If NASCAR never went to the playoffs system which is completely broken Gordon would have won 3 more titles for a total of 7! Gordon would have been and should be the greatest of all time!
@AlexTossing doesn't JJ and Petty both have the same amount of championships and more wins than Dale? Wouldn't that make 1 of them the greatest by what your saying
Gordon was driving cars that I could have won a championship in. Not one thing he ever did was from pure talent. Everything Dale Earnhardt did was purely from talent.
My Honorable mentions: Terry Labonte Mark Martin Denny Hamlin Tony Stewart Rusty Wallace Bill Elliott Bobby Labonte Ned Jarrett Dale Jarrett Kurt Busch Matt Kenseth Lee Petty Brad Keselowski Joey Logano Martin Truex Jr Harry Gant Jeff Burton Carl Edwards Alan Kulwicki Herb Thomas Mario Andretti Dick Trickle Dale Earnhardt Jr. Edit: This is not a top ten list, I put these as honorable mentions because they made a significant impact on NASCAR today. It's just a list and not be taken seriously.
It’s a top 10 list, get out of here with guys like Kurt Busch or Jeff Burton. Then to put Andretti on here is an absolute joke, he has 1 cup win. Even Kulwicki??? Like really??? I know his career was cut short but he doesn’t even have as many wins as Tim Richmond.
Kevin Harvick is so disrespected in the GOAT debate. He’s easily top 10 to me when you look at his whole body of work. He’s got all 4 crown jewels on his resume and he would be a 4 time champion under a fair format. He’s still a champion. Hes so disrespected because most people don’t consider him top 10. Also im on an island when I say this but I do think Richard petty is the best stat padder in nascar. He had no competition really other than Pearson. He’s overrated in the goat debate I agree with that
@@timechanger9162 He definitely is top 10. And that’s a stupid argument. He did race against more greats than not and still put up the accomplishments and stats he did. He’s top 10 not even close
Harvick's best argument is that he is the only driver who has a winning record against every teammate he ever had for more than one race among drivers who spent their career on multi-car teams. Busch lost to Gordon and Johnson, Gordon lost to Johnson, and Johnson lost to Elliott, Byron and even Bowman. But Harvick never lost to anybody. He also has more than twice as many wins as all of his teammates combined, which is a far higher percentage than any of his contemporaries can say. And he holds the all-time record for highest percentage of laps completed. That said, Petty had way more competition than just Pearson. Rex White, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Dick Hutcherson, Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, Cale Yarborough, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Buddy Baker etc. The thing Petty had that they didn't have was career stability. Most factory teams in the '60's changed drivers like underwear. Petty had the stability of a family operation combined with the speed of a factory team which allowed him to accumulate numbers no one else could dream of. But most of those wins didn't come by default, there were usually at least a few cars that could beat him.
I think Tony Stewart is one of the greatest in all of motorsports. He’s done a lot of things that nobody has done before like being the only former open wheel champion to win the cup series title
@@beniPelle but Montoya never won a championship in NASCAR and IndyCar but Tony Stewart did that. And now Tony Stewart is contending for the top fuel championship in the national hot rod association. If Tony Stewart wins a championship in the NHRA, he’s going to be the only person to ever win a championship in three different racing disciplines. Nobody has ever done that before.
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT You cannot deny Earnhardt's ability, but his bumping and wrecking people puts an asterisk to a great talent. Tim Flock was nascar's most dominant driver before health issues derailed his career. Tim was the first driver to keep accurate records on all aspects of racing, the tracks, surface differences, gearing, etc. Earnhardt was a good road racer but not great, other than that he was truly great. I agree that Ayrton Senna was the greatest driving talent I ever saw. I thought Schumacher was better until his crew chief bragged about having illegal launch and traction control years after Michael had retired. It made sense because Michael was four seconds a lap faster than his teammate at times which raised the red flag. Prost was great but while with McLaren Senna outperformed him and had the 89 title stolen from him by the French head of F1 at that time. Verstappen may be heading towards all time records as well.
I don’t believe Sr is regarded as the GOAT because he die, he was already in the conversation 6 years before he die. You say Jeff Gordon longevity was better, over the his last 5 years he had an average point finish of 6.6. Dale Sr had an average point finish over his last 5 years of 5.2. Dale Sr raced full time until he was 49. Gordon retired younger at 44. I believe competition was equal. Now let’s talk about how well deserved they were on different tracks. Gordon is regarded as one of most talented drivers ever. Gordon only was better at 2.5miles (Pocono & Indy) then Dale Sr & 1 mile tracks. Dale Sr has a better average finish on short tracks, Superspeedway, Intermediate, & road course which was shocking to me.
@@masoneveridge4078 yeah, he usually ran pretty well at road courses, just not winning. those top 5s and top 10s make your average pretty good after a while.
Gordon has 9 wins and Earnhardt has 1 on road courses! Dale has 13 wins on superspeedways and Gordon has 12 only 1 behind! Gordon won more races in more competition! If NASCAR never went to the chase Gordon would have won 3 more titles! Earnhardt was lucky to win the 1990, 93 and 94 titles! For as good as some say Dale was he doesn't have as many wins as he really should, plus he wrecked people to get wins or gain position! I absolutely agree Dale dying on the track has some to do with many thinking he's the goat!
@@timtwing5886 dale didn't wreck as many people as he was made out to. i think someone went back and looked at his last 20 wins and the only person he moved to get one of those was labonte. all i am saying is my case for dale was he did more with less car than the others had. RCR never had the best equipment. if you had put dale in that 24 car in the 90s there is no telling what he would have done.
@@timtwing5886 Dale wreck people in an era where that was the norm. The 80s you had people like DW & Rusty who was that type of drivers. But of his last 20 wins he only wreck 1 person to win. Gordon was also in way better equipment than Dale Sr was ever in. (That’s not Jeff’s fault) but that is a big reason. The question could be was in Jeff or was in Hendrick. Jeff has more wins on R/C but Dale has a better average finish. The competition aspect I don’t understand. Dale Sr race against the likes of some of the best in the sport at a time where multi car teams to get data share was not common. If you look at most Top 10 greatest Dale Sr would probably race against >50% of them. How is that not great competition. So let’s look at a career comparison: Avg Pt Finish: D=4.6 | J=5.6 Win %: D=11.2% | J=11.5% Top 10%: D=63% | J=59% Avg. Pt Fin. Last 10 Seasons: D=4.3 | J=6 Avg. Pt Fin. Last 5 Seasons: D=5.2 | J=6.6 During both of their career, only 3 people (each) won multiple Championships. D= Waltrip, T. Labonte, Gordon J= Earnhardt, Stewart, Johnson. With Dale he won with 2 a title with 2 different teams & 3 crew chiefs. Jeff won with 1 and 2 crew chiefs. So, in the end I do believe that Dale & Jeff is hands down Top 3. I believe Dale has the slight edge.
Regardless of everyone's opinion can we all agree that every driver owned there stripes and deserved 2 be here, with that being said hot take of the day richard is closer to 5th then 1st all time😅😅
Great stuff man! You did say CUP series! And this wasn't "clickbait" but what Kyle Busch has done across all 3 series is just ASTONISHING! I think he has 209 wins?
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Herb Thomas in your honorable mentions. In 228 races he won 48 times and with the highest winning percentage of all time with a 20.96%
1. Jeff Gordon 2. Dale Earnhardt 3. Richard petty 4. Jimmie Johnson 5. David Pearson 6. Cale Yarbrough 7. Darrell waltrip 8. Kevin Harvick 9. Bobby Allison 10. Kyle Busch
1 Petty and Pearson. They won with talent and didn't have to wreck people to win. 2 Jimmy Johnson. Clean driver. Won the most championships in shortest time period. 3 Mark Martin. Cheated out of a championship by nascar. Iroc 's best. 4 Ned Jarrett. Clean racer and dominated in his era. 5 Kyle Busch. Best over all in top 3 divisions. unreal car control. 6 Cale yarborough. Tuff as nails and 3 straight cups 7 Dale Earnhardt. His friendships with the Frances and others let him do anything he wanted 8 Matt Kenseth. Made nascar change championship format . 9 Rusty Wallace. Never give up attitude. 10 Lee Petty. Hateful yet hard nosed.Started career in his mid 30's
@@jasonwiggins How about we go on numbers then? David Pearson won 97 of his 105 races while Petty was in the field. Petty won 108 of his 200 races while Pearson was in the field. Pearson got nearly all of his wins against Petty. Petty got nearly half of his wins against farmers.
@@IrishmanGFSFarmers? By all means continue to show your ignorance. DOUBLE Pearson's career, and you still come short of Petty. How did Pearson do in his own equipment? Lol!!!
@@jasonwiggins If you bring Pearson up to Petty's exact number of starts (1184, which is more than double Pearson's career of 574), Pearson would have 217 wins. Pearson's winning % was 18.29%, Petty's was 16.89%. So, incorrect. Next.
@@IrishmanGFS Next? You ignored my question. (Obviously). Pearson proved on the track that he wouldn't have sustained his peak performance. Proving you wrong in the process. Championships: Pearson 3 Petty 7. Wins: Pearson 105 Petty 200 Daytona 500's: Pearson 1 Petty 7
As a Gordon diehard, I really wish he won the championship in 2014 and retired in victory lane on top. He would’ve solidified himself as the goat if he did that in my opinion
As someone who grew up as a Earnhardt fan and was very active watching in his dominant stretch from 86 to 94 which I think is the best ever. I also got to witness Gordon’s career begin and Petty’s career end as I was an attendance at the 92 hooters 500 which is the one of the most important races in history. I completely agree with you. I don’t think I would change a thing about this video. It was very informative and rather entertaining. Good job man.
Naa the Jimmie Johnson hate is insane. It seemed like you were making comments outta hate instead of being subjective. It was pretty clear by 2005, Jimmie Johnson was the man in that series. You say that he wasn't the best driver for majority of the championships he won, when he was in fact either the first or arguably second best driver for 6 of his 7 championships. He also finished higher than Jeff in the points in all except for 3 seasons including out doing Jeff's great 2007 season by winning 10 races and a title.
