Top 10 Cup Series drivers all time?

M

Mattski

Guest
I'm sure someone has brought something similar up, but I'm a new racing fan who has found a fascination with the history of the sport. So without any what ifs or evidence from any racing outside of cup races...who ya got? Bottom line top 10 all time.

...and if you have the extra time tell me why too!


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I'll start:
1. Richard Petty
2. Dale Earnhardt
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Jeff Gordon
5. Cale Yarborough
6. Darrell Waltrip
7. David Pearson
8. Lee Petty
9. Tony Stewart
10. Bobby Allison

1-Petty has 200 wins and raced for 34 seasons, dominating most of that era.
2-Earnhardt had 7 titles, most physically gifted driver ever, 76 wins
3/4- Johnson over Gordon with 6 titles despite Gordon's higher win total.
5/6- Yarborough and Waltrip both have 3 titles, but Yarborough had 3 in a row and stayed competitive throughout career. The late 90's hurt Waltrip's ranking.
7- in an Era where Petty won 7 and 200 races, Pearson won 3 and 105...great driver, but the competition was less competitive and Petty shows what could be truly done in this period
8-Lee Petty had 54 wins and 3 titles, had NASCAR officially started earlier, he's in the top 3...but going strictly by cup stats, he's a good fit here at 8.
9/10- Stewart's 3 titles get the nod over Allison's 84 wins and 1 title.


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Mattski said:
I'll start:
1. Richard Petty
2. Dale Earnhardt
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Jeff Gordon
5. Cale Yarborough
6. Darrell Waltrip
7. David Pearson
8. Lee Petty
9. Tony Stewart
10. Bobby Allison

1-Petty has 200 wins and raced for 34 seasons, dominating most of that era.
2-Earnhardt had 7 titles, most physically gifted driver ever, 76 wins
3/4- Johnson over Gordon with 6 titles despite Gordon's higher win total.
5/6- Yarborough and Waltrip both have 3 titles, but Yarborough had 3 in a row and stayed competitive throughout career. The late 90's hurt Waltrip's ranking.
7- in an Era where Petty won 7 and 200 races, Pearson won 3 and 105...great driver, but the competition was less competitive and Petty shows what could be truly done in this period
8-Lee Petty had 54 wins and 3 titles, had NASCAR officially started earlier, he's in the top 3...but going strictly by cup stats, he's a good fit here at 8.
9/10- Stewart's 3 titles get the nod over Allison's 84 wins and 1 title.


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A good list. The top 4 is a tough one imo. Pearson, Earnhardt, Petty, and Jimmie Johnson. Good GOAT arguments could be made for all four, hard for me to put one ahead of the other.
5. Gordon.
6,7,8 Allison, Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, I cant seperate these 3 either.
9. Lee Petty
10. Is a tough one as well. Rusty Wallace, Fireball Roberts, and probably some others I will regret forgetting.

All of this is very subjective and many compelling cases can be made for many drivers. So the considerations need to be broad, even the criteria could be debated into infinity. I might even want to altar my last 2 positions #9 and #10, after reading a few more comments.

A great thread topic imo, but I think the topic is just good for discussion and consideration. Because I don't think anyone is capable of having the final say or word.
A good means or way to look a lot of great and worthy careers, all worthy ones that should and deserve to be celebrated.
 
Greg said:
A good list. The top 4 is a tough one imo. Pearson, Earnhardt, Petty, and Jimmie Johnson. Good GOAT arguments could be made for all four, hard for me to put one ahead of the other.
5. Gordon.
6,7,8 Allison, Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, I cant seperate these 3 either.
9. Lee Petty
10. Is a tough one as well. Rusty Wallace, Fireball Roberts, and probably some others I will regret forgetting.

All of this is very subjective and many compelling cases can be made for many drivers. So the considerations need to be broad, even the criteria could be debated into infinity. I might even want to altar my last 2 positions #9 and #10, after reading a few more comments.

A great thread topic imo, but I think the topic is just good for discussion and consideration. Because I don't think anyone is capable of having the final say or word.
A good means or way to look a lot of great and worthy careers, all worthy ones that should and deserve to be celebrated.
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I agree , the one that jumped out at me was Smoke . If you just want to look at titles , then why have a list ? He wasn't top ten in my estimation .
 
1. Dale Earnhardt
2. Richard Petty
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Joe Weatherly
5. David Pearson
6. Jeff Gordon
7. Cale Yarborough
8. Lee Petty
9. Tony Stewart
10. Tim Flock

Weatherly ranked in 4th because he won 25 of just 230 races he participated and won 2 Championships. Could have won more if his career hadn't ended tragically.
 
Petty
Pearson
Earnhardt
Elliott
Kulwicki
Everyone else
I put Elliott and Kulwicki on there because they are the last of a now extinct breed that that came into NASCAR with nothing and found success. To me that is the true measure of a great driver.
 
1. Earnhardt
2. Johnson
3. Pearson
4. Gordon
5. R Petty
6. D Waltrip
7. B Allison
8. C Yarborough
9. Stewart
10. R Wallace

I put a premium on modern performance. Partially because it's the time frame I have greater knowledge of, but also in recognition of the fact that the Johnsons and Gordons of the world have to beat 30+ cars on a weekly basis, while the Pettys and Pearsons only had to beat 5-10.
 
