According To You: Your Favorite Racing Quotes
We here at Hagerty asked you for racing quotes, and you came up with some amazing examples. The answers cover a variety of race series, famous movies, and just about anyone who has ever hopped into a vehicle and experienced the joy of motoring.
So we compiled the answers to our question for this episode of According To You, citing the quotes as accurately as possible. Feel free to offer corrections in the comments, and we’d love to have more of your favorite racing quotes down there, too!
terra-incognita: “There are only three sports: bullfighting, mountain climbing, and auto-racing. Everything else is just a game.” -Ernest Hemingway
Marc: “How do you make a small fortune racing? Start with a large fortune.”
Tim: I believe it was NASCAR legend Junior Johnson who said that.
Mike: “If you ain’t first, you’re last!” – Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights
Ronnie Schreiber: “Second place is first loser.” – Chip Ganassi
hyperv6: “You don’t race cars, you race the rule book!” – Smokey Yunick
DUB6: “You wanna go for pink slips?” – about 80 million unnamed street racers
TeutonicScot: “It is better to go into a corner slow and come out fast, than to go in fast and come out dead.” – Sir Stirling Moss
TeutonicScot: “Driving fast on the track does not scare me. What scares me is when I drive on the highway and I get passed by some idiot who thinks he is Fangio.” – JM Fangio
WWK: “Win on Sunday sell on Monday.” – Bob Tasca Sr.
SpecE30: “When you’re racing, it’s life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.” – Steve McQueen
jagbit: I love Steve McQueen, but he was just paraphrasing Rudolf Caracciola who said it first; “To race is to live. All the rest is simply waiting.”
David: “Nobody remembers who finished second except the guy who finished second.” – Bobby Unser
Kyle: “You don’t go to the start line because you’re ready, you go because it’s time.” – Unknown
Tom: I’ll have enough power when I can spin the tires at the far end of a long straight.” – Mark Donohue
DUB6: “You won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve.” – Jan & Dean
Kurt: “It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow.” – Unknown
Paul: “Turn left and get back here as fast as you can” – Spartacus
Howard: I forget who in NASCAR said it – “What do you do when you spin out? Stand on the brakes and wait for the tires to blow.”
Alan: Who first said, “Don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly?”
Bruce: “You’re supposed to have the fastest car in the valley, but that can’t be your car. That’s gotta be your mama’s car!” – Bob Falfa, American Graffiti
Kelly: “Gentlemen, start your engines!” – Unknown
Tim: Not sure if these are the exact words but after the 1979 Daytona 500 Bobby Allison was being interviewed about the fist fight he had with Cale Yarborough and said, “Cale went to beating on my fist with his face.”
Mike: Dunno who said it, but probably either a NASCAR or drag racer participant, “Ain’t no substitute for cubic inches.”
DUB6: I’ve heard it recited as “there’s no replacement for displacement”.
C Duster: Along the same line, “You can’t beat cubic money.”
drjim: “When in doubt, Bore it out!”
Racin Rob: “If you are on the track driving fast and everything is under control, you’re not racing.” – Mario Andretti.
Bubba: “If you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough” – Parnelli Jones
55guy: “Rubbin’, son, is racing.” – Robert Duvall
David: “Rubbing is racing.” – Days of Thunder
Stephen: “While we’re still under a caution, I want you to go back out on that track and hit the pace car.” – Harry Hogge, Days of Thunder
Jeff: “There’s nothing stock about a stock car.” – Robert Duvall, Days of Thunder
Dean: “With pointed finger: ‘Engage.’” – Unknown
DuckCanuck: “He tried to use my brakes to stop his car.” – Emerson Fittipaldi
Chuck: “Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary…that’s what gets you!” – Jeremy Clarkson
Arthur: I always liked the “No Guts No Glory!” I saw on the stern of a Hydroplane.
Bob: “Asphalt is for racing. Dirt is for planting potatoes.” – Seen on a bumper sticker
Ratsun: “First rule of Italian driving. What’s behind me doesn’t matter. ” – Raul Julia in the Gumball Rally.
