Quote:
Originally Posted by Paradise City
Ward Burton retired quickly like that as well.
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True, though outside of winning the Daytona 500, he really never established himself like Edwards has. His win was popular with the fans. Ward was a talented driver, but I really believe his slow, drawling, Virginia accent is ultimately what cost him in the sport. It happened to him, right as the big money, corporate sponsors were beginning to exert more control than the team owners and fans with who would drive the cars and turning drivers, from the colorful characters that they had been, where driving talent mattered, far more than what Corporate America has turned them into today, where driving talent takes a back seat to "good looks", the ability to hawk the corporate sponsor's product in a robotic, "I'm from nowhere accent and a dry, dull, almost nonexistent personality. Another way that Big Corporate money has RUINED the sport!