Racer Nicknames

In the racing world in general, drivers earn nicknames. These nicknames can be picked up for a variety of reasons. One might be based on where the driver is from. Others might be based on their personality. Yet others may be based upon a person's driving style. These nicknames can be found from your local race track up to NASCAR, Formula 1, and so on.
One set of nicknames are based upon where drivers are from. There are many examples I can state that support this. Dirt late model driver Shannon Babb is known as The Moweaqua Missle, since he is from Moweaqua, Illinois. Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa is known as The Muscatine Madman. Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tennessee is known as The Newport Nightmare. These are just dirt late model drivers who have earned their nicknames based on where they are from. Tony Stewart, 2 time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, has a nickname based on where he is from. He is known as The Rushville Rocket since he is from there.
Other drivers earn their nicknames based on their personality. NASCAR driver Carl Edwards is known as Cousin Carl. This is because his cousin, Ken Schrader, gave it based on his calm demeanor. Kevin Harvick is known as Happy. This is kind of an oxymoron. It is kind of based on Happy Gilmore, a character played by Adam Sandler who was a loose cannon golfer. Harvick was early in his career as well, but he has mellowed out some since. Dale Earnhardt was known early on as Ironhead because he was dead set in his ways and no one would get him to change that. Later on he became The Intimidator because of his driving style and image as well.
Other drivers have earned nicknames based on their driving styles. Jason Feger is known as The Highside Hustler. This is because he loves to run his car right up next to the wall on the high side of the race track. Sprint car driver Danny Lasoski is known as Catfish because he likes to run the bottom of the race track. That is where catfish like to be in a lake or river as well. A lot of drivers get the nickname Mr. Excitement. Billy Moyer has earned the nickame Mr. Smooth because of his smooth driving style. He is always in control and rarely erratic. Jimmy Mars is known as The Iceman because of his cool demeanor behind the wheel. He is smooth as well. Tim McCreadie is known as Topside Timmy because of his liking to run the high side of the race track as well. Sammy Swindell, a famous sprint car driver, earned the name Slammin' Sammy because of his willingness to slam the car up on the cushion.
These are just a few of the numerous examples of nicknames that drivers can and do have. Some drivers can have multiple nicknames as well. They are fun for announcers. They are fun for us as fans. Heck the drivers have fun with them for the most part too.