29-4 said:
1. Earnhardt
2. Johnson
3. Pearson
4. Gordon
5. R Petty
6. D Waltrip
7. B Allison
8. C Yarborough
9. Stewart
10. R Wallace

I put a premium on modern performance. Partially because it's the time frame I have greater knowledge of, but also in recognition of the fact that the Johnsons and Gordons of the world have to beat 30+ cars on a weekly basis, while the Pettys and Pearsons only had to beat 5-10.
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there is always a trade off. In Petty's and Pearson's day they didn't have bulletproof cars like JJ and Gordon did either. They also weren't having to drive to their next race and run then having to run the next day or two and didn't have a perfect backup car on the hauler to pull off to run. Two entirely different eras and situations. Put Petty and Pearson in their prime in todays cars and JJ and Gordon in the 60's and 70's cars with the crews of the day and would they do anywhere near what they've done?
 
10. Kenny Wallace
9. Bob Burdick
8. Richard Childress
7. Rick Mast
6. Lake Speed
5. David Gilliland
4. Todd Kluever
3. Bill lester
2. Scott Speed
1. Danica Patrick
 
Good thread so far, I hope it continue with each person respecting the choices of others without snide remarks. To make it easier I will not post my choices because few of the real old timers would be on it.
 
I find it impossible to rank drivers across different eras and there are also many drivers I didn't get to see run an entire career. For drivers I got to see run the bulk of or entire career I would rank them this way and there are only 5.

Dale Earnhardt

Jimmie Johnson

Jeff Gordon

Darrell Waltrip

Rusty Wallace

If I was going to rank drivers on partial careers, things I have read and anecdotal evidence I would go with.



David Pearson
Dale Earnhardt
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Gordon
Cale Yarborough
Darrell Waltrip
Bobby Allison
Richard Petty
Bobby Isaac
Ned Jarrett
 
Herman Beam, Wendell Scott, JD McDuffie, Buddy Arrington, Bill Champion, Jimmy Means, Cecil Gordon, Dave Marcis……..The stuff put hard work and risk on the race track.

They earned a livin’ at it. And, my respect.

Just sayin'.
 
R Clarence said:
Herman Beam, Wendell Scott, JD McDuffie, Buddy Arrington, Bill Champion, Jimmy Means, Cecil Gordon, Dave Marcis……..The stuff put hard work and risk on the race track.

They earned a livin’ at it. And, my respect.

Just sayin'.
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It makes me sick to remember seeing JD's car careening into the wall at the Glen. You knew how bad it was by the reaction of his friend Jimmy Means when he got out of his car and looked in on him.
 
It's amazing to me the number of people ranking Jimmie so high after all of the flack he takes on here. I'd go:

Petty
Gordon
Earnhardt
Pearson
Johnson
Everyone else
 
Random fact: Richard Petty only had two top-10 finishes in his last 120 races.

Not taking anything away from his greatness, just thought it was interesting.
 
1. Dale Earnhardt
2. Richard Petty
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. David Pearson
5. Jeff Gordon
6. Cale Yarborough
7. Darrell Waltrip
8. Bobby Allison
9. Mark Martin
10. Rusty Wallace
 
I always think about how Mark Martin had a stretch from 90-94 when he raced against an almost unstoppable Earnhardt only for it to be followed by an almost unstoppable Gordon from 95-98. he had his own best 8 or 9 years at that time and still managed such a quality career.
 
To me, all one can do with any real validity is to name the best one or two or three of an era. To rank these against the best of other eras is a fool's errand, filled with biases and flimsy assumptions. The names on my list would be the same names mentioned on most other lists, but I'd refrain from ranking them, as it inherently lacks validity. Chronologically:

Herb Thomas
Lee Petty
Ned Jarrett
David Pearson
Richard Petty
Cale Yarborough
Bobby Allison
Darrell Waltrip
Dale Earnhardt
Jeff Gordon
Jimmie Johnson
 
I had to give almost every post on this thread a ''like''...... because everyones picks were great. There is no right or wrong as to how each person chooses who they think are great..... What I DID notice was...... most everyone picked 75 percent of the same drivers...... that's interesting.... except for Fordracing 7...... I couldn't have picked a better list than you guys..... I have always been a Mark Martin diehard fan...... and I want to include him on that list but with only 10..... it's so hard to do because there have been so many great drivers in the last almost 70 years now..... Can you believe that Nascar is almost in it's 70th year??????? AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
 
AdoubleU24 said:
It's amazing to me the number of people ranking Jimmie so high after all of the flack he takes on here.
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I loathe all things #48, but as much as it pains me to say it, I think he's the GOAT. It's just so hard to dominate in the series today with the way the rules are and the technology we have. So for him to do what he did is just amazing. My top 5 would be:

Jimmie Johnson
Dale Earnhardt Sr
David Pearson
Richard Petty
Jeff Gordon
 
AdoubleU24 said:
It's amazing to me the number of people ranking Jimmie so high after all of the flack he takes on here. I'd go:

Petty
Gordon
Earnhardt
Pearson
Johnson
Everyone else
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I also rank Gordon higher than Johnson. Gordon put him in a car that was able to do those things. Gordon changed the face of Nascar in '95.
 
Ashstrodamus said:
I also rank Gordon higher than Johnson. Gordon put him in a car that was able to do those things. Gordon changed the face of Nascar in '95.
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I have to place Petty, Jeff, and Dale over Jimmy simply for winning real championships. I don't know that Jimmie would have won under the old format. Call it testing or whatever, they've openly admitted to struggling in the summer months year after year. Just don't see him being able to bring the consistency that the old format required.
 
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