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3 thoughts on “Top 5 NASCAR Drivers of All Time”

  1. Ok first of all this is going to be long! Second, I am SO glad the guy on the right lowered Johnson because of the chase format which is the ONLY THE ONLY reason Johnson has 7! Under the old consistency based system a legit system Johnson would only have 3! This right here is the difference between a real consistency based system and a broken manipulated system(7 compared to 3!) that NASCAR is very involved in every year, to allow drivers who shouldn't win or have a shot at the title! If your 10th or 16th with ten to go, you should have NO shot at the title, you didn't do good enough to have that right! Any driver who won the 'title' since 2004 won It because of a broken system. So because of this Johnson isn't even in my top 5! He's a 3 time champion to me! But, there should be a 3rd seven time champion and that's Jeff Gordon who under the old system would have won 3 more actual titles(2004, 2007, 2014). Jeff Gordon should be a 7 time champion! I also like how neither one of these guys are lessening petty for racing in a 'much weaker era'! Ok yes, during the start of Petty's career he wasnt racing against the same guys every race as most drivers didn't race every race. He was only competing against a few consistent drivers every race so there wasn't very much competition early in Petty's career and his family owned petty enterprises was already established for ten seasons when petty started in 1958. Petty did have better equipment than most but competition picked up into the 70s and petty won 5 titles during that decade and 4 titles starting 1972 which is considered the start of the modern era of Nascar. Petty was still winning titles with high levels of competition! People love to make an excuse for petty to why he has 7 titles because he was racing in a weak era. Well, I can see that excuse for the 200 wins because competition wasn't very high back when petty won a bunch of races in the 60s and he also has 1184 starts but they also make these claims of weak era for his 7 titles! Well we can make a case for Earnhardt that the only reason he has 7 is because of various things that took place and these are quite credible. In 1990 mark was penalized 46 points for a oversized carburator spacer, Nascar only allowed a 2" maximum spacer. Well the car went through inspection many times and it was only after mark won the race Richard Childress pointed to the oversized spacer and said yup that's it right there, that's why mark won! But it went through inspection and bill Francis wasn't there that day to see it either! If mark was never penalized he would have been the 1990 champion as he only finished 2nd 26 points behind Earnhardt and Earnhardt wouldn't have tied petty. 1993 both Davey Allison and Alan kulwick(former champion)die in aircraft accidents. If they never died would Earnhardt still have won the 1993 title!? 1994 Ernie Irvine who took over for Davey Allison and during a practice session at Michigan the car isn't running right so he wants to take one more lap, well going into turn 1 he cuts a tire and wrecks with serious injuries. If Ernie never hit that wall with 11 races to go would Earnhardt still have won the 1994 title, Ernie was only 27 points behind. Honestly Earnhardt had some help to be a 7 time champion! There's so many factors that come into play when discussing the greatest of all time! Era, rules, levels of competition , different drivers across eras, stupid chase formats and so on! I think we forget if this didn't happen than this person or team wouldn't have won! But, the fact is the chase is broken and any driver who wins a 'title' now doesn't have to remain consistent all year long to do so! Nascar you have devalued the title and in turn devalued the champion and in turn devalued your sport!

    Gordon 7
    Petty 7
    Earnhardt 7
    Harvick 4
    Johnson 3
    Hamlin 3
    Edwards 2

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