To me, Johnson consistently finishing in the top three in points under the Latford system every year from 2003-2013, in an era where everyone else had at least one year where they were just plain off is more impressive than his title count. He basically delivered the same results year in and year out.
@seannolan9857 pretty much . Hell from 2002 to 2013, he finished no lower than 6th in points while up against arguably the toughest competition between the eras
Exactly even in 2016 he won more than anyone else Edward’s was probably the only other driver that was close to him in that regard 2013 Kenseth was like the only other driver that could mess with him had the best average finish in 06 and 2013 literally won 10 races in 07. 08 I’ll admit Edwards had better stats but Jimmie was not far behind at all. This dude acts like Jimmie just pulled championships out of his ass when in reality he was easily one of the best if not THE best driver in those years.
@@OBG791 Harvick, Busch and Keselowski were each one win behind Johnson in 2016, and that last win literally fell into his lap. He was really good on his best days that year though. Just had a lot of bad races to go along with them though.
2008 was the only season he was truly outclassed by Kyle Busch during the regular season but Kyle had a disastrous chase and was never a factor. 2004 was a season that should have been either Jimmie or Jeff Gordon winning the cup but Kurt Busch somehow managed to steal it that year.
Another underrated goat argument for Jeff is if we consider him a 7 time champion than he won a championship with all 4 crew chiefs he had during his career, making him the only driver to ever win a championship with 4 different crew chiefs. Ray Evernham,in 95 97 and 98, robbie Loomis in 01 and 04, Steve letarte in 07, and Alan Gustafson in 14
Another argument that I believe needs to be brought up, is in the later years of his career, how teams were conspiring against Jeff and "conveniently" wrecking him out of the playoffs on more than on occasion within the last 5 laps of the race. I remember watching with my Dad and each year from 2013-2015 it seemed he always got cut off short by some lower-named driver. This became evident at Richmond in 2013 when the radio chatter became available and it was clear people were fixing races against him.
Pearson is my GOAT. He never ran a full season with the Wood Bros. If he had, he would have had more that 3 championships and Richard wouldn't have had 7. He was so fast and so smooth, and he won 105 races in 500 starts. That's a pretty good percentage. And he raced before I was born, so I can leave bias out of it.
Pearson is 100% the GOAT, im in same boat he was before my time, but one of he cleverest drivers in a stockcar, and did it all without being a dirty racer, and was pure class in all his inviews
@@shanebracken6751 met him 1time, 2003 Kyle Petty's charity ride stopped in the town I live in, he shook my hand and said, how you doin bud? That was it. But still. Got to shake hands with the GOAT.
@@nascarsteve If Pearson ran the full schedule in all his years with the Wood Brothers, he'd gain two titles, but they'd be at the expense of Benny Parsons and Cale Yarborough, not Petty. It's mathematically impossible under the systems used at the time for him to score enough points to overtake Petty in '72, '74 and '75.
1: Dale Earnhardt 2: Jeff Gordon 3: Richard Petty 4: Jimmie Johnson 5: David Pearson 6: Darrell Waltrip 7: Cale Yarborough 8: Kevin Harvick 9: Bobby Allison 10: Kyle Busch
@@NASCARfan38-v6n Dale raced his whole time under 1 points system. Jeff had to race under 3 differant points systems. If Dale raced under the same rules as Jeff, He would only have 5 championships. If Jeff raced under the same rules as Dale, He would have 7 championships. Jeff had MORE wins, MORE top 5's , MORE top 10's and a better average finish.
Kyle Larson is one of the best ever and Denny Hamlin deserves an honorable mention, as does Junior Johnson. Another point on Earnhardt, when Tim Richmond was healthy and drove for a car owner who paid his tire bills, he beat Earnhardt. Had Tim Richmond and Davey Allison lived, Dale would probably be a 3-4 time champion
David Pearson is the greatest driver in the history of NASCAR. In every season he competed full time, he won the title, one championship he won even missing several races. If David had competed full time every year, he would have 10-12 championships.
All of Stewart's championships came in very weird seasons and in two the big drivers has massively sub-par performances. 2002 had so many top-drivers underperforming like Jeff Gordon, Dale jr. and others were massively inconsistent like Matt Kenseth. There were two rookies in the top-6 in points and the best driver that season had a career ending crash after race 26. If you look at Stewarts stats in 2002 those are not championship numbers. 2005 was also a weird year and again most big names underperformed a lot. Gordon missed the playoffs due to inconsistency, Jimmie Johnson wasn't on the level of the previous or the next seasons, Dale Jr. after his best season in 2004 was terrible, Kurt Busch and Kenseth also had sub-par seasons. His closest opponents for the title were Carl Edwards in his first full-time season and Greg Biffle. And yeah 2011 was a trash season for Stewart until the playoffs. Stewart IMO is the same as Nelson Piquet in F1. Won three titles, controversial figure but not in the same ball-park as other drivers who have won less titles due to winning them in weird years
I don't know how you managed to think he won the 2005 championship with Toyota that would've been damn impressive considering Toyota joined the cup series in 2007
My list: Honorable Mentions: #15 Bill Elliott #14 Tony Stewart #13 Rusty Wallace #12 Denny Hamlin #11 David Pearson Top 10: #10 Kyle Busch #9 Mark Martin #8 Kevin Harvick #7 Cale Yarborough #6 Bobby Allison #5 Darrell Waltrip #4 Jimmie Johnson #3 Dale Earnhardt #2 Jeff Gordon #1 Richard Petty
I’m not inclined to believe Earnhardt’s 2000 season was a fluke. In 2001, Kevin Harvick was able to have a top 10 points finish with one less race than everyone else and the same team Earnhardt would’ve had. I don’t believe Dale wins the title that year or anything, but if a rookie can perform well with that team, Earnhardt definitely gets a top 10 or top 5 points finish at worst. There’s also the injury issue. Earnhardt’s slump years came in 97-99, but he had some difficult injuries in 96 (broken collarbone at Talledaga, a weird vision problem at Darlington) that he likely raced through and finally was fully healthy in 2000. (even the tale end of 99, he was starting to run better) Not saying he’s better than Gordon (I firmly believe Jeff got screwed by the chase / playoff formats multiple times) but I also don’t agree with Dale’s 2000 season being a fluke. I think he still had a couple of competitive seasons left and probably would’ve retired in 2002 or 2003 to fully shift his focus to DEI.
@@NeoEonX Gordon had severe back problems later in his career. He seriously considered retiring several years earlier. Dale most likely had multiple concussions prior to the fatal Daytona crash that I’m sure definitely contributed to his death. The brain damage had already been done.
Kevin Harvick I'll be honest out of the top 10 you list is probably the most impressive of all of them since he had to start his career without a warning because of the tragic passing of Dale the fact that he did that finish top 10 points by missing one race and then managed to get 60 wins in his career is goat levels of Nascar and he honestly deserves a lot more respect than he gets from the NASCAR community for how his cup career started and continued he could have easily faltered under the pressure and been labeled as another Xfinity champ that couldn't hack it in cup but he proved everyone wrong and had a great cup run from '01-'23 I do kind of miss him on track though it's still weird not seeing Kevin in the 4 anymore.
I like that u dont having petty as your GOAT, I do believe his racing stats are inflated cause he has multiple seasons where they race over 45+ races. But not having him the top 5 is a little ludicrous and maybe a little too much of a hater. He was still the best driver in his generations and there’s a reason that him, Dale and Jimmie are the only 7 time champs those are facts that can’t be deny
Can't find the comment now but someone said earnhardt lucked into 3 championships in 90, 93, 94. In 90 the points penalty to martin came in race 3 of the year and was only 35 points which would be like 7 today and a whole season to make that up. In 93 he won by 80 points and while he had less wins than rusty he had less DNFs and basically the same top 5s/10s. And for 94 he won by over 400 points as in more than 2 full races. So whomever left that comment do a little research next time
Question: I heard somewhere a few years ago that if the points format never changed, Gordon would have won 7 championships and Johnson would have won 4. Instead, it is reversed. Can anybody verify that?
I can confirm the 7 one if we still had the Latford system Gordon would’ve won the 2004 2007 and 2014 championships I’ll need to take a look into Jimmie’s I’ll get back to you
Are you not capable of comprehending NASCAR? You said Dale Sr was not a title contender later in his career when he was LITERALLY 2nd in pts in 2000, his last season before he died! Also 7 championships is more than 4.
My Top 10: 1. Richard Petty-Dale Earnhardt 2. David Pearson. 3 Jeff Gordon. My favorite driver diehard fan. 4. Jimmie Johnson Arguably any one ☝️ of these drivers could be considered the best in the history of the sport. 5. Cale Yarbrough 6. Darell Waltrip These two above could be considered 7. Kyle Busch 8. Kevin Harvick. 9. Lee Petty. 10. Rusty Wallace. Thoughts?
Nobody on earth knows if senior wouldve won the championship in the years after his death. Pobably wouldve. I like gordon. Hes number 2 But lets face it he was on the tram with the best equipment and cheated weeks in and week out like johnson. Senior was just the best He never had the best equipment. His team wasnt the best at cheating. Had the heaviest cars. Senior won several chips in his 40s. Once he had his surgery he became the dominant driver he was in the mid 90s back. Dale senior is just better. 10 season under a 10th place average? Come on. Its not close.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. Brought more fans to the sport than any other driver in Nascar history. Also, he backed it up with 7 championships. Also, drivers that come and gone and even today's drivers wanna mirror his driving on the track. To me, Dale is the GOAT. If Dale never died, I don't think certain drivers would be even on the list. If they were, they wouldn't have the records or wins. Wins matter but what really matters is the Championship that matter more. Just like superbowls. There only 3 that have 7 Dale Sr, Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson.
I can’t really choose between Earnhardt and Gordon. Earnhardt was older by the time Jeff came around and guys in their mid to late forties just aren’t as good. Plus people seem to forget that Dale helped Jeff a ton especially at superspeedways. If it wasn’t for Earnhardt who knows if Jeff ever gets to that level. For me it’s between those two, but I can’t split hairs to decide. Those two carried the sport during their respective eras and both succeeded among completely different competition and with different crew chiefs. They were both dominant when they had the advantages and still competitive when they didn’t. They also carried the sport to levels of popularity that it will most definitely never see again.
dale had picked it back up in 2000 after finally getting the back surgery he needed though and finished second in points. i really think he could have won the 8th in 2001. gordon was good, but i think A LOT of his success belongs to Ray. after Ray left, they didn't seem to run as good. and Earnhardt ran that good with several different crew chiefs. Even Andy Petree said he had no idea how earnhardt ran as well as he did when he first got over there and saw what he had been driving.
