Closing the door on The Greatest Driver That Never Was, The Marbles' first-ever tournament: after three weeks and more than fifty thousand votes, The Bandit took the checkers in a contest that was almost never in doubt. Bandit had an easy route to the finals, beating a teenage girl, a kid, and a cartoon, but once there still managed to dust runner-up Bo Duke by about a 55-45 margin.

Congrats, Bandit! We raise a Diablo sandwich and a Dr. Pepper to ya! Take us out, boys:

Finals: The Bandit (Smokey and the Bandit) vs. Bo Duke (Dukes of Hazzard)

At long last, after sixteen drivers, fourteen races, and tens of thousands of votes, we're here: the finals of The Greatest Driver That Never Was contest. (You can track the entire progress of the contest by clicking here.) And, to probably nobody's surprise except Cole Trickle's, we've got a couple good ol' Georgia boys vying for the title: The Bandit versus Bo Duke.

Enough with the preliminaries; you know who these guys are, you know what they can do.  Ladies and gentlemen ... who is The Greatest Driver That Never Was?

(UPDATE: If you've never visited From The Marbles before now, welcome. We do this kind of stuff all the time over here. Come on back when all this is done.)

(Thanks to Greg Hester for the graphic and Skeets for the assist.)

Sixteen drivers. Twenty thousand votes. And here we are with The Greatest Driver That Never Was tournament's Final Four, two good ol' boys and two brash racers. On one side, you've got Lightning McQueen, who's beaten The Fast and the Furious's Dominic Torretto and Speed Racer. You've also got The Bandit, who's cruised to huge wins over Herbie's Maggie Peyton and Anakin Skywalker and has to be considered the favorite here.

On the other side of the bracket, there's Cole Trickle, who thumped Stuntman Mike and Ricky Bobby. And you've got Bo Duke, who battered Jason Bourne and scored a big win over Stroker Ace.

So who's going on to next week's championship? The choice is yours, friends. Vote now, and make your case in the comments!

We're in the quarterfinals of The Greatest Driver That Never Was tournament. Click here to see how the first round shook out -- almost all blowouts. The Ricky Bobby / Cole Trickle matchup is still live, and so's the Bo Duke / Stroker Ace tilt and the Lightning McQueen / Speed Racer duel.

Bristol Division Final: The Bandit (Smokey and the Bandit) vs. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)

This one could get ugly. The Bandit absolutely annihilated Maggie Peyton and Herbie by the greatest margin of any Round 1 matchup. Anakin Skywalker put old man Brewster Baker into the wall. I'm predicting a big Bandit win here ... how tough could Anakin be? He's just a kid, after all, it's not like he's got a heart of pure evil, right?

Do what they say can't be done! Vote!

We're in the quarterfinals of The Greatest Driver That Never Was tournament. Click here to see how the first round shook out -- almost all blowouts. The Ricky Bobby / Cole Trickle matchup is still live, and so's the Bo Duke / Stroker Ace tilt. Now, it's cartoon hour ...

Daytona Division Final: Speed Racer (Speed Racer) vs. Lightning McQueen (Cars)

This one was a bit of a surprise to me, since both competitors defeated "real" drivers. Speed Racer wiped the floor with Death Race's Frankenstein, probably because almost nobody remembers that flick. (Then again, Speed Racer's 40-plus himself.) Lightning McQueen struck a blow for the forces of good when he outran The Fast And The Furious's Dominic Torretto. But now these two cartoon legends square off, and the credits will roll for one of them. Get your cereal bowls ready, and vote!

We're in the quarterfinals of The Greatest Driver That Never Was tournament. Click here to see how the first round shook out -- almost all blowouts. The Ricky Bobby / Cole Trickle matchup is still live, and now it's on to a showdown of good ol' boys ...

Atlanta Division Final: Stroker Ace (Stroker Ace) vs. Bo Duke (The Dukes of Hazzard)

Shoot, this here's almost like family racing. The South rolled in the first round, with Bo Duke blowing away Jason Bourne and Stroker Ace scoring the tightest win of the round over Mad Max. Alas, one of these boys is gonna have to go home a loser. Who's it gonna be?

With one round of The Greatest Driver That Never Was complete, here are all the matchups for the quarterfinals. Any predictions so far?

Ricky Bobby vs. Cole Trickle: Vote now!
Stroker Ace vs. Bo Duke: Vote now!
Speed Racer vs. Lightning McQueen: Vote now!
The Bandit vs. Anakin Skywalker: Vote now!

We're in the quarterfinals of The Greatest Driver That Never Was tournament. Click here to see how the first round shook out -- almost all blowouts. Now, it gets hairy ...

Talladega Division Final: Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights) vs. Cole Trickle (Days of Thunder)

Now THIS is a matchup! I gotta tell you, I picked every single one of the first-rounders except the Stroker/Max battle, but this one's got me stumped. You've got a couple psychopaths behind the wheel who'd rather die than finish second. In the first round, Ricky Bobby obliterated the Transporter while Cole Trickle completely dusted Stuntman Mike.

So how's it gonna shake out? And will the winner kiss the loser on the lips? Vote, and make your case for your guy in the comments section!

We had more than 15,000 votes in the first round of The Greatest Driver That Never Was tournament, and Round 2 kicks off tomorrow with a serious Ricky Bobby-Cole Trickle showdown. But what about the folks who didn't make the cut? We could have had an entire bracket based just on those drivers who were good but not good enough to make our tourney. Let's run 'em down:

Going clockwise from top left: Cal Naughton Jr. once again finished second to Ricky Bobby, poor bastard. There's The Driver from the late, lamented BMW Films; check him out on YouTube. Elvis in "Speedway" and "Spinout" -- love ya, E, but the less said about those films, the better. Tron -- we hit our geek quotient with Anakin Skywalker, plus nobody under 35 knows who Tron is.

Steve McQueen's Bullitt was the last man dropped, but we ultimately decided the greatest car chase scene in movie history wasn't enough to get him in. Ditto Elwood Blues, who may have built up a pile of Illinois' finest high enough to reach the El train, but his mission from God didn't include this tournament. Robert Mitchum's Doolin from "Thunder Road" was another possibility, seeing as how his bootlegging story paralleled that of early NASCAR, but we decided he'd be a first-round blowout, since few people have seen the flick. And finally, Speed Buggy ... with two cartoons already in the tournament, we were in danger of turning this into Saturday morning.

Anybody else you think deserved consideration? Come on back tomorrow as we continue the battle!

Ladies and gentlemen, the field of The Marbles' Greatest Driver That Never Was is set. Your matchups are displayed above. And so far, the favorites have run the table. (Bristol and Daytona are still active, but the losers are going to have to make up some serious ground in a hurry.) Who do you peg as the drivers to beat? Could we be headed for an all-Burt finals? Will the South triumph over Star Wars? Could a cartoon win it all?

Later today, we'll go through the drivers who didn't make the cut, and starting tomorrow, the quarterfinals. Ricky Bobby versus Cole Trickle: the NASCAR movie duel for the ages!