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Three in a row ... It only took 30 years
Well folks, we had a pretty exciting weekend of racing down in Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The Craftsman Truck Series race was amazing. Seeing Johnny Benson pull out the championship on pit strategy was cool. I was able to be part of the SPEED pre-race show with Krista Voda and then spent some time up in the booth with Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and my brother Michael. I just had a great night on Friday night. It was exciting to watch.
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News:
- Sources: Sadler set to return to No. 19
- Petty, Gillett Evernham to merge
- Chevy to remain Daytona sponsor
- Owner reaches deal on fraud charges
- Logano to defend All-Star title
- Baldwin to debut Cup team at Daytona
Analysis:
- DW: Teams spend too much
- Owens: Where were the fireworks?
- DW: Petty cash, not enough
- McReynolds: It all starts here
- Mondaca: Nine stories for '09
Looking back at 2008:
Blog:
I am so happy for Johnny, especially knowing it was his last race for Bill Davis Racing. I don't look for Johnny to retire. I am sure he will find a place to hang his hat for 2009.
Friday night was pretty exciting, but so was Saturday. It was fun watching Carl Edwards do whatever he could to try and keep Clint Bowyer from winning the Nationwide Series championship. Clint had enough of a pad in the points to bring the championship home, but you have to give Carl a pat on the back for doing all he could to win it all.
Saturday was a lot like Sunday for Carl. Trying to make up the big point difference was a tall order in both series. It was just too much. Carl again did what he had to do. He went out, led the most laps and won the race. Jimmie Johnson seemed to have a comfortable car. He could race when he wanted to and did enough to win the championship.
There lies the story.
It seems like these past few weeks I have been constantly asked about Jimmie and his crew chief Chad Knaus. People want to know if Jimmie is the greatest driver of all time. People want to know if Jimmie and Chad are the greatest dynamic duo of all time in NASCAR history. Is the No. 48 the greatest team that has ever raced?
You know folks, I have seen a lot of things in my racing career. There were times when I thought I had raced with the greatest. I have seen things I thought would never be duplicated again. I was around when Richard Petty was the dominant driver of our sport. When Cale Yarborough won his three championships in a row in '76, '77 and '78, we all said no one will ever do that again. What he and Junior Johnson did was unheard of. They had exactly what Jimmie has today: The best owner, the best car, the best team and the best driver. That made them at that time the greatest team in NASCAR. I teamed up with Junior in 1981 and I had my little run. Then I watched Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress hook up to make their run and they were the dominate team of the time. Then along came Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick and they became the dominate team in our sport for awhile.
We have actually gone through a number of periods in our sport where folks say "No one will ever top that," or "No one will ever break that record." Well guess what? So far other than the 200 wins that Petty has or the 105 wins that David Pearson has, which seems unapproachable, everything else out there in our sport can be had.
Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have put together the same kind of dominating team with dominating performances that Cale had in the '70s. It took 30 years for someone to string three championships together. Some of us have come close, but Jimmie has been the only one now to match Cale's record.
To say this is the greatest race team of all time, well I just can't say that. This is the greatest team of this time and of this era. How they go down in history will take years to determine. You don't write history in five years. You just can't compare someone who has been doing something for five years with someone who has been doing it for 30 years. It just doesn't work that way.
With that being said, if Jimmie and Chad go forward and should they win four championships in a row or however many they end up winning, that puts them in a league all their own. So right now today, Jimmie has three championships and 40 wins. Jeff Gordon has won four championships and 81 races. Does what Jimmie did Sunday put him ahead of Jeff Gordon? No, not in my mind it doesn't. Does it put him ahead of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with seven championships? No, not in my mind.
If you are a history buff, go back and look at the races Cale won in his championship years and see how many cars were on the lead lap at the end of the race. Some races Cale won with others a lap down. In some races you will find that you could finish in the top five yet be six or seven laps down. Just that alone is an indicator of what the competition was like.