@@justinwilliford7151 people say that Gordon wasn’t as good without Ray. But, was Bill Elliott ever good? Because Gordon has as many wins without Ray as Bill did in his career. If you eliminate the Evernham years, Gordon would still have 46 wins, which is good enough for 18th all time.
@@mlwilliam213 yes, he has some wins without ray, but ray's influence was still all over that team for a few years after he left. they were that far ahead. not to mention chad was still at hendrick, and he was ray's protege. gordon's cars were MILES ahead of everyone else's cars. same with jimmie and petty. RCR was never known for having the best equipment, but they still got it done.
@@justinwilliford7151 if Gordon’s cars were miles ahead of everyone else’s, then how could Jimmie’s also be? And if they both had cars that were miles ahead of everyone else’s, then Kyle Busch must be the GOAT, because he got all those wins while his cars were so inferior. Tony also, he got three championships while having inferior cars. Keselowski, Kenseth, Harvick, Hamlin… it’s amazing how all those guys were able to win with cars that were miles to the inferior. You’d think Ray would have had more success with his own team with him being miles ahead of everyone else.
@@mlwilliam213 Ray was smart. and yes, hedrick put more money into their program than most other teams. doesn't mean that they will win all the time, or stuff doesn't get out of their shop and into others. and i don't understand the question about if gordon's cars were ahead of everyone else how could jimmies be? Ray made led gordon's team. chad, who was ray's star student, let jimmie's team. that's how. the best car doesn't always win, they just win a LOT. and that is what hendrick did.
Harvick is my favorite driver but i believe 60 wins iroc championship jewel races and al the racers he has beat i think of him as top 20 ever honestly.great career but not a legend
I think Terry Labonte should have at least got an honorable mention. He did win 2 championships. One of those being the 1996 season, keeping Jeff Gordon from winning 4 in a row. Gordon still dominated with wins but Terry’s consistency ultimately won out. Yes, the end of his career he was a seat filler but that’s how most end up.
It’s fair to say Gordon got robbed of championships in 04, 07, and 14 due to stupid playoff and chase formats. Easily the best and most consistent driver those seasons. Also some more honorable mentions could’ve been Dale Jarret, Matt Kenseth, Terry Labonte, and Kurt Busch.
While I love Ned, his wins have the lowest average car count of any driver with five or more wins. He barely averaged 20 cars in each win, and only two of his wins would count as races under Winston Cup's rules on race length. He does hold the record for highest percentage of races won by a lap or more though, which is a nice feather in the cap. And he definitely has an argument for being the best dirt racer in Cup history. And being one of the three drivers who went an entire season without ever finishing worse than 20th (the other two are Lee Petty and Bill Elliott).
@@Pointlesscrap-lu5vi He also had two races that he won by 22 laps. But they were at half-mile tracks, so the 14 lap win at Darlington was bigger in terms of miles. For comparison Petty's biggest victory margin was eight laps.
@@EdwardDean-z4f In an era with more mechanical reliability, he could probably have won as much as Gordon. Unfortunately for him though, he has more DNF's than top tens, which hurts his stats a good deal.
Earnhardt was racing injured for most of the late 90's, culminating in a broken neck at the beginning of the 99 season, he was past his prime but if not for those injuries I think he would've been much more competitive against Gordon...especially if Andy Petree had stayed with the team.
Jeff is the G.O.A.T. to me as well. He's a 7 time champ without the stupid chase format. 2010 alone, if it weren't for a few green white checkers, he has at least 6 or 7 wins going into the chase that year. The longevity point you make is very overlooked.
Hey there this we be my list 1.Richard Petty 2.Dale Earnhardt 3.Jeff Gordon 4:Darrell Waltrip 5:Jimmie Johnson 6:David Pearson 7:Ned Jarrett 8Junior Johnson 9:Lee Petty 10 Mark Martin That my top 10 tell why you think and remember everything you need is on the ground
THe huge huge problem that comes up every time though is that you are comparing different eras. Someone who can win across multiple formats (Tony Stewart for example) IMO should rank higher than someone who only won one format but won it multiple times. Tony IMO is top 3 or 4. Petty had to win across multiple point systems and varying tracks as well so he deserves to move up. By the time Dale came on up winston had got rid of dirt tracks, of short races less than 200 miles, and had standardized the series which you can very well argue cuts into Dale, Jeff, and so on, versatility and makes the argument that we don't know for sure if they are better than Petty or pearson because they didn't have to go cross country or cross region to run on dirt one week, then a high bank concrete bowl the next and then a flat half mile the week after that. To me, Jimmie should be lower, not because of any hate, but because of the looming question of yes but how much of that success was a. legal and b. down to Chad Knaus mastering the system and teaming up with jimmie. Who is to say if RCR had hired Knaus, if Dale would have been an 8 or 9 time champion? We simply don't know. Also Pearson deserves to be top 3 or 4...so...my ranking T1. Petty T1 Pearson 3. Stewart 4. Earnhardt 5.Jimmie Johnson 6. Mark Martin (He never won but was consistent, more consistent than some legends you can argue) 7. DW 8. Herb Thomas (highest winning percentage at 20% for wins over total starts) Honorable metnions: metnions: Ned Jarret Dale Jarrett (He didn't do quite enough to get on the top 10 IMO, same as Ned)
Glad you mentioned the whole prost and senna thing because I agree with you that it's weird that people say senna is better even though the stats clearly say otherwise and that's including a year in which prost scored more points but senna won the title thanks to only the 11 best results being awarded
@@UncleT4life in F1, you can still have the best stats and not be considered the goat. That belongs to Lewis Hamilton. Tied with Schumacher for most championships with 7 but far more wins. The credit is given to the car instead.
Nah, when Senna and Prost we're teammates, Senna beat him 11-3 when they finished 1-2, and he outqualified Prost 28-4. Senna only lost the 1989 World Crown because Senna had so many mechanical failures while leading; Canada, Phoenix, Monza, Silverstone and he was crashed from 2nd by a black flagged Nigel Mansell in Portugal and was unfairly DSQ'd from the win in Suzuka, after Prost tried to take him out in the Casio chicane. Senna was the best driver by a mile in 1993, not Prost, Prost won an easy title with an overpowered Williams, and Prost only won the 1986 World Crown because of a popped tire on Mansell's car. Stats? Ayrton Senna won 13 out of 21 races in the wet, Prost won a total of 3.
Being a Gordon fan, I highly disagree with Jeff at 1. Jimmie won 5 titles in a row with same cars as the rest of the field and a constant changing of nascar rules/chase format. Jimmie 1, Dale Sr 2, Jeff 3.
As a Gordon fan growing up I love that you put Jeff at 1 but I gotta admit I was shocked. I do think its a fair choice tho bc without the chase and playoff formats he would've had more than just 4 titles
Jimmy Johnson And the Chad Canuse combo, with Hendrick power! In arguably NASCAR’s hardest era, as far as the cars being built equally… that’s your goat! 🐐 Gordon, never beat Jimmy Johnson! In the points standings.
First off David Pearson is likely the best driver all time but he never raced enough to get the stats. Petty clearly has the stats and it is not even close. I think you have to remember that when Petty won seven Daytona 500s he was often racing against crossover drivers like AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti who were world class drivers. Petty also raced against the Holmon Moody Ford teams which was dominate in the 1960s. I would rank them this way. 1. Petty 2. Earnhardt 3. Jimmie Johnson 4. Pearson 5. Gordon 6. Yarbrough 7. Stewart 8. Waltrip 9. Kyle Busch 10. Allison 11. Larsen - best current driver
No drive in the 80,s on won with out a crew chief. I don’t know why everyone says Jimmy Johnson won because his crew chief. All the drivers that raced with JJ will tell you he was the best driver.
Johnson is easily the goat he just wasn't polarizing a pretty clear driver who let his racing on the track speak for him 5 in a row is unbelievable he just wasn't a sound bit machine like tony or Dale
honestly, man. You are becoming the king of hot takes when it comes to NASCAR. But, you are not wrong if people actually do think about it instead of being bias
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT I hate that people are starting to view me as a hot take guy. I never intended for it to go this way but I guess it just ended up being that way. I just thought of these videos as holdovers until the next series. I never really thought of anything I've said as hot takes or anything. These videos are jut easy to make and don't take a lot of time. I hate what my channel is turning into honestly. This is probably the last countdown video.
@@p1motorsports694 it’s not your fault, some people just see whatever they want. But I don’t mind your countdown videos. It is YOU and YOUR video. Do I agree with everything you say? No. Plus I don’t blame you for making these videos due to being easier. When I take forever to make Racing Stories videos, I make other racing-related videos on this channel. Admittedly, something to upload while I’m working on other videos. In my opinion, I hope you don’t stop as long as you have ideas. But if you don’t wanna keep going, well, that’s up to you. It is nice to see you make more videos while waiting for “Breaking The Chase 2024” this year. Don’t stop being you and keep doing whatcha doin!
I think Jeff Gordon is more likely the GOAT at least in the modern era being 3rd on the all-time wins list, and had opportunities to win more titles, most notably in 2007 but history is what it is. Some of Richard Petty's wins were before NASCAR used a more consistent schedule, not to mention his 1974 title because of the confusing points system used that year and ONLY that year. Dale Earnhardt is the only guy who won all 7 of his titles under the same format. But faded when Gordon started winning. As for Jimmie Johnson, I think there is some truth to Knaus carrying the team. He almost would be better than Gordon if it weren't for Gordon being much more dominant on a good chunk of tracks. Harvick is probably 5th behind those four, or maybe 6th if you count for Pearson who you could say pretty much used 1% of his power when it comes to his stats. Then again he also was winning before NASCAR implemented more consistent schedules just like Petty.
