In Defense of Scott Wimmer

 In Defense Scott Wimmer

By Brian H Cotnoir

NASCAR driver Scott Wimmer at one time looked to be the next Cup Series superstar, but he is often regarded by many as a Cup Series Bust.  While his Cup Series can be summed up with three mediocre seasons with only one-career Top 5 finish, we can't let those three seasons sum up his entire NASCAR career, because at one time he was one of the hottest drivers in the NASCAR Grand National Series.  Unfortunately, for multiple reasons--some self-inflected--his NASCAR career got derailed.

In 2001, Wimmer made his Grand National Series debut with Bill Davis Racing.  He finished runner-up in the Rookie Year Award and finished 11th in the final drivers' standings. Wimmer would have his breakout season in 2002 and went on a tear winning 4-of-the-final-8 races of the season, and finished 3rd in the final drivers' standings.  The following season he only managed one win at Pikes Peak International Raceway, and finished 9th in the final drivers' standings.  During the 2003 season, he also made his first career starts in the Cup Series at the end of the season, replacing Bill Davis Racing's longest tenured Driver, Ward Burton, for the last four races of the 2003 season.   The following season he would run full-time in the #22 Caterpillar Dodge for Bill Davis Racing.

A simple, but gnarly paint scheme

Unfortunately, this would be the beginning of Wimmer's decline:  Before the start of the 2004 season, he was arrested for driving under the influence, which could have derailed his Cup Series career entirely, but he was at Daytona and managed to finished 3rd in the Daytona 500 that year!   However, Wimmer, would only finish in the Top 10 once more in his Cup Series career.   Wimmer's unimpressive stats in the Cup Series, can't be placed squarely on him.  At this time, Bill Davis was running Dodges in the Cup Series, Pontiacs and Chevrolets in the Grand National Series, and was trying to make a deal to run Toyota's in the Truck Series.  This greatly upset manufacturer Dodge who sued Bill Davis Racing for breach of contract and won.  Bill Davis would end up switching to Toyota during the 2007 season, but the whole fiasco is what ultimately led to the downfall of his racing team, which shut down at the end of the 2008 season.

Wimmer would be fired by Bill Davis after two full-time seasons, and he would join another team in their twilight years, Morgan-McClure Racing.  Wimmer would leave the team towards the end of the season, after failed payments from his team's sponsor, Aero-exhaust.   Wimmer's luck appeared to be turning around when he was signed as a Test Driver for Richard Childress Racing.  He'd run part-time in the Grand National Series for Richard Childress, and even managed to return to Victory Lane winning his 6th and final career race at the Nashville Superspeedway.

Wimmer signed with the underfunded Key Motorsports Group in 2009, but also ran a handful of races for JR Motorsports.   Wimmer did fail to qualify for 3 races for Key, but scored a pair of Top 10's while driving for JR.  His best finish of the 2009 season, however, came at Memphis when he scored a surprising 7th place while driving for Key Motorsports.  

Wimmer's NASCAR career more or fizzled out after 2009, but I still maintain he is not a bust!  While his Cup Series career produced very little in terms of success, I think it had more to do with his owner putting his hands in too many pies.  He was a proven winner in the Grand National Series, winning 6 career races and finishing Top 10 seventy-four times.  It's a shame how his NASCAR career lost momentum in the early 2000's, and I think had he managed to secure a full-time ride with Richard Childress in the Grand National Series, he most certainly would have been competing for more wins and possibly a drivers' championship.

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