This years NASCAR season has just begun, but already 4 year incumbent champion Jimmy Johnson has won 3 of the 5 completed races, and is sitting pretty in the top 10 as he waits for the Chase to roll around where he consistently dominates the field. Which brings up the question, at least in my mind, will Jimmy Johnson end his career as the best stock car driver of all time?
In Jimmy’s now 9 year career he has won 50+ races and 4 straight championships, a feat never accomplished before. Throw on top of that the fact that outside of his rookie year in which he only raced in 3 races he has never finished outside of the top 5 in the cup series points standings. I think it is inevitable that he will be amongst the best NASCAR drivers when he finishes, but I am not sure anyone will ever classify him as the best.
So what stops Jimmy from earning the moniker of best ever? The fact that racing has changed so much? The car of the future? The Chase? or do you think he will earn that title?
Let me know in the comments below.
Jimmy is a great driver, but best ever I can not agree with. All his championships come under a system that has taken commanding points leads away from other drivers who would have got a championship under the old system. It has always put him in a better position to contended for the championship with this system. Under the old system Jimmy would only have two championships. Nascar actually still keeps tabs in a “what if” section showing how the chase years would have ended if still under the old system. 2004 J Gordon, 2005 T Stewart, 2006 J Johnson, 2007 J Gordon, 2008 C Edwards, 2009 J Johnson. But don’t get me wrong, Jimmy is gonna be one of the greats of the sport. However, even being a Hendrick’s racing fan, I am getting very tired of every nascar related story on TV talking about Jimmy. He’s getting more airtime than overrated Dale Jr used to get!
Can the most popular and currently “best” driver in your sport be over publicized? I mean it is a necessary evil isn’t it?
It is a necessary evil Adam, and really happens in every sport, but it still get old. I guess the only real difference between Jimmy being over publicized and Jr’s is that one driver is good and the other is just living off a name!
Yeah, It is much better now that the face of your sport has won 4 championships and not just 4 races at Daytona.
For those of you out of the loop Jimmy just scored another top 10 at Martinsville moving him up 2 spots to be the point leader now 6 races into the season.
A spot he will probably keep for the majorit of the season without much trouble being that he has won at all but 4 tracks and very rarely finishes outside of the top 15.
Go Jimmy!
Adam, he’s a much better face for the sport, a real champ compared to a 4 time Daytona winner!
just wondering if this site is gonna cover any other types of racing, F1, NHRA, Indy. Cause I find myself following those way more closely now that NASCAR has become specs racing
Unfortunately Bobby, probably not. I just don’t get into those types of racing. Maybe you will get lucky and Dave will write something on them. Sorry.