Even as an Earnhardt fan, I have to agree that Jeff Gordon is the NASCAR GOAT. You're right that Gordon raced in the most difficult era in NASCAR, and he dominated right from the start. I was around 11 when he came onto the Winston Cup scene so I was lucky enough to have watched all of it. He was and still is the best. As for Earnhardt, I don't agree that he is so highly regarded simply because he died on the track. He won 7 championships, not the gimmicky "playoff" championships. I do think, in hindsight, that he was kind of a dirty driver, but that's why he was fun to watch. 🤷♂️
For me, there are 12 drivers who I take seriously in the conversation for GOAT status: Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Lee Petty, Herb Thomas and Tim Flock. All have a number of pros and cons to take into account, and the end result depends heavily on what you personally value in a racer. Therefore there isn't one definitive answer that can satisfy everybody. I personally take Bobby Allison as my number one pick. He won for 13 different car owners, was better at Junior Johnson's team in '72 than Cale was in '73, was an improvement on David Pearson at Holman-Moody, got way more out of Bud Moore's team than Earnhardt did two years later, and won a title with DiGard which DW couldn't do. He has the second highest number of wins after age 40 behind only Lee Petty, was the only driver to win in a GM car between January of '64 and August of '71, and got four wins out of the flying brick (AMC Matador). And he's the only driver besides Gordon to win three times in each crown jewel. Add in being the only driver to lead 4000 laps in the modern era, a modern record of 24 podium finishes, and being one of only four drivers to win after turning 50, and his case looks pretty solid. The weak spots are that he wasn't a great points racer (though for what it's worth if the current playoff system had always existed he'd be the only five time champion) and his inability to win at Martinsville. But I'm pretty sure that you could drop Bobby in any era with any vaguely competent team and he'd end up winning with it. But as I said, it comes down to what you personally value, and I won't fault anyone for picking any of the other 11. I'd personally love to watch an IROC series between them all in their primes.
i would have done this list in 2 separate categories 1 the winston cup series and the nextel, sprint,and monster drink series because they are different point systems
The best way to do this is to take a racers 500 best consecutive starts....if you look at the numbers, 500 starts is about peak performance for most drivers... do the math...take out the rookie-ish season and then count 500 starts
I agree with your analysis and break down about 99%. I'm happy to see someone else agree with me that Jimmie Johnson is not the end all be all of NASCAR. I'm old enough to have seen all of your top ten race with the exception of Lee Petty, he was just a little before my time. One point you missed was Gordon and Earnhardt won races and championships with more than one crew chief. This is why I believe without Chad Knaus, Johnson would not have achieved the level of success as he did. One other note, Johnson raced Gordon much more aggressively than he did other drivers, simply because he knew he was protected by teammate status within the organization. Notice how Johnson is no longer associated with Hendrick Motorsports or Chevrolet for that matter?
I still couldn’t put Petty that low. Especially at the end of his career, yes he was uncompetitive. But he was really old too. He was 55 when he retired in 1992. None of the drivers now will come close to racing that long. Jimmie, Jeff, Harvick and Stewart were all in their early 40s when they retired. Kyle Busch isn’t even 40 yet(turns 40 next year) and is already showing notable signs of being a has been. He doesn’t even consistently finish in the top 20 anymore.
@@nilweatherzw agreed but you gotta realize Earnhardt didn't really drive top notch equipment his whole career the first 8 years of his career he was driving below average equipment
What? Lol johnson won his "championships" in the most piss poor points system in nascar history. 2016 had 16 top 5s. With a 14 place average finish. Lol hell he only had one season under 10. And on the team that had the top equipment and chested the most.. senior had like 10 under a 10 average. I think most of the true nascar fans...not the millennials...would disagree with u
Dale went eight years without a single crash DNF. Which is partially why he won six championships in nine years during that streak. Johnson was considerably more accident-prone.
Tim Flock was not even mentioned and has one of if not the best winning percentage of all drivers. Herb Thomas was a great driver too and had the records to prove it. Herb was injured and never fully recovered from it. Before his head injuries Lee Roy Yarbrough was amongst the best and Junior Johnson's 50 wins was not mentioned. Bobby Allison was top five too.
@@jimmydean5182 He only raced for the series championship, which is run the entire schedule three times, 1966,1968, and 1969. He was series champ all three years. David could make more money doing a tire test in the sixties than run all of the small purse races. Ford told Holman Moody to run for the Championship in 68 and 69, then pulled out of racing in 70. It left teams without new race engines and parts, so they cut back on their schedules to be able to afford to keep racing.. Hope this helps.
If longevity is a qualification then Waltrip is one of the worst. Waltrip had the majority of his sucess in the early 80's driving for Junior Johnson who had the #1 team at the time. Waltrip was not competitive for the last decade of his career. He was not just riding around like Petty. Waltrip couldn't even qualify for the races. Nascar had to create a past champion provisional for him to make the race and he used it regularly.
I would’ve put Earnhardt over Gordon only for the shear fact that for the majority of his career his cars weren’t the most tricked out cars, Andy Petree even stated that when he became his crew chief he couldn’t believe how heavy and basic the cars he’d been running were, Gordon is definitely one of the goats but compared to Earnhardt he was in more state of the art equipment and wasn’t as competitive with multiple crew chiefs as compared to Dale, plus you didn’t give Dale credit for driving his final years with a neck injury that inhibited his ability the compete at his full potential till he finally had it fixed at the end of the season in 2000 and admitted to Larry McReynolds that he couldn’t feel the car. Gordon was great but Earnhardt is without a doubt the goat, you also didn’t give him credit for what he gave back to the sport off the track and how much he elevated the sport.
Pearson skipped a lot of races that were outside his home region, the southeast. He could have easily won more races and championships. Nascar didn’t have a set schedule back then either like now. Petty simply raced more races each year and piled up a ton of wins and points over even less competitive fields. As far as skirting the rules, they all did that but Petty’s team did it better. Jimmie’s team did it’s fair share of cheating too. They even got caught bit no real penalties ever were issued. If Nascar truly wanted to, they could have stripped away wins, suspended him or revoked his eligibility for the chase but none of that ever happened. Usually just a fine and maybe a small point penalty, which during the regular season meant little.
It is hard to put anyone ahead of the King, David Pearson, and the Intimidator, but Jeff Gordon has to be in the discussion. He made the 90's miserable for me as a fan because he won every other week it felt like (I was a Ford fan). What he and Mr. H, Ray Evernham and the Rainbow Warriors accomplished is historical.
I feel like you are forgetting something about Jimmie he had an almost career ending crash and was never the same afterwards you need to include stuff like that imo however i still think jimmie is better than jeff richard and dale
Yeah and he was even still competitive in his final year prolly would’ve won Darlington if he didn’t wreck at the end of stage 1. Had a shot at winning dega if Ricky wasn’t doing Ricky things. Top 5 in the points before Covid. Still had competitive runs at places like Kentucky and Daytona rc and also went out with a top 5 finish highest out of any driver not in contention for the title. Even in some of his part time gigs he’s still driving it up to the top 10 at Daytona and Indy
Petty at 6th is waaaaay too low imo. Like I get if some don't want to put him at number 1 but 6th? Ehhh. I think people forget just how good he was and it goes beyond just the 200 number. He still has four titles alone in the modern era, and that was after he absolutely dominated the previous era.
Honestly, lets just say that if they still used the Winston cup system, Gordon would have 7 titles, then, he has 3rd place llace in total career wins, in an era where the cars were getting to the point where they were pretty equal across the board. He's gotta be in the top 3.
For me Pearson is #1 over Petty. Pearson didn't have the funds to run as many races as petty. If funds were they likely would have ended about 150 wins each
Jeff Gordon is the GOAT! He is #1. Who else did more for the sport? He brought it mainstream. He won multiple races on all types of tracks multiple championships would have won more championships if not for the stupid playoff formula. Was Gordon the 1st to pull a million from merchandising?
1st off not having Stewart in the Top 10 is RIDICULOUS. 3 Titles and 49 wins..not to mention he won each title in a different points format!! 2nd. Your logic for Godron being ahead of Dale is off. Dale didn't fall off because just because Gordon came in...Dale was in his early and mid 40's. That's about the time MOST guys retire.
I’m glad u gave Jeff his flowers. People don’t realize how dominant he was for so long in his career. You could never count him out
If NASCAR never went to the playoffs system which is completely broken Gordon would have won 3 more titles for a total of 7! Gordon would have been and should be the greatest of all time!
@AlexTossing doesn't JJ and Petty both have the same amount of championships and more wins than Dale? Wouldn't that make 1 of them the greatest by what your saying
Gordon was driving cars that I could have won a championship in. Not one thing he ever did was from pure talent. Everything Dale Earnhardt did was purely from talent.
@@SlimSavageBlanco Dale got the best of everything at RCR and DEI. Jeff flat out busted his ahh every week.
My Honorable mentions:
Terry Labonte
Mark Martin
Denny Hamlin
Tony Stewart
Rusty Wallace
Bill Elliott
Bobby Labonte
Ned Jarrett
Dale Jarrett
Kurt Busch
Matt Kenseth
Lee Petty
Brad Keselowski
Joey Logano
Martin Truex Jr
Harry Gant
Jeff Burton
Carl Edwards
Alan Kulwicki
Herb Thomas
Mario Andretti
Dick Trickle
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Edit: This is not a top ten list, I put these as honorable mentions because they made a significant impact on NASCAR today. It's just a list and not be taken seriously.
It’s a top 10 list, get out of here with guys like Kurt Busch or Jeff Burton. Then to put Andretti on here is an absolute joke, he has 1 cup win. Even Kulwicki??? Like really??? I know his career was cut short but he doesn’t even have as many wins as Tim Richmond.
@@Otownbassin I would put Matt Kenseth in the conversation for sure
Well damn, you forgot Dick Trickle!