Comparing the best
Then go back and see how many teams ran all the races. It was not uncommon back then for someone not to go to Riverside because they didn't want to build a road course car or go all the way to California. Starting in 1972, we had the point system we had to encourage people to run all the races. That was the beginning of what they called the modern era.
NASCAR has laid it out with wins and championships of all time and then they have laid it out with wins and championships of the modern era. The reason they changed the classification was that Winston came in as the series sponsor in '72 and they created the points system that we have now. They also shortened up the schedule. The series went from 50 — 60 races a year to 28 to 30 races a year. They streamlined everything and re-organized everything, so from 1972 forward it became knows as the modern era.
If you look at 1972 forward, that's how you judge who did what in our sport. Don't get me wrong, that is not to diminish anything that happened before then, but it's just the way NASCAR looks at things. In addition to the shorter schedule than we have today, there were also a lot of short track races that were on the schedule that were easier to win on, especially when you drove for Junior Johnson.
Also remember that back in that time the driver didn't have nearly the responsibility they have today. There also weren't multiple car team owners. You didn't have a garage full of inspectors. You also didn't have the media pulling you all over the place plus there would be 15,000 fans in the grandstand and back then that was a lot. Now today you can have 150,000 to 200,000 fans at a track on any given Sunday. My point is that back then, you just didn't have the kind of distractions that you have today. Media obligations were almost none. Sponsor obligations were almost none. You just focused on racing.
Most drivers worked on the cars themselves. Heck, some of them would even drive the hauler to the track. Back then, we didn't have backup cars. You had one car at the track and that was it. It is just hard to put what it was like 30 years ago and compare it to what is going on today. The races today are shorter but there is more competition. Take a look at how many cars are on the lead lap after a race compared to how many were on the lead lap back in the '70s.
Back in the day, Cale could have a bad day but still finish fifth or sixth. Today, if Jimmie has a bad day he can finish 15th or 20th and that has a huge implication point-wise. Jimmie also had to go through a car change that Cale didn't. Jimmie drove the old car we called Twisted Sister and then had to change over to today's COT car.
So this team of Jimmie's has had to do a lot more than Cale had to back in the day. I mentioned the inspection thing a little bit ago. Back in the day we had one template that went over the car plus we had a nose height and a roof height and a weight requirement and that was pretty much it. Today it takes hours to get through inspection. That's just what NASCAR does to you today. They tear your car apart. It has to be perfect just to get through inspection and then guess what? Your car has to be perfect after the race to get through post-race inspection.
Again, my point is that it's a lot tougher today to have a dominating team and build a dynasty than it was 30 years ago. I love Cale. I raced with him. He was as tough as they come. Let me tell you something. When you looked over at him and he had his gloves pulled up over his elbows, buddy, you knew you were in for a fight. Cale was a "drive by the seat of your pants and man handle the car" kind of driver. Jimmie is smoother and more calculating kind of driver. He's a smart driver. He takes care of his stuff and brings it home in one piece.
My nod is to Jimmie Johnson. He and Chad are building something that, not today but someday, will go down as one of the all-time greats. Again, that is someday. Right now, you have to earn your stripes. Jimmie is earning them and trying to put more on his sleeve, but he's not a four-star general yet.
Guys that came before him and raced a lot longer than he has to this point have the stars, the stripes and the purple hearts to go along with it. I can't say enough about Jimmie's car owner either. Rick Hendrick is the Junior Johnson of today's era.
When history looks back at our sport, say thirty years from now, Rick Hendrick, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus will probably be right at the top of the list.
Oh, by the way
I am really pleased with NASCAR issuing the no testing policy last week. I have talked to car owners and they say it can save them upwards of $2-3 million a year. They tell me these test teams going to a track for a two-day test costs as much today as going to a race. NASCAR can always review the status of things in six months or a year and start testing back up if it warrants it.
I still like the idea of opening the track a day early or at least let them test with their telemetry the first day they are at the track. Again, car owners tell me they go test to get the data of what the car is doing. This data goes into their seven post machines back at the shop. Again, I am glad there is a no testing policy in place now, but I wish they would still consider letting these teams use their telemetry one day at the track.
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