Chuck: “Step on the gas and turn left.” – Unknown
Bruce: “It done blowed up!” – Sterling Martin.
Ed: “Blessed lady of acceleration, don’t fail me now!” – Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers
Bob: “The older I get, the faster I was.” – Unknown
David: “Understeer is when you see the tree you hit. Oversteer is when you only hear it.” – Walter Rohrl
Bob: “I know he was cheating because I was cheating and he beat me.” – Unknown
Web: NASCAR driver (Buddy Baker?) on TV after a long spinning slide leading to a crash: “I kinda got a little behind in my steering.”
Ryland: “He got a little behind in his steering.” – Dorsey Schroeder
GMC Guy88: “We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn’t that much money to be made.” – Richard Petty
Barry: “If you are under control, you are not going fast enough” – George Follmer (of early Trans Am fame)
Charles: “I didn’t mean to turn him around, I just meant to rattle his cage.” – Dale Earnhardt
Darthtrader: “We would like to thank all the funny car racers for using a Chrysler Hemi in their cars” – Quote from a Dodge Ad.
Darthtrader: “That race is like a 10-hour plane crash” – Parnelli Jones describing the Baja 1000
Richard: Regarding the density of air, “at 250 mph it’s like driving through a fruitcake.” – Koenigsegg
Kim: Mickey Thompson was once asked what it is like driving in the Baja 1000. His response, “it’s like being in an all day plane crash!!”
ET: “If It’s not in the Rules, It must be Legal.” – Tim Pawl at Indy, 1992
studenorton: “It was my corner. He got in my way. I ran over him.” – Bruno Giacomelli
Rod: “Motor racing is a disease of the brain, you know. It gets affected by it.” – Robs Lamplough
Tinkerah: What I used to say before terrifying a new passenger in my T-bucket: “You’re never more alive than when you’re on the brink of death. Let’s live a little!”
Timothy: “Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue, but it has its curious rewards.” – James Thurber
Willy T. Ribbs once said this about Tommy Kendall: “He can’t drive a nail into a snow bank”.
The best racing quote that I ever saw was not about racing, but was actually on a race car – one of dozens of quotes from rock music history stenciled all over the race car once owned by John Oates (Of Hall & Oates)….
“One time we saw a bunch of hookers but when we got closer we realized it was Motley Crue.” – James Hetfield, Metallica.
The one I came up with when referring to my driving talent, ” Traction control makes me the driver I think I am”
“Leave me alone… I know what I’m doing”. Kimi Raikkonen
I watched that one live and I think it was later made into a T shirt. Classic Kimi!
“If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying.”
Group 44 racing – The cars in my rear view mirror are losing.
Didn’t Dale Sr. Say “drop the rag let’s go racing”
“Stop the grinning and drop the linen”
You can live in your car, but you can’t race your house.
Car salesman pitch – “You can sleep in your car but you can’t drive your house”
competition makes the world go around
There’s been nobody who could make comments like the late, and very great, Murray Walker. His commentary on Formula 1 is the stuff of legend and books. With “Murrayisms” like “there’s nothing wrong with the car, except it’s on fire”, or “do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna’s car sounding a bit rough”. Then there’s “I don’t make mistakes. I make prophecies which immediately turn out to be wrong”. There are so many to choose from. Sadly he passed way October 13, 2021, after over twenty years as a commentator.
“I want to be champion.” — Pete Aron
“Everyone wants to be champion. There is no distinction in that.” — Sr. Manetta
You are only going fast if the dead fly’s are on the driver’s side window . Walter Rohrl .
I always liked “too much horsepower is almost enough”.
Bill Collins to John DeLorean: ” You know John, it wouldn’t take a lot to drop the 389 into this new LeMans”…
Craig Breedlove, right after his 1964 crash, also said to his father, who was part of the rescue crew, “Daddy, I broke my racer.”