Sit down 🪑
Kevin Harvick is so disrespected in the GOAT debate. He’s easily top 10 to me when you look at his whole body of work. He’s got all 4 crown jewels on his resume and he would be a 4 time champion under a fair format. He’s still a champion. Hes so disrespected because most people don’t consider him top 10. Also im on an island when I say this but I do think Richard petty is the best stat padder in nascar. He had no competition really other than Pearson. He’s overrated in the goat debate I agree with that
He’s definitely not top 10 and I bet if he raced with any of the drivers today in top equipment he wouldn’t even be close
@@timechanger9162 He definitely is top 10. And that’s a stupid argument. He did race against more greats than not and still put up the accomplishments and stats he did. He’s top 10 not even close
@@timechanger9162 you don’t know nascar, someone is a hater
Harvick is great, but top 10 over guys like Stewart? Crazy
Harvick's best argument is that he is the only driver who has a winning record against every teammate he ever had for more than one race among drivers who spent their career on multi-car teams. Busch lost to Gordon and Johnson, Gordon lost to Johnson, and Johnson lost to Elliott, Byron and even Bowman. But Harvick never lost to anybody. He also has more than twice as many wins as all of his teammates combined, which is a far higher percentage than any of his contemporaries can say. And he holds the all-time record for highest percentage of laps completed.
That said, Petty had way more competition than just Pearson. Rex White, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Dick Hutcherson, Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, Cale Yarborough, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Buddy Baker etc. The thing Petty had that they didn't have was career stability. Most factory teams in the '60's changed drivers like underwear. Petty had the stability of a family operation combined with the speed of a factory team which allowed him to accumulate numbers no one else could dream of. But most of those wins didn't come by default, there were usually at least a few cars that could beat him.
I think Tony Stewart is one of the greatest in all of motorsports. He’s done a lot of things that nobody has done before like being the only former open wheel champion to win the cup series title
Mario Andretti is probably the greatest driver in the history of Motorsports.
@gregrowe1168 montoya is also up there he won a race in nascar, indycar and formula one
@@beniPelle yeah, he was competitive in everything he drove. Robby Gordon was in Indycar, Nascar and did off-road racing too.
Stewart is without a doubt the greatest race car driver ever@@gregrowe1168
@@beniPelle but Montoya never won a championship in NASCAR and IndyCar but Tony Stewart did that. And now Tony Stewart is contending for the top fuel championship in the national hot rod association. If Tony Stewart wins a championship in the NHRA, he’s going to be the only person to ever win a championship in three different racing disciplines. Nobody has ever done that before.
don't forget that Richard Petty said David Person was a better driver than he was.
Richard also said Pearson was the best driver he ever raced against, including Earnhardt.
@@stealthbomber2127 which goes to show that (assumingely) even Richard wanted competition even while being dominant
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT You cannot deny Earnhardt's ability, but his bumping and wrecking people puts an asterisk to a great talent. Tim Flock was nascar's most dominant driver before health issues derailed his career. Tim was the first driver to keep accurate records on all aspects of racing, the tracks, surface differences, gearing, etc. Earnhardt was a good road racer but not great, other than that he was truly great. I agree that Ayrton Senna was the greatest driving talent I ever saw. I thought Schumacher was better until his crew chief bragged about having illegal launch and traction control years after Michael had retired. It made sense because Michael was four seconds a lap faster than his teammate at times which raised the red flag. Prost was great but while with McLaren Senna outperformed him and had the 89 title stolen from him by the French head of F1 at that time. Verstappen may be heading towards all time records as well.
I don’t believe Sr is regarded as the GOAT because he die, he was already in the conversation 6 years before he die.
You say Jeff Gordon longevity was better, over the his last 5 years he had an average point finish of 6.6.
Dale Sr had an average point finish over his last 5 years of 5.2.
Dale Sr raced full time until he was 49. Gordon retired younger at 44.
I believe competition was equal.
Now let’s talk about how well deserved they were on different tracks. Gordon is regarded as one of most talented drivers ever.
Gordon only was better at 2.5miles (Pocono & Indy) then Dale Sr & 1 mile tracks.
Dale Sr has a better average finish on short tracks, Superspeedway, Intermediate, & road course which was shocking to me.
The road course one is shocking considering he only won a single race on a road course
@@masoneveridge4078 yeah, he usually ran pretty well at road courses, just not winning. those top 5s and top 10s make your average pretty good after a while.
Gordon has 9 wins and Earnhardt has 1 on road courses! Dale has 13 wins on superspeedways and Gordon has 12 only 1 behind! Gordon won more races in more competition! If NASCAR never went to the chase Gordon would have won 3 more titles! Earnhardt was lucky to win the 1990, 93 and 94 titles! For as good as some say Dale was he doesn't have as many wins as he really should, plus he wrecked people to get wins or gain position! I absolutely agree Dale dying on the track has some to do with many thinking he's the goat!
@@timtwing5886 dale didn't wreck as many people as he was made out to. i think someone went back and looked at his last 20 wins and the only person he moved to get one of those was labonte. all i am saying is my case for dale was he did more with less car than the others had. RCR never had the best equipment. if you had put dale in that 24 car in the 90s there is no telling what he would have done.
@@timtwing5886 Dale wreck people in an era where that was the norm. The 80s you had people like DW & Rusty who was that type of drivers. But of his last 20 wins he only wreck 1 person to win.
Gordon was also in way better equipment than Dale Sr was ever in. (That’s not Jeff’s fault) but that is a big reason. The question could be was in Jeff or was in Hendrick. Jeff has more wins on R/C but Dale has a better average finish.
The competition aspect I don’t understand. Dale Sr race against the likes of some of the best in the sport at a time where multi car teams to get data share was not common. If you look at most Top 10 greatest Dale Sr would probably race against >50% of them. How is that not great competition.
So let’s look at a career comparison:
Avg Pt Finish: D=4.6 | J=5.6
Win %: D=11.2% | J=11.5%
Top 10%: D=63% | J=59%
Avg. Pt Fin. Last 10 Seasons: D=4.3 | J=6
Avg. Pt Fin. Last 5 Seasons: D=5.2 | J=6.6
During both of their career, only 3 people (each) won multiple Championships.
D= Waltrip, T. Labonte, Gordon
J= Earnhardt, Stewart, Johnson.
With Dale he won with 2 a title with 2 different teams & 3 crew chiefs. Jeff won with 1 and 2 crew chiefs.
So, in the end I do believe that Dale & Jeff is hands down Top 3. I believe Dale has the slight edge.
Putting DW before Pearson is beyond disrespectful
Jeff Gordon is a seven time champion too
Regardless of everyone's opinion can we all agree that every driver owned there stripes and deserved 2 be here, with that being said hot take of the day richard is closer to 5th then 1st all time😅😅
Great stuff man! You did say CUP series! And this wasn't "clickbait" but what Kyle Busch has done across all 3 series is just ASTONISHING! I think he has 209 wins?
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Herb Thomas in your honorable mentions. In 228 races he won 48 times and with the highest winning percentage of all time with a 20.96%
Wow I didn't know this.
he gets no love because of how early it was
1. Jeff Gordon
2. Dale Earnhardt
3. Richard petty
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. David Pearson
6. Cale Yarbrough
7. Darrell waltrip
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Bobby Allison
10. Kyle Busch
Tony Stewart is in the top 5! Won on all tracks multiple championships and can drive anything.
@@onekoolmedicTony is not top 5
David Pearson #1
1 Petty and Pearson. They won with talent and didn't have to wreck people to win.
2 Jimmy Johnson. Clean driver. Won the most championships in shortest time period.
3 Mark Martin. Cheated out of a championship by nascar. Iroc 's best.
4 Ned Jarrett. Clean racer and dominated in his era.
5 Kyle Busch. Best over all in top 3 divisions. unreal car control.
6 Cale yarborough. Tuff as nails and 3 straight cups
7 Dale Earnhardt. His friendships with the Frances and others let him do anything he wanted
8 Matt Kenseth. Made nascar change championship format .
9 Rusty Wallace. Never give up attitude.
10 Lee Petty. Hateful yet hard nosed.Started career in his mid 30's
You're an idiot. JJ is clean? Dude was caught cheating 100s of times.
1.Lightning McQueen (G.O.A.T)
2.Doc Hudson
3.Strip Weathers (The King)
4.Chick Hicks
5.Jackson Storm
The people who insist on Petty being #1, do y'all realize Petty *himself* disagrees with that? He's always named Pearson as better than him.
No he didn't. That's the biggest myth perpetrated by NASCAR fans. Look, or read the interview he gave. If he couldn't say himself, he stated Pearson.
@@jasonwiggins How about we go on numbers then? David Pearson won 97 of his 105 races while Petty was in the field.
Petty won 108 of his 200 races while Pearson was in the field.
Pearson got nearly all of his wins against Petty. Petty got nearly half of his wins against farmers.
@@IrishmanGFSFarmers? By all means continue to show your ignorance. DOUBLE Pearson's career, and you still come short of Petty. How did Pearson do in his own equipment? Lol!!!
@@jasonwiggins If you bring Pearson up to Petty's exact number of starts (1184, which is more than double Pearson's career of 574), Pearson would have 217 wins. Pearson's winning % was 18.29%, Petty's was 16.89%.
So, incorrect. Next.
@@IrishmanGFS Next? You ignored my question. (Obviously). Pearson proved on the track that he wouldn't have sustained his peak performance. Proving you wrong in the process.
Championships: Pearson 3
Petty 7.
Wins: Pearson 105
Petty 200
Daytona 500's: Pearson 1
Petty 7
Best winning average goes to David Pearson.
As a Gordon diehard, I really wish he won the championship in 2014 and retired in victory lane on top. He would’ve solidified himself as the goat if he did that in my opinion
Pearson!!! Number 1. 105 wins in 574 starts. Only ran for the championship 3 times and won it every time.
As someone who grew up as a Earnhardt fan and was very active watching in his dominant stretch from 86 to 94 which I think is the best ever. I also got to witness Gordon’s career begin and Petty’s career end as I was an attendance at the 92 hooters 500 which is the one of the most important races in history. I completely agree with you. I don’t think I would change a thing about this video. It was very informative and rather entertaining. Good job man.
@@NASCARfan38-v6n as far as sheer driving talent no you’re right he’s not but statistically He had the better career.
In my opinion Petty is still the best and I think Hamlin deserves to be at least in honorable mention
I’m a Hamlin hater and I agree
@@Pointlesscrap-lu5vi Hamlin is this generation’s Mark Martin. Main difference is Mark was well liked by other drivers and fans. Hamlin, not so much.
