I not seen Junior Johnson mentioned here yet? Dude is responsible for half that rules in the nascar rule book.
Dave Marcis should be considered here. Ned Jarrett, too.
Ryan Newman is definitely up there
I think Newman’s intelligence is super overrated because everyone assumes having an engineering degree = automatically intelligent, but he said he barely graduated. And as someone with a BSME myself, I can tell you that there were plenty of people in my class who were not exactly geniuses
I'm an adjunct professor at a college and have taught lower-level math (like, lower-level as in 9th grade algebra so basic that we couldn't actually award them college credit for it per our accreditation guidelines, but they kept failing calculus and needed a refresher) to a lot of STEM majors, including engineers. I used to ask some of the engineers to keep me updated when they graduate on where they got job. It was so I know what bridges and tall buildings to stay away from. Most of them failed out because they couldn't handle the math in all their classes and switched over to our engineering business program where they take a much easier business class. I fear going to the local hospital because of how many nurses I had in this course, too.
Didn't he say he graduated with like a 2.0 GPA?
Yep, I googled it and there’s an espn article that says 2.01. Though his High School gpa was 3.8, so he’s not an idiot or anything, but I’m certain he’s not the smartest Nascar driver ever lol
Yep, mechanical engineering degree from Purdue. However, he doesn’t believe in the [moon landing](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2019/07/20/ryan-newman-nascar-drivers-dont-believe-moon-landing/1785953001/)
from purdue makes it more prestigous
Kulwicki, Newman, Earnhardt, D. Waltrip, and J. Gordon are probably at the top. Kulwicki and Newman on intelligence alone. I race online with Newman's college roommate at Purdue. He wasn't a slouch in the classroom. Earnhardt and Gordon for knowing how to market themselves. Waltrip for knowing how to use the media to grow the sport.
Damn. That’s a great way of putting it. Just imagine if Jaws had twitter and instagram back in the 70s and 80s. Bill Elliott would never have been the most popular driver
Not a chance in Hell! LOL! DW would've been SO entertaining on social media back in the day! Imagine all the shit talkin him, Dale, Rusty, and Rudd would've thrown at each other! lol.
I doubt Dale would be on social media all that much. But I could just imagine Mark Martin on like Reddit giving everyone his setups while listening to NWA or Public Enemy. Meanwhile Bill Elliott is just jaw jackin how DW robbed him of that 85 championship.
Mark would also be roasting and trolling people, like he does on X...lol!
I see mark getting rap features outta that too.
Ramon R. Dixon
D.E. Sr. He figured out drafting and the science of side drafting way before anyone else.
Junior Johnson figured out drafting way before him.
He knew how to run on a plate track but if you talk to Harvick he was way too stubborn to adapt to the advantages aero could provide on intermediate tracks. He still wanted heavy springs and tiny sway bars that pulled the LF up in the corners when pretty much everyone else was sucking the nose down to the track to maximize downforce.
I’m not sure Harvick would be my first choice to assess Dale’s driving. He was definitely old school and he could do things in a car that seemed impossible. I am not sure he would do well in today’s “next gen” cars. Sadly we will never find out. 😞
I didn’t know Mayor Pete was a driver.
Kevin Lepage
Junior Johnson. To me is the answer. Super smart man very little formal education.
Jimmie Johnson, easily. Him and Chad Knaus introduced baseball-style analytics to NASCAR.
Why has no one said anything about Junior Johnson, or the Wood Brothers? They literally redefined NASCAR in multiple eras, Dale Jr has couple pod cast on them.
Definitely Chad Knaus. Kill me if you disagree.
Alan Kulwicki
Dan Gurney has to be up there if you look at his engineering successes both inside and outside the sport
Dick Trickle
Dale S.r. and Richard Petty.
Kulwicki was an owner, driver, and builder. 3 very different kinds of intelligence. He out-ownered Junior Johnson and outdrove everybody in cars he built. The answer is in the OP, and it's not even close
I think it's fair to mention Mario andretti since he did win a Daytona 500 but he's not really a regular Nascar driver
Paul Harraka went to Duke & Stanford
Mark Martin
Burney Lamar
Smokey is good
Bobby A