iNSIDE SCOOP: Explaining Six-Time

Usually, when you have an iconic champion in  a sport, there is a certain stamp of his (or hers) that encompasses the person, the player (driver) and his or her era.

Michael Jordan was different than Tom Brady. Johnny Bench was different than Bobby Orr. You get the idea.

Jimmie Johnson, however, is a bit harder to find a niche for, in terms of all that.

Simplest thing to do is to compare him to his peers, but even that is difficult.

The best comparison would probably be Jeff Gordon. Both are quiet, unassuming. Both are from California. Both have a competitive side that is masked in large part; they aren’t thump-your-chest and in-your-face. That is more the Tony Stewart-Rusty Wallace mold. 

Though they are quiet, they have the ability to flare up at the drop of a hat…or a bumper. Witness Gordon’s dust-ups with Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton, for example. Johnson hasn’t had the physical confrontations that his mentor/car owner has, but there’s a feeling that once you cross the line, it would happen in a heartbeat…and he doesn’t plan to lose.

Johnson’s six titles put him behind just two drivers in history: Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Comparing him to either of them is nigh on impossible.

As The King says, you can’t compare the two because they come from different eras. The King was NASCAR’s beginning; Johnson is the present. Earnhardt slides neatly between the two. 

The King and the Intimidator were country as a cob; Johnson is SoCal cool. Earnhardt was a hard-driving SOB. The King and Johnson are more tactical, less physical. They dominate without seeming to, where Earnhardt’s domination was like the 10th round of a heavyweight title fight.

No driver ever has won six titles in eight years. Not Petty, not Earnhardt, not Gordon. Stewart won his three in nine years. 

In terms of where he fits in the pantheon of NASCAR fame, that’s a story that has yet to be written. We won’t know until he’s no longer driving where that is. I feel safe in saying, however, that he will be in the discussion for greatest of all time. 

He won’t beat Petty’s record for victories, but that’s about all he won’t accomplish.

Think about what Petty might have been like had he been winning now instead of the 1950s-1980s. Would he be the star that Johnson is? I reckon so, but I think he would have had to have been a different man than he is. 

Richard Petty is humble, a gentleman of the Southern tradition, and not given to blowing his own horn no matter how much it might be deserved. That’s not a good fit in today’s “me, me, me” world.

Johnson is a bit like that, too, but he manages the humility with grace.

This is a story that will continue to write itself for however long Six-Time sits in the cockpit. Look for further chapters as time goes by.