@@gregrowe1168 the reason people dont like Hamlin is he is know for doing the things that Dillon did at richmond
Naa the Jimmie Johnson hate is insane. It seemed like you were making comments outta hate instead of being subjective. It was pretty clear by 2005, Jimmie Johnson was the man in that series. You say that he wasn't the best driver for majority of the championships he won, when he was in fact either the first or arguably second best driver for 6 of his 7 championships. He also finished higher than Jeff in the points in all except for 3 seasons including out doing Jeff's great 2007 season by winning 10 races and a title.
To me, Johnson consistently finishing in the top three in points under the Latford system every year from 2003-2013, in an era where everyone else had at least one year where they were just plain off is more impressive than his title count. He basically delivered the same results year in and year out.
@seannolan9857 pretty much . Hell from 2002 to 2013, he finished no lower than 6th in points while up against arguably the toughest competition between the eras
Exactly even in 2016 he won more than anyone else Edward’s was probably the only other driver that was close to him in that regard 2013 Kenseth was like the only other driver that could mess with him had the best average finish in 06 and 2013 literally won 10 races in 07. 08 I’ll admit Edwards had better stats but Jimmie was not far behind at all. This dude acts like Jimmie just pulled championships out of his ass when in reality he was easily one of the best if not THE best driver in those years.
@@OBG791 Harvick, Busch and Keselowski were each one win behind Johnson in 2016, and that last win literally fell into his lap. He was really good on his best days that year though. Just had a lot of bad races to go along with them though.
2008 was the only season he was truly outclassed by Kyle Busch during the regular season but Kyle had a disastrous chase and was never a factor. 2004 was a season that should have been either Jimmie or Jeff Gordon winning the cup but Kurt Busch somehow managed to steal it that year.
Another underrated goat argument for Jeff is if we consider him a 7 time champion than he won a championship with all 4 crew chiefs he had during his career, making him the only driver to ever win a championship with 4 different crew chiefs. Ray Evernham,in 95 97 and 98, robbie Loomis in 01 and 04, Steve letarte in 07, and Alan Gustafson in 14
Jeff is a 4time he choked after that Dale is the best ever
Another argument that I believe needs to be brought up, is in the later years of his career, how teams were conspiring against Jeff and "conveniently" wrecking him out of the playoffs on more than on occasion within the last 5 laps of the race. I remember watching with my Dad and each year from 2013-2015 it seemed he always got cut off short by some lower-named driver. This became evident at Richmond in 2013 when the radio chatter became available and it was clear people were fixing races against him.
Pearson is my GOAT. He never ran a full season with the Wood Bros. If he had, he would have had more that 3 championships and Richard wouldn't have had 7. He was so fast and so smooth, and he won 105 races in 500 starts. That's a pretty good percentage. And he raced before I was born, so I can leave bias out of it.
Pearson is 100% the GOAT, im in same boat he was before my time, but one of he cleverest drivers in a stockcar, and did it all without being a dirty racer, and was pure class in all his inviews
@@shanebracken6751 met him 1time, 2003 Kyle Petty's charity ride stopped in the town I live in, he shook my hand and said, how you doin bud? That was it. But still. Got to shake hands with the GOAT.
Yep
The GOAT
@@nascarsteve If Pearson ran the full schedule in all his years with the Wood Brothers, he'd gain two titles, but they'd be at the expense of Benny Parsons and Cale Yarborough, not Petty. It's mathematically impossible under the systems used at the time for him to score enough points to overtake Petty in '72, '74 and '75.
If its based on wins it's obviously Richard.but this list can be easily swapped in many different ways
Jeff Gordon was my favorite driver but David Pearson is #1.
Won 105 races in not a ton of starts in NASCAR.
Dale Earnhardt is 1 he won Gordon and Pearson championship combined
Best list I’ve ever seen. Well done
1: Dale Earnhardt
2: Jeff Gordon
3: Richard Petty
4: Jimmie Johnson
5: David Pearson
6: Darrell Waltrip
7: Cale Yarborough
8: Kevin Harvick
9: Bobby Allison
10: Kyle Busch
NO WAY is Senior # 1
JEFF GORDON IS THE GOAT....PERIOD !!!
@@NASCARfan38-v6n Dale raced his whole time under 1 points system.
Jeff had to race under 3 differant points systems.
If Dale raced under the same rules as Jeff, He would only have 5 championships.
If Jeff raced under the same rules as Dale, He would have 7 championships.
Jeff had MORE wins, MORE top 5's , MORE top 10's and a better average finish.
@@NASCARfan38-v6n Nevermind....You'll NEVER get it.
In head-to-head racing....Jeff got 3 championships....Dale got NONE !
For the most part I feel you’re spot on. Great video. Very difficult to make a list when you have different eras, cars, points systems and such.
Kyle Larson is one of the best ever and Denny Hamlin deserves an honorable mention, as does Junior Johnson. Another point on Earnhardt, when Tim Richmond was healthy and drove for a car owner who paid his tire bills, he beat Earnhardt. Had Tim Richmond and Davey Allison lived, Dale would probably be a 3-4 time champion
Dale Sr - Michael Jordan
Jimmie Johnson - Lebron James
Gordon - Magic Johnson
Petty - Bill Russell
David Pearson is the greatest driver in the history of NASCAR. In every season he competed full time, he won the title, one championship he won even missing several races. If David had competed full time every year, he would have 10-12 championships.
Is this some kinda alternate universe where Tony Stewart isn't a thing?
All of Stewart's championships came in very weird seasons and in two the big drivers has massively sub-par performances. 2002 had so many top-drivers underperforming like Jeff Gordon, Dale jr. and others were massively inconsistent like Matt Kenseth. There were two rookies in the top-6 in points and the best driver that season had a career ending crash after race 26. If you look at Stewarts stats in 2002 those are not championship numbers.
2005 was also a weird year and again most big names underperformed a lot. Gordon missed the playoffs due to inconsistency, Jimmie Johnson wasn't on the level of the previous or the next seasons, Dale Jr. after his best season in 2004 was terrible, Kurt Busch and Kenseth also had sub-par seasons. His closest opponents for the title were Carl Edwards in his first full-time season and Greg Biffle.
And yeah 2011 was a trash season for Stewart until the playoffs.
Stewart IMO is the same as Nelson Piquet in F1. Won three titles, controversial figure but not in the same ball-park as other drivers who have won less titles due to winning them in weird years
@@eggselent9814 with 3 different manufacturers 🤯
@@mosinc7388 Isn't it two manufacturers (Pontiac and Chevy?)
@@eggselent9814 yeah, I thought he switched to Toyota already for that 2nd one. Only driver to win under both formats though. Points and playoffs
I don't know how you managed to think he won the 2005 championship with Toyota that would've been damn impressive considering Toyota joined the cup series in 2007
My list:
Honorable Mentions:
#15 Bill Elliott
#14 Tony Stewart
#13 Rusty Wallace
#12 Denny Hamlin
#11 David Pearson
Top 10:
#10 Kyle Busch
#9 Mark Martin
#8 Kevin Harvick
#7 Cale Yarborough
#6 Bobby Allison
#5 Darrell Waltrip
#4 Jimmie Johnson
#3 Dale Earnhardt
#2 Jeff Gordon
#1 Richard Petty
1.Jeff Gordon (G.O.A.T)
2.Dale Earnhardt
3.Jimmie Johnson
4.Darrell Waltrip
5.David Pearson
6.Richard Petty
7.Cale Yarborough
8.Kyle Busch
9.Kevin Harvick
10.Bobby Allison
nah! 4th tittlesvs7 tittles!
I’m not inclined to believe Earnhardt’s 2000 season was a fluke. In 2001, Kevin Harvick was able to have a top 10 points finish with one less race than everyone else and the same team Earnhardt would’ve had. I don’t believe Dale wins the title that year or anything, but if a rookie can perform well with that team, Earnhardt definitely gets a top 10 or top 5 points finish at worst. There’s also the injury issue. Earnhardt’s slump years came in 97-99, but he had some difficult injuries in 96 (broken collarbone at Talledaga, a weird vision problem at Darlington) that he likely raced through and finally was fully healthy in 2000. (even the tale end of 99, he was starting to run better) Not saying he’s better than Gordon (I firmly believe Jeff got screwed by the chase / playoff formats multiple times) but I also don’t agree with Dale’s 2000 season being a fluke. I think he still had a couple of competitive seasons left and probably would’ve retired in 2002 or 2003 to fully shift his focus to DEI.
@@NeoEonX Gordon had severe back problems later in his career. He seriously considered retiring several years earlier. Dale most likely had multiple concussions prior to the fatal Daytona crash that I’m sure definitely contributed to his death. The brain damage had already been done.
Kevin Harvick I'll be honest out of the top 10 you list is probably the most impressive of all of them since he had to start his career without a warning because of the tragic passing of Dale the fact that he did that finish top 10 points by missing one race and then managed to get 60 wins in his career is goat levels of Nascar and he honestly deserves a lot more respect than he gets from the NASCAR community for how his cup career started and continued he could have easily faltered under the pressure and been labeled as another Xfinity champ that couldn't hack it in cup but he proved everyone wrong and had a great cup run from '01-'23 I do kind of miss him on track though it's still weird not seeing Kevin in the 4 anymore.
Jeff Gordon Is My Favorite Nascar Driver All Time
I like that u dont having petty as your GOAT, I do believe his racing stats are inflated cause he has multiple seasons where they race over 45+ races. But not having him the top 5 is a little ludicrous and maybe a little too much of a hater. He was still the best driver in his generations and there’s a reason that him, Dale and Jimmie are the only 7 time champs those are facts that can’t be deny
Harvick is definitely one of them
Can't find the comment now but someone said earnhardt lucked into 3 championships in 90, 93, 94. In 90 the points penalty to martin came in race 3 of the year and was only 35 points which would be like 7 today and a whole season to make that up. In 93 he won by 80 points and while he had less wins than rusty he had less DNFs and basically the same top 5s/10s. And for 94 he won by over 400 points as in more than 2 full races. So whomever left that comment do a little research next time
Question: I heard somewhere a few years ago that if the points format never changed, Gordon would have won 7 championships and Johnson would have won 4. Instead, it is reversed. Can anybody verify that?
