Mr. Johnson wins his 6th cup championship

[CIRF]

It is interesting how it depends greatly on who the driver is in regards to winning championships.

I've seen it said dozens of times over the years that The King wasn't that good of a driver, he just had superior equipment and that his record indicates the quality of his team and equipment as opposed to the quality of the driver.

Then the mid-eighties roll around and through the mid-nineties the driver winning several championships was the reason, not so much the team.

Then Gordo starts his run of championships in '95 and along with the Labonte brothers effectively ends the reign of ironhead and the talk reverts back to a tone of "it's Evernham not Gordo".

Enter Jimmy Johnson onto the scene, and the talk is that the crew chief and team is again the reason, not the driver.

The last championship baby stewy won it was said by many that he put the team on his back and carried them to the championship. If the team concept holds true then bs was just one little cog and the bs quotient is at play, again.

I believe that Gordo and Hendrick are so hated by the ironhead clan for effectively ending once and for all ironhead's tenure of winning championships that no matter what, it won't be the driver. They are cheating, or they are getting breaks from the sanctioning body, etc. While we're on that subject, NO ONE got more breaks from Billy France than ironhead. That's what periodically taking France out on your yacht fishin' will get ya'. The whole discounting the driver mentality has spilled over onto the 48 team from the 24.

So it appears it matters who you are or who you drive for whether or not it's the team or the driver. I've not seen one shred of evidence that Jimmy Johnson has a substantially better crew or equipment than any other of the major teams in Cup racing.

The team concept is to a significant extent true, but many are not consistent with that narrative To downplay Johnson's driving ability is a bit short sighted or the hate factor is at play.

However, I would admit Matt Kenseth is a championship caliber driver and has been for some time and besides that he's a good guy.

[DirtClassic]

Jimmy Johnson Richard Petty Pictured Together

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bantam10/4291262493/

[TS FAN]

Iron head was a great driver too, but he won because his teams were of championship caliber. Then the question becomes how come has Gordon not won a championship since years when he got his dominating cars? To say that Johnson doesn't get dominating cars most races is delusional to some extent. I have seen him drive when he doesn't have a dominate car. Looks pretty much like every one else. I just think the driver often gets too much credit. If a driver does not have a championship team behind him, he is not going to be the points winner.

[CIRF]

4 requests for proof and you can't/won't provide tangible evidence that the 48 is getting superior equipment and has vastly better personnel on the team. We must assume what it really is and that is merely an opinion, and I suspect a biased one at that.

Gordo probably stopped winning championships for the same reason The King didn't win a championship the last 13 years of his career and ironhead stopped winning championships in 1995 till he bought the farm in 2001 and even with NASCAR's help and protection I don't believe ironhead would have been champion again. I have no proof but my guess is that all 3 of those guys had lost a little something on the track and there is no shame in that.

Great pic DirtClassic. Those 2 guys account for 20% of all Cup championships and account for a much bigger portion of class and dignity in NASCAR.

[TS FAN]

I give. Think what you want and I will think what I want. I cannot even give a reasonable response to your last post. BTW I do not hate Johnson like apparently you hate several drivers. I just think he gets to much credit for winning points championships. All drivers usually do.

[CIRF]

The operative word is "think". You can "think" what you want but the facts are that Johnson has won 6 championships in 8 seasons and it's never been done before by anybody and that stat alone puts him and his team in a league by themselves.

I don't hate any of the drivers mentioned. All one can do is watch how some of the drivers conduct themselves in comparison to others and draw conclusions from that, good or bad.

[t.nie]

From Ken Schrader's mouth to your ears. You can also read other articles written about this subject elsewhere, and do some research into tire construction to learn for yourself.

The last Bias-ply tire race was in Bristol in 92. After that, Radials came in. Bias-ply tires change in diameter, heat up, wear at different rates, etc over the course of a 50 lap run. So the driver has to constantly adjust to the car lap after lap to stay fast. Schrader described it as the car loosened up a lot over a run, so you were up on the wheel driving the thing after 15 laps of any run and it was a lot of concentration, skill and work.

Enter the Radial. It took the skill set the old timers like Ironhead, Schrader, Jarrett, who had carved their way into Nascar driving tail happy cars on dirt out of the equation. The tire stays stable, so driving loose doesn't matter as much as knowing suspension design and tuning to go fast. Basically, the tire isn't going to alter the handling characteristics over a run significantly, so the young guns like the Bush boys, Kes, Johnson, who know nothing but suspension tuning to go fast, are going to rise. And Chad, obviously, understands tuning and the 48 better than most.

Different era, different skills. There was racing before 92, and there's racing after. And you can see a marked drop off in performance of the old guard and a rise in new talent that corresponds with it.

[t.nie]

I'd agree with the comment about The King not being as great as his numbers would make you think. I looked at his career stats, and his big winning years when he would win 27 races or whatever. There were a bunch of little Podunk places with 22 entries and he would be the only top notch professional guy there and whoop em. So what?

It would be like a pro caliber quarterback playing 10 seasons at a local high school, 2 at a junior college and 2 in the pro's then pointing at his "career" stats and going "look at me, I'm the best ever!"

[CIRF]

Hmmm. I'm willing to bet it would be real hard to find anyone who honestly follows the sport to say that the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway is a podunk place. The King has more wins in what always has been NASCAR's biggest race than anyone, alive or dead.

David Pearson, who many regard as the best of all time, has been repeatedly asked who's the best he ever raced with and he has said repeatedly that it is The King. Pearson's career began at Charlotte in November of 1959 and ended in November of 1986 so he was there racin' The King just about the whole way and Pearson sure doesn't bad mouth King's win total because of who he raced against. I'll take Mr. Pearson's word over mere speculation 'cause he actually was in position to know for sure one way or the other.

The Petty family lived on what they won racing and 6 or 7 families depended on their operation to put food on their tables so they raced as much as they could and survival was in direct contrast to results. They went to compete in these races and lined up against whoever was there to race. They had no control over who showed up, unless they brought another Petty Enterprises car for someone like Buddy Baker or Jim Paschal to drive.

The tire testing King did during the development of the inner liner showed the size stones the guy has. Jimmy Pardue and Billy Wade died in those same tire tests at Daytona and Charlotte so there was no lack of guts on King's part.

Plus, he always had a reputation of racing clean and there never was talk of him having NASCAR deeply in his pocket like some did.