Jimmie Johnson may be NASCAR’s best driver ever.
By claiming an unparalleled fifth-straight NASCAR championship in come-from-behind fashion, Johnson sits in rarefied air as the dominant force throughout NASCAR’s most-competitive era. After falling just short of winning the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2004 and ’05, Johnson went on to win an unmatched four straight titles from ’06 through ’09. Looking to add to his greatness in 2010, Johnson posted his most-remarkable title defense to date en route to the title. Johnson looked vulnerable through most of the 2010 season, but by besting Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, the most-dominant performer in the regular season and the points leader entering the season’s final race respectively, Johnson added to a streak of championships that few can imagine ever being matched.
Johnson is clearly the best of his era, but is he the best ever?
Championship after championship, the answer is quickly appearing to be yes.
Johnson had made history by winning five-straight championships. During that period he has won 35 races, nearly 20 percent of the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, and the California-native has 53-career wins. And since competing full-time in the Sprint Cup Series starting in 2002, Johnson has never finished worse than fifth in the season standings.
But even more impressive, Johnson has performed his best under pressure by winning 13-of-50 Chase for the Sprint Cup races in that span (26 percent) and has finished in the top-five positions in an outstanding 62 percent of Chase events.
Despite his immaculate credentials, Johnson has a bevy of detractors who will boast Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. are the greatest. They will give Johnson enough due to rank in the top-10 or so, but they will tell you he is yet to match their seven championships spread over their lengthy and storied careers.
They will also point to Petty’s towering win total of 200 and Earnhardt’s aggressive style and on-track skirmishes. But neither competed with the level of competition faced by Johnson.
For Petty, his titles were won in an era when just a handful of drivers – quite literally less than 10 – competed in enough races to vie for the title. And while Earnhardt is best known for his intimidating driver style, he rarely had to contend with more than four or five cars on the lead lap for a win. In the 2010 Chase races, Johnson faced an average of more than 22 cars finishing on the lead lap.
More so, neither Petty nor Earnhardt had their points lead reset entering a playoff period, today’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Undoubtedly, this leveling of the playing field has made it even more difficult for today’s stars to win a NASCAR championship – let alone five in a row.
Looking beyond NASCAR, few organizations in team sports have had similar success: The Boston Celtics claimed eight-straight basketball titles from 1959 to 1966; the New York Yankees won the World Series in consecutive years from 1949 through 1953; the Montreal Canadiens won five-consecutive titles in the late 1950s; and UCLA captured nine-straight NCAA basketball titles between 1964 and 1973.
But since UCLA’s dominant run ended in 1973, only one team – the New York Islanders of the early ‘80s NHL – has posted more than three-straight titles. In today’s modern era of sports, Jimmie Johnson’s reign of success truly stands apart as the greatest.
And at just 35, Johnson is in the prime of his racing career. He has the undeniable potential to extend his championship reign and, given more wins and perhaps a sixth or seventh title, the ability to become one of the greatest winners in the history of the sport.
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