NASCAR's greatest drivers - Happy29's Blog

Happy29's Blog

NASCAR's greatest drivers

Posted on September 7, 2011 at 09:30 PM.

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Yesterday Jeff Gordon took soul possession of third place in NASCAR's all time win list with his 85th career win. We all know Jeff Gordon is one of NASCAR's greatest drivers with 85 wins and 4 championships, but where will he rank on my list. This list is my opinion of who are NASCAR's greatest drivers and must be taken that way as an opinion your list may be different but here goes.

5 Richard Petty... WHAT!!?? The King comes in at number 5? The guy who has 200 wins and is tied with Dale Earnhardt for most championships 7 is 5th. Let me explain why I believe Richard Petty comes in last on this list. Of his 200 wins 140 of them come between 1960 and 1971. 140 wins in 11years is impressive until you look at the numbers. 140 wins in 535 races that's a lot of wins but a lot of races but the average race season in those 11 years was 56 races. Not every driver showed up for every race which meant the competition wasn't as tough so winning came easier. 140 wins before the "Modern Era" not as impressive.

4 Darrell Waltrip... Ole DW has 84 career wins and 3 championships. All 3 championships and 43 of his wins come driving for Junior Johnson. In 1987 Waltrip went to drive for Rick Hendrick where he finally won the Daytona 500 in 1989. In 1991 Waltrip decided to leave Hendrick and become an owner driver which only lead to 5 wins not the success he had planned. Still Darrell Waltrip is one of the sports all time greats.

3 Cale Yarborough... There wasn't many drivers with the grit and determination to win like Cale Yarborough. 83 career wins and the first driver to ever win 3 consecutive championships. Cale did whatever it took to get the job done, but he is probably most famous for putting the sport on the map. In 1979 CBS aired the first ever flag to flag live coverage of the Daytona 500, on the last lap Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison was battling for the win when they crashed going into turn 3 giving the win to Richard Petty. When the camera zoomed back to turn three, there was Cale and Donnie now joined by his brother Bobby in a fist fight in a fit of rage over the outcome of the events of the last lap. The next day that's all the news stations was talking about and the next week the fight was on the cover of Sports Illustrated sending the sport into a new stratosphere of following.

2 Jeff Gordon... Jeff Gordon come along as the sport was evolving from a southeast regional sport and help turn it into a National sport. He has 85 career wins 3rdt all time along with 4 championships. Gordon's first race was the 1992 Hooters 500 in Atlanta which was also Richard Petty's last race. In 1993 Jeff won Rookie Of The Year while he did not pick up a points paying win he did win the 1st of the 2 Gatorade Twin 125 mile qualifying races for the season opening Daytona 500. What Jeff did for NASCAR with his clean-scrubbed image and Speed Racer good looks was draw in fans who had never paid much attention to stock-car racing. As his legion of supporters grew, he kept on doing and saying the right things. In time he transcended his sport to become an athlete of national prominence with pop-star appeal. His high profile also enhanced Earnhardt�s folk-hero status.

1 Dale Earnhardt.. The Intimidator comes in at number one with 7 NASCAR Winston Cup Championships and 76 career wins. He is the only driver to ever win the Rookie Of The Year and follow that up by winning the championship the next year. Dale drove most of his career for Richard Childress when no other driver would have given a thought to driving for Childress. His equipment was never known to be among the best but it fit Earnhardt's style perfectly, together they won 6 Winston Cup Championships. In 1987 Junior Johnson tried to get Earnhardt to pilot his number 11 Budweiser Chevrolet but Earnhardt's commitment to Childress was unwavering. Junior Johnson said of Earnhardt driving for him "Hell if he'd a come over here and drove my cars we would have won 10 championships". People said Earnhardt could see the air and that was never more clear than in his final win at Talladega in October of 2000. With 4 laps to go Dale was mired back in traffic running in 18th place when he started his charge when the cars come around to take the white flag Dale Earnhardt was leading the field. Making moves that people are still talking about today. Tragically om February 18th, 2001 in the season opening Daytona 500 Dale Earnhardt lost his life in a turn 4 last lap crash while protecting the lead of the 2 cars he owned driven by Michael Waltrip and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Drivers that deserve an honorable mention and could easily be anywhere on this list are current 5 time cup champion Jimmie Johnson, David Pearson, Bobby Allison. Some may say "well Kyle Busch should be there somewhere" as good as he is he has not proven that he can be anything more than a regular season race winner. He has to win a championship first and so far he hasn't, he's never won a race in the months of October or November. And with NASCAR's chase for the cup if you can't win in the post season you will never wina championship.

So this is my list as how I think the greatest drivers line up. Depending on how this season ends if Jimmie Johnson wins his 6th championship then some reoredering will have to go on.