By Ken de la Bastide
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.