I can confirm the 7 one if we still had the Latford system Gordon would’ve won the 2004 2007 and 2014 championships I’ll need to take a look into Jimmie’s I’ll get back to you
@@masoneveridge4078 Awesome. Thank you!
Johnson would have won 3(2006,2009 and 2013)
@@volkanuzug1824 Thanks for the confirmation.
Are you not capable of comprehending NASCAR? You said Dale Sr was not a title contender later in his career when he was LITERALLY 2nd in pts in 2000, his last season before he died! Also 7 championships is more than 4.
My Top 10:
1. Richard Petty-Dale Earnhardt
2. David Pearson.
3 Jeff Gordon. My favorite driver diehard fan.
4. Jimmie Johnson
Arguably any one ☝️ of these drivers could be considered the best in the history of the sport.
5. Cale Yarbrough
6. Darell Waltrip
These two above could be considered
7. Kyle Busch
8. Kevin Harvick.
9. Lee Petty.
10. Rusty Wallace.
Thoughts?
Finally someone who can distinguish the difference between greatness and championships, I think Harvick Busch and Martin could have been 10 (ab&c)
Nobody on earth knows if senior wouldve won the championship in the years after his death. Pobably wouldve. I like gordon. Hes number 2
But lets face it he was on the tram with the best equipment and cheated weeks in and week out like johnson. Senior was just the best
He never had the best equipment. His team wasnt the best at cheating. Had the heaviest cars. Senior won several chips in his 40s. Once he had his surgery he became the dominant driver he was in the mid 90s back. Dale senior is just better. 10 season under a 10th place average? Come on. Its not close.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. Brought more fans to the sport than any other driver in Nascar history. Also, he backed it up with 7 championships. Also, drivers that come and gone and even today's drivers wanna mirror his driving on the track. To me, Dale is the GOAT. If Dale never died, I don't think certain drivers would be even on the list. If they were, they wouldn't have the records or wins. Wins matter but what really matters is the Championship that matter more. Just like superbowls. There only 3 that have 7 Dale Sr, Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson.
I think you misspoke Cale Yarborough did not win the 1970 Daytona 500 it was Pete Hamilton
I can’t really choose between Earnhardt and Gordon. Earnhardt was older by the time Jeff came around and guys in their mid to late forties just aren’t as good. Plus people seem to forget that Dale helped Jeff a ton especially at superspeedways. If it wasn’t for Earnhardt who knows if Jeff ever gets to that level. For me it’s between those two, but I can’t split hairs to decide. Those two carried the sport during their respective eras and both succeeded among completely different competition and with different crew chiefs. They were both dominant when they had the advantages and still competitive when they didn’t. They also carried the sport to levels of popularity that it will most definitely never see again.
dale had picked it back up in 2000 after finally getting the back surgery he needed though and finished second in points. i really think he could have won the 8th in 2001. gordon was good, but i think A LOT of his success belongs to Ray. after Ray left, they didn't seem to run as good. and Earnhardt ran that good with several different crew chiefs. Even Andy Petree said he had no idea how earnhardt ran as well as he did when he first got over there and saw what he had been driving.
@@justinwilliford7151 people say that Gordon wasn’t as good without Ray. But, was Bill Elliott ever good? Because Gordon has as many wins without Ray as Bill did in his career. If you eliminate the Evernham years, Gordon would still have 46 wins, which is good enough for 18th all time.
@@mlwilliam213 yes, he has some wins without ray, but ray's influence was still all over that team for a few years after he left. they were that far ahead. not to mention chad was still at hendrick, and he was ray's protege. gordon's cars were MILES ahead of everyone else's cars. same with jimmie and petty. RCR was never known for having the best equipment, but they still got it done.
@@justinwilliford7151 if Gordon’s cars were miles ahead of everyone else’s, then how could Jimmie’s also be? And if they both had cars that were miles ahead of everyone else’s, then Kyle Busch must be the GOAT, because he got all those wins while his cars were so inferior. Tony also, he got three championships while having inferior cars. Keselowski, Kenseth, Harvick, Hamlin… it’s amazing how all those guys were able to win with cars that were miles to the inferior. You’d think Ray would have had more success with his own team with him being miles ahead of everyone else.
@@mlwilliam213 Ray was smart. and yes, hedrick put more money into their program than most other teams. doesn't mean that they will win all the time, or stuff doesn't get out of their shop and into others. and i don't understand the question about if gordon's cars were ahead of everyone else how could jimmies be? Ray made led gordon's team. chad, who was ray's star student, let jimmie's team. that's how. the best car doesn't always win, they just win a LOT. and that is what hendrick did.
Harvick is my favorite driver but i believe 60 wins iroc championship jewel races and al the racers he has beat i think of him as top 20 ever honestly.great career but not a legend
I think Terry Labonte should have at least got an honorable mention. He did win 2 championships. One of those being the 1996 season, keeping Jeff Gordon from winning 4 in a row. Gordon still dominated with wins but Terry’s consistency ultimately won out. Yes, the end of his career he was a seat filler but that’s how most end up.
glad harvick is getting respect he deserves
It’s fair to say Gordon got robbed of championships in 04, 07, and 14 due to stupid playoff and chase formats. Easily the best and most consistent driver those seasons. Also some more honorable mentions could’ve been Dale Jarret, Matt Kenseth, Terry Labonte, and Kurt Busch.
Pearson at 5 is laughable at best.
I knew it was going to be Gordon. A lot of people cant accept that he is the greatest ever and should have had 3 more championships
everyone forgets Ned Jarrett. such a shame
While I love Ned, his wins have the lowest average car count of any driver with five or more wins. He barely averaged 20 cars in each win, and only two of his wins would count as races under Winston Cup's rules on race length.
He does hold the record for highest percentage of races won by a lap or more though, which is a nice feather in the cap. And he definitely has an argument for being the best dirt racer in Cup history. And being one of the three drivers who went an entire season without ever finishing worse than 20th (the other two are Lee Petty and Bill Elliott).
Didn’t he win a race by 14 laps
@@Pointlesscrap-lu5vi He also had two races that he won by 22 laps. But they were at half-mile tracks, so the 14 lap win at Darlington was bigger in terms of miles. For comparison Petty's biggest victory margin was eight laps.
What about Junior Johnson?
@@EdwardDean-z4f In an era with more mechanical reliability, he could probably have won as much as Gordon. Unfortunately for him though, he has more DNF's than top tens, which hurts his stats a good deal.
Earnhardt was racing injured for most of the late 90's, culminating in a broken neck at the beginning of the 99 season, he was past his prime but if not for those injuries I think he would've been much more competitive against Gordon...especially if Andy Petree had stayed with the team.
The 3 time Daytona 500 champion Dale Jarrett. Building that Joe Gibbs team then delivering Robert Yates his only championship
Jeff is the G.O.A.T. to me as well. He's a 7 time champ without the stupid chase format. 2010 alone, if it weren't for a few green white checkers, he has at least 6 or 7 wins going into the chase that year. The longevity point you make is very overlooked.
Hey there this we be my list
1.Richard Petty
2.Dale Earnhardt
3.Jeff Gordon
4:Darrell Waltrip
5:Jimmie Johnson
6:David Pearson
7:Ned Jarrett
8Junior Johnson
9:Lee Petty
10 Mark Martin
That my top 10 tell why you think and remember everything you need is on the ground
Ryan preece....☝️
THe huge huge problem that comes up every time though is that you are comparing different eras.
Someone who can win across multiple formats (Tony Stewart for example) IMO should rank higher than someone who only won one format but won it multiple times. Tony IMO is top 3 or 4. Petty had to win across multiple point systems and varying tracks as well so he deserves to move up. By the time Dale came on up winston had got rid of dirt tracks, of short races less than 200 miles, and had standardized the series which you can very well argue cuts into Dale, Jeff, and so on, versatility and makes the argument that we don't know for sure if they are better than Petty or pearson because they didn't have to go cross country or cross region to run on dirt one week, then a high bank concrete bowl the next and then a flat half mile the week after that.
To me, Jimmie should be lower, not because of any hate, but because of the looming question of yes but how much of that success was a. legal and b. down to Chad Knaus mastering the system and teaming up with jimmie. Who is to say if RCR had hired Knaus, if Dale would have been an 8 or 9 time champion? We simply don't know.
Also Pearson deserves to be top 3 or 4...so...my ranking
T1. Petty
T1 Pearson
3. Stewart
4. Earnhardt
5.Jimmie Johnson
6. Mark Martin (He never won but was consistent, more consistent than some legends you can argue)
7. DW
8. Herb Thomas (highest winning percentage at 20% for wins over total starts)
Honorable metnions:
metnions:
Ned Jarret
Dale Jarrett (He didn't do quite enough to get on the top 10 IMO, same as Ned)
As a Petty fan, I will admit that arguments can be made that he is not #1… BUT 6!?!?
Glad you mentioned the whole prost and senna thing because I agree with you that it's weird that people say senna is better even though the stats clearly say otherwise and that's including a year in which prost scored more points but senna won the title thanks to only the 11 best results being awarded
@@UncleT4life in F1, you can still have the best stats and not be considered the goat. That belongs to Lewis Hamilton. Tied with Schumacher for most championships with 7 but far more wins. The credit is given to the car instead.
Nah, when Senna and Prost we're teammates, Senna beat him 11-3 when they finished 1-2, and he outqualified Prost 28-4.
Senna only lost the 1989 World Crown because Senna had so many mechanical failures while leading; Canada, Phoenix, Monza, Silverstone and he was crashed from 2nd by a black flagged Nigel Mansell in Portugal and was unfairly DSQ'd from the win in Suzuka, after Prost tried to take him out in the Casio chicane.
Senna was the best driver by a mile in 1993, not Prost, Prost won an easy title with an overpowered Williams, and Prost only won the 1986 World Crown because of a popped tire on Mansell's car.
Stats? Ayrton Senna won 13 out of 21 races in the wet, Prost won a total of 3.
Being a Gordon fan, I highly disagree with Jeff at 1. Jimmie won 5 titles in a row with same cars as the rest of the field and a constant changing of nascar rules/chase format. Jimmie 1, Dale Sr 2, Jeff 3.
