Somewhere in the future race fans will sit back in an easy chair relating to a younger generation how they enjoyed watching one of the best drivers in stock car history.
Today the older generation talks about watching Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Fireball Roberts tear up the competition on a weekly basis.
The current generation will talk about Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Kyle Busch. But at the top of that list will be Jimmie Johnson.
How good is Johnson as a driver? His record speaks for itself as he sits on the verge of making NASCAR history with a fourth consecutive championship. Does anyone doubt that the California driver has several more championships waiting in his future?
Even if lightning strikes the Lowe’s Chevrolet team twice in the final three weeks of the season and Johnson doesn’t finish 25th or better giving Martin his first title, Johnson will still be regarded as one of the best ever.
Johnson has already won 47 races at NASCAR’s highest level and currently ranks 13th on the all-time wins list. By the end of the 2010 season Johnson could easily have 54 victories which would move him into the top 10.
His winning percentage is 16.2 percent over eight full seasons, which is the best among active drivers. Only Jeff Gordon has a double-digit winning percentage among those drivers competing on a regular basis.
That winning percentage ranks Johnson sixth in NASCAR’s record book behind Herb Thomas, Tim Flock, Pearson, Petty and Fred Lorenzen.
As a comparison, fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. has recorded 18 wins in 362 career starts for a winning percentage of 4.9 percent. Since joining the powerful Hendrick Motorsports team, Little E has recorded one victory in 2008 and has now gone 56 races without a victory.
Other racing news
The nice thing about the past two weeks is that the rumor mill seems to have quieted on Danica Patrick running a few NASCAR races in 2010. Patrick didn’t make an appearance at Phoenix and probably won’t travel to Homestead this coming weekend.
The hot rumor a week ago was that Little E was going to put Patrick in his Nationwide car. The last thing Little E needs is further distractions as he wraps up another disappointing season.
Patrick has done nothing to prove that she’s capable of competing in a Craftsman Truck, Nationwide or Sprint Cup stock car at Daytona come February. She has done no testing in a full-bodied race car.
The best thing that could happen is if attention is no longer focused on Patrick until the start of the IZOD Indy Racing League season next March in Brazil.
Sports
DE LA BASTIDE: Johnson is simply one of the best — of all time
Racer is closing in on his 4th straight title.
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It’s tourney time
In the girls basketball regular season, Tipton and Logansport compiled gaudy records and conference championships while Taylor and Kokomo finished with sub-.500 records.
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What a kick for Hoosier native Weatherford
Indianapolis — While Steve Weatherford celebrated with his teammates in the New York Giants’ locker room after the 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, thoughts inevitably turned to Terre Haute — his hometown.
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Ice baths can improve your health
Several years ago, I applied to be a participant in the weekly television show “Survivor.” Disappointingly, I was rejected.
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Wiechmann comes up big in regional
Western senior wrestler Jake Wiechmann had lost twice this season to Kokomo standout Fletcher Miller, and was trailing 3-1 to Miller in the third period of the championship of the 182-pound match at the Peru Regional Saturday when the opportunity for vengeance struck.
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Wildkat wrestlers move nine onto Ft. Wayne semistate
The Kokomo Wildkats’ bus will need just a little bit more gas than usual next weekend to haul its cargo up to Fort Wayne for Saturday’s individual wrestling semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
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Visitors down at tourism office
Since moving its office location from the Kokomo Event Center to downtown Kokomo, the number of walk-in visits for tourism information has dropped 77 percent in one year.
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Kokomo guts out a win at Lebanon
It didn’t take clairvoyance to deduce that Saturday night’s showdown between Class 4A No. 6-ranked Kokomo and Class 3A No. 3-ranked Lebanon in the Tigers’ Rosenstihl Gymnasium had the makings of a close affair.
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Western beats Taylor, secures shot at outright MIC title
Something Taylor coach Andy Lewman noted about Western’s boys basketball team early on this season was how well the Panthers share the ball.
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Kats rock Vikings with 99-point explosion
The last time Kokomo’s boys basketball team enjoyed the type of offensive showcase it put on Friday night, it was at the expense of Kyle Macy’s Peru Tigers.
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Tigers capture big win
Northwestern boys basketball coach Jim Gish didn’t think twice when asked about the biggest factor in his Tigers’ 55-43 win at Class 2A No. 5-ranked Tipton on Friday night.
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