CONCORD, N.C. — Who was the most intense driver you’ve seen race in person?

The guy (or girl, to be fair) who would run through the wall to win a race, who would race the other teams into the infield to get the best parking spot?

OK, that last one is a bit far-fetched, but you get the idea.

For me, that’s a tough choice because I’ve seen some particularly driven individuals (pardon the intentional pun) since I started watching and covering the sport for a living.

There are the fiery ones, such as Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, any Busch brother take your pick, and of course, Tony Stewart. Robby Gordon fits that mold, as did Jimmy Spencer. It wasn’t wise to mess with Juan Pablo Montoya too much either (I’m not talking about the fire that came after nailing the jet dryer at Daytona).

There are the calculating ones, too. Drivers the likes of Matt Kenseth, Rick Mears, Kevin Harvick, even Carl Edwards. Dick Trickle was not to be trifled with, either. The big problem with ticking any of them off was that their rivals never saw the retaliation coming until they were picking concrete dust out of their helmet visors.

The ones you really had to watch, though, were the quiet ones.

Larry Dickson was a perfect example. He would never say much, to the point of being virtually mute at the track. He’d go about his business but when the white flag waved, that little dot in the distance ahead of the field was Dickson on his way to winning another sprint car race. Lee Kunzman fit that description, too.

Bob Senneker was another one like that. I grew up around ASA in its heyday and Senneker was the guy everyone loved to beat because it happened so rarely. From 1979, when I first started going to races at Indiana’s Winchester and Anderson Speedways, I saw Senneker win a ton of races.

When I worked for ASA, I was around him all the time and I could count the words I heard him utter on my fingers and still have some left over. All he did was win, and he left the talking to other people.

Now that I’ve rattled off 15 or so names, I come to the hardest, coldest, most-driven guy I’ve ever been around at the track — Rich Vogler.

When talking to Vogler, he was a cool guy. Not only would he tell a story, but he would listen, too, which is odder than one may think. He could flat drive anything he sat in and no one knew just how he did the things he did with a race car strapped to his behind.

When he was setting up a car or making changes to it, he was fully engaged. In other words, if someone would walk up and tell him his hair was on fire, he’d get around to noticing it when he was ready and not before.

Through those countless races at Winchester, IRP (sorry, Forrest; Lucas Oil Raceway) and Anderson, Vogler could switch it on and switch it off depending on the moment and his mood.

It was easy to get the idea that he’d do about anything to win a race and that was pretty much true, but he wouldn’t wreck a driver for kicks. If a driver deserved it, I imagine he would, but he was so good at it that it’s possible no one would notice.

Senneker was like that, and so was Trickle, but not to the extent that I saw in Rich Vogler. Of course, all this is my opinion, and no aspersions are being cast in this column. It’s a random thought exercise and this is where I wound up.

So, after all that, who is the most intense driver you’ve ever seen race, in person?