The Greatest Ever?

HoneyBadger

HoneyBadger

I love short track racing (Taylor's Version)
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Let's be honest, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon would've never won 7 and 4 championships respectively if Tim Richmond, Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki hadn't died and Ernie Irvan hadn't been severely hurt in a crash.

What Jimmie has done, with the current competition level, is remarkable.

IS he the greatest driver ever? Chad Knaus the greatest crew chief ever?

Your thoughts...
 
I think he is the greatest driver. I don't like to admit it but oh well.

What's more remarkable is how Jimmie does it with out wrecking anyone. He goes from the front to the back and to the front again with minimal effort it seems.
 
Individually, I'm not sure. I think it's too early to tell. He's certainly in the top-10 drivers of all time, and knocking on top-5. Knaus is probably in the top-3 crew chiefs of all-time. It's hard to put him above Smokey Yunick.

But as a driver/crew-chief team they are without a doubt the best there has ever been in the sport. With the competition at the highest level it's ever been in the 61 year history of the sport, their 4 championships in-a-row together is remarkable.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Let's be honest, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon would've never won 7 and 4 championships respectively if Tim Richmond, Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki hadn't died and Ernie Irvan hadn't been severely hurt in a crash.
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That's debatable. Earnhardt did get his 7th when Irvan got hurt and had a huge points lead. But that's not to say something else doesn't happen somewhere else. Call it fate, destiny, God's Will, or whatever, things happen as they happen.

I still can't go there yet as being the best ever because he's basically doing it over a 10-race period and not a 36-race period. He does win 2 of them under the old system, winning the other 2 probably doesn't happen. But we don't know if he'd race differently if he had to do this over the whole year. If he had won 4 under the old systemor or if he had been the points leader after 26 races and still won it, I'd be there with you.
 
MRM said:
That's debatable. Earnhardt did get his 7th when Irvan got hurt and had a huge points lead. But that's not to say something else doesn't happen somewhere else. Call it fate, destiny, God's Will, or whatever, things happen as they happen.

I still can't go there yet as being the best ever because he's basically doing it over a 10-race period and not a 36-race period. He does win 2 of them under the old system, winning the other 2 probably doesn't happen. But we don't know if he'd race differently if he had to do this over the whole year. If he had won 4 under the old systemor or if he had been the points leader after 26 races and still won it, I'd be there with you.
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Agree!
 
It's difficult for me to judge anyone as being a great driver when the drivers are the first ones to say it's a team sport.

Would Johnson have accumulated all the wins driving the #7 car with another crew chief? Probably not.

IMO, 4 in a row doesn't put him up there and so the stats have to stand as the benchmark.

Johnson simply doesn't have the wins or cup titles to be considered in the elite group - although I don't see anything stopping him from one day being up there.

I don't think that Johnson is the most talented driver but I do believe him to be the smartest.
 
One of the reasons I think Jimmie is the greatest is, all the cars are equal..Back in the day the car was the powerhouse, you could do what you wanted to with it. Now it's all driver.
 
You cant compare a championship of Petty, Earnhardt, or Gordan's vs. Johnson.

If they same point system was used vs those guys, then you could.
 
Imposible to compare. All 3 raced in differant era's. Richard Petty raced when they had 60 race seasons and 5 drivers won every race. Dale raced in an era where there was only about 25-30 races a years and 5-8 possible winners. Now we are up to about 20 guys that can win but there is 36 races. As for the points systems well all 3 of them knew what it took to dominate and what it took to win even Jeff Gordon in the 90's looked like he was going to reach 7 titles.
 
Go Panthers said:
You cant compare a championship of Petty, Earnhardt, or Gordan's vs. Johnson.

If they same point system was used vs those guys, then you could.
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Even if the points were the same, you still couldn't compare them. The cars, the resources, the technology...all different. Hell, radial tires alone should be enough to stop any comparisons between today's drivers and yesterdays drivers.
 
The "greatest ever", no way to compare. One of the greatest ever may be possible. So many differences between then and now.
 
I dont think you can call anyone the "best ever" because you have some of the best but they raced in different times so you can't call any one person the best IMO.
 
Best ever, no way. one of the best for sure. like folks on here have already mentioned, these guys won their titles in different era's of NASCAR. And also already mentioned, how could you overlook the chase format, thats helped Johnson out tremendously, someone do the math & look to see under the old points system where he'd have fared. We don't know how many titles Tim, Davey & Alan would've won or if Tim & Davey would've won any. I'm obviously biased cause i'm an Earnhardt Sr fan but look at this, Richard Petty took 16 years to win his 7 titles from 64 to 79, Dale Sr took 15 to win his from 80 to 94. Jeff Gordon won his first in 95 that puts him at his 15th year this season since his 1st & he's still at 4. Imgaine Dale Sr drives 1988 without the problems they had & without the problems at Charlotte in 1989, further to that off 1992 season & then getting spun out by Morgan Shepherd at Talladega on the last lap in 1995. You know what that means? Sr would have won 10 str8 Winston Cups. Fate & luck to which JJ has had alot of. Now this time next year if JJ has a fifth str8 title, we'll re-evaluate a little, a little...
 
The problem is our society is always calling current people "the greatest". ESPN is to blame for that, they overhype more people than anyone else out there.
 
Ricky Bobby is the greatest ever.

ricky-bobby-if-you-aint-first.jpg
 
Heck, even the drivers, owners, and crew chiefs can't determine who was the greatest.

Of course we all have our opinions, and most of our opinions aren't worth a shaker of salt. :D
 
I personally think Richard Petty is the greatest ever, but I can also certainly say that I am biased in this regard. He was my favorite driver, and therefore I obviously viewed everything he did as the best. It's hard to argue with 200 victories, regardless of any other factors though.
 
Greatest ever....... no such thing..... I mean will he be looked upon as one of the best in the sport 20 years from now? of course...... Is what he has done remarkable? without a doubt..... but. I don't see how you can say one driver is the greatest......
On any given Sunday, with any given circumstances, anyone can win. But there are few that can do it week in and week out. there are drivers that many can argue are "the greatest"..... Look at drivers like Curtis Turner and Tiny Lund.... many old schoolers will say they are the greatest, but there stats don't live up to that. Then again, Turner spent half of his career banned by NASCAR, and Tiny was so hard on equipment, he never got a decent ride ( but he did win Daytona for the Woods)..... Petty is beyond a doubt one of the greatest, and has the stats to prove it..... but if you look only at stats, there are two sides to that coin.... Pearson ran limited seasons most of his career, but has over 100 wins, and leads Petty by a few wins when they ran 1-2...... Gordon looked unbeatable in the 90's, now not so much..... Look at Earnhardt...... same kinda thing with him in the 80's.
The teams make as much of an impact as the driver..... when Dale had the Flyin Aces, and Shelmerdine as cc, Gordon with the Rainbow Warriors and Ray.... DW with the Dew Crew and Brew Crew with Junior Johnson..... It is alot to do with chemistry as much as skill behind the wheel. Very few that are where they are would be there without the skill.
The racing has changed sooo much as well. No more dirt, very few short tracks, all types of adjustments to make to car, so much technology
I saw an interview not too long ago with ( I think) it was Petty, and he was asked about the new drivers vs the old drivers, and if the new guys could do what they did back in the day, and his response was, if they ran like they did back then, you would stil see the same guys up front.....
Personally i think the driver today are talented, but I gotta think the pioneers were by far better drivers, given the equipment.... but the drivers today have it much rougher when it comes to gettin a good ride and beatin the competition.....
So the long answer to the qusetion is no, not greatest ever, but still pretty darned good. Ok i'll hush up now..........lol
 
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