As a Gordon fan growing up I love that you put Jeff at 1 but I gotta admit I was shocked. I do think its a fair choice tho bc without the chase and playoff formats he would've had more than just 4 titles
Jimmy Johnson And the Chad Canuse combo, with Hendrick power! In arguably NASCAR’s hardest era, as far as the cars being built equally… that’s your goat! 🐐 Gordon, never beat Jimmy Johnson! In the points standings.
First off David Pearson is likely the best driver all time but he never raced enough to get the stats. Petty clearly has the stats and it is not even close. I think you have to remember that when Petty won seven Daytona 500s he was often racing against crossover drivers like AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti who were world class drivers. Petty also raced against the Holmon Moody Ford teams which was dominate in the 1960s. I would rank them this way.
1. Petty
2. Earnhardt
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Pearson
5. Gordon
6. Yarbrough
7. Stewart
8. Waltrip
9. Kyle Busch
10. Allison
11. Larsen - best current driver
No drive in the 80,s on won with out a crew chief. I don’t know why everyone says Jimmy Johnson won because his crew chief. All the drivers that raced with JJ will tell you he was the best driver.
Johnson is easily the goat he just wasn't polarizing a pretty clear driver who let his racing on the track speak for him 5 in a row is unbelievable he just wasn't a sound bit machine like tony or Dale
honestly, man. You are becoming the king of hot takes when it comes to NASCAR. But, you are not wrong if people actually do think about it instead of being bias
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT I hate that people are starting to view me as a hot take guy. I never intended for it to go this way but I guess it just ended up being that way. I just thought of these videos as holdovers until the next series. I never really thought of anything I've said as hot takes or anything. These videos are jut easy to make and don't take a lot of time. I hate what my channel is turning into honestly. This is probably the last countdown video.
@@p1motorsports694 it’s not your fault, some people just see whatever they want. But I don’t mind your countdown videos. It is YOU and YOUR video. Do I agree with everything you say? No.
Plus I don’t blame you for making these videos due to being easier. When I take forever to make Racing Stories videos, I make other racing-related videos on this channel. Admittedly, something to upload while I’m working on other videos.
In my opinion, I hope you don’t stop as long as you have ideas. But if you don’t wanna keep going, well, that’s up to you. It is nice to see you make more videos while waiting for “Breaking The Chase 2024” this year.
Don’t stop being you and keep doing whatcha doin!
Coincidence that the narrator sounds just like Jeff Gordon? You ain't slick Jeff, we know it's you. You know Earnhardt was the man
My top 8:
1-Richard Petty
2-Dale Earnhardt
3-Jeff Gordon
4-Jimmie Johnson
5-David Pearson
6-Darrell Waltrip
7-Cale Yarbrough
8-Bobby Allison
I think Jeff Gordon is more likely the GOAT at least in the modern era being 3rd on the all-time wins list, and had opportunities to win more titles, most notably in 2007 but history is what it is.
Some of Richard Petty's wins were before NASCAR used a more consistent schedule, not to mention his 1974 title because of the confusing points system used that year and ONLY that year.
Dale Earnhardt is the only guy who won all 7 of his titles under the same format. But faded when Gordon started winning.
As for Jimmie Johnson, I think there is some truth to Knaus carrying the team. He almost would be better than Gordon if it weren't for Gordon being much more dominant on a good chunk of tracks.
Harvick is probably 5th behind those four, or maybe 6th if you count for Pearson who you could say pretty much used 1% of his power when it comes to his stats. Then again he also was winning before NASCAR implemented more consistent schedules just like Petty.
Even as an Earnhardt fan, I have to agree that Jeff Gordon is the NASCAR GOAT. You're right that Gordon raced in the most difficult era in NASCAR, and he dominated right from the start. I was around 11 when he came onto the Winston Cup scene so I was lucky enough to have watched all of it. He was and still is the best.
As for Earnhardt, I don't agree that he is so highly regarded simply because he died on the track. He won 7 championships, not the gimmicky "playoff" championships. I do think, in hindsight, that he was kind of a dirty driver, but that's why he was fun to watch. 🤷♂️
Dale Earnhardt is the greatest ever 7 to 4
For me, there are 12 drivers who I take seriously in the conversation for GOAT status: Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Lee Petty, Herb Thomas and Tim Flock. All have a number of pros and cons to take into account, and the end result depends heavily on what you personally value in a racer. Therefore there isn't one definitive answer that can satisfy everybody.
I personally take Bobby Allison as my number one pick. He won for 13 different car owners, was better at Junior Johnson's team in '72 than Cale was in '73, was an improvement on David Pearson at Holman-Moody, got way more out of Bud Moore's team than Earnhardt did two years later, and won a title with DiGard which DW couldn't do. He has the second highest number of wins after age 40 behind only Lee Petty, was the only driver to win in a GM car between January of '64 and August of '71, and got four wins out of the flying brick (AMC Matador). And he's the only driver besides Gordon to win three times in each crown jewel. Add in being the only driver to lead 4000 laps in the modern era, a modern record of 24 podium finishes, and being one of only four drivers to win after turning 50, and his case looks pretty solid. The weak spots are that he wasn't a great points racer (though for what it's worth if the current playoff system had always existed he'd be the only five time champion) and his inability to win at Martinsville. But I'm pretty sure that you could drop Bobby in any era with any vaguely competent team and he'd end up winning with it.
But as I said, it comes down to what you personally value, and I won't fault anyone for picking any of the other 11. I'd personally love to watch an IROC series between them all in their primes.
Kyle crybaby Busch is most overrated in NASCAR history he’s not even close
i would have done this list in 2 separate categories 1 the winston cup series and the nextel, sprint,and monster drink series because they are different point systems
The best way to do this is to take a racers 500 best consecutive starts....if you look at the numbers, 500 starts is about peak performance for most drivers...
do the math...take out the rookie-ish season and then count 500 starts
I agree with your analysis and break down about 99%. I'm happy to see someone else agree with me that Jimmie Johnson is not the end all be all of NASCAR. I'm old enough to have seen all of your top ten race with the exception of Lee Petty, he was just a little before my time. One point you missed was Gordon and Earnhardt won races and championships with more than one crew chief. This is why I believe without Chad Knaus, Johnson would not have achieved the level of success as he did. One other note, Johnson raced Gordon much more aggressively than he did other drivers, simply because he knew he was protected by teammate status within the organization. Notice how Johnson is no longer associated with Hendrick Motorsports or Chevrolet for that matter?
This is a good video! Thank you 🙏🏻 ❤!😎🏳️🏁
I still couldn’t put Petty that low. Especially at the end of his career, yes he was uncompetitive. But he was really old too. He was 55 when he retired in 1992. None of the drivers now will come close to racing that long. Jimmie, Jeff, Harvick and Stewart were all in their early 40s when they retired. Kyle Busch isn’t even 40 yet(turns 40 next year) and is already showing notable signs of being a has been. He doesn’t even consistently finish in the top 20 anymore.
jimmie is better than dale in every statistical category and had less starts
@@nilweatherzw true but in the early part of Dale's career he was driving for a midpack team for about 4 seasons
@@p1motorsports694 jimmie had tougher competition and won in harder points formats
@@nilweatherzw agreed but you gotta realize Earnhardt didn't really drive top notch equipment his whole career the first 8 years of his career he was driving below average equipment
What? Lol johnson won his "championships" in the most piss poor points system in nascar history. 2016 had 16 top 5s. With a 14 place average finish. Lol hell he only had one season under 10. And on the team that had the top equipment and chested the most.. senior had like 10 under a 10 average. I think most of the true nascar fans...not the millennials...would disagree with u
Dale went eight years without a single crash DNF. Which is partially why he won six championships in nine years during that streak. Johnson was considerably more accident-prone.
Tim Flock was not even mentioned and has one of if not the best winning percentage of all drivers. Herb Thomas was a great driver too and had the records to prove it. Herb was injured and never fully recovered from it. Before his head injuries Lee Roy Yarbrough was amongst the best and Junior Johnson's 50 wins was not mentioned. Bobby Allison was top five too.
David Pearson was second to none in nascar. He only ran for the championship three times in his career, and won three championships.
He raced for almost 30 years. What do you mean?
@@jimmydean5182 He only raced for the series championship, which is run the entire schedule three times, 1966,1968, and 1969. He was series champ all three years. David could make more money doing a tire test in the sixties than run all of the small purse races. Ford told Holman Moody to run for the Championship in 68 and 69, then pulled out of racing in 70. It left teams without new race engines and parts, so they cut back on their schedules to be able to afford to keep racing.. Hope this helps.
If longevity is a qualification then Waltrip is one of the worst. Waltrip had the majority of his sucess in the early 80's driving for Junior Johnson who had the #1 team at the time. Waltrip was not competitive for the last decade of his career. He was not just riding around like Petty. Waltrip couldn't even qualify for the races. Nascar had to create a past champion provisional for him to make the race and he used it regularly.
I would’ve put Earnhardt over Gordon only for the shear fact that for the majority of his career his cars weren’t the most tricked out cars, Andy Petree even stated that when he became his crew chief he couldn’t believe how heavy and basic the cars he’d been running were, Gordon is definitely one of the goats but compared to Earnhardt he was in more state of the art equipment and wasn’t as competitive with multiple crew chiefs as compared to Dale, plus you didn’t give Dale credit for driving his final years with a neck injury that inhibited his ability the compete at his full potential till he finally had it fixed at the end of the season in 2000 and admitted to Larry McReynolds that he couldn’t feel the car. Gordon was great but Earnhardt is without a doubt the goat, you also didn’t give him credit for what he gave back to the sport off the track and how much he elevated the sport.
Pearson skipped a lot of races that were outside his home region, the southeast. He could have easily won more races and championships. Nascar didn’t have a set schedule back then either like now. Petty simply raced more races each year and piled up a ton of wins and points over even less competitive fields. As far as skirting the rules, they all did that but Petty’s team did it better. Jimmie’s team did it’s fair share of cheating too. They even got caught bit no real penalties ever were issued. If Nascar truly wanted to, they could have stripped away wins, suspended him or revoked his eligibility for the chase but none of that ever happened. Usually just a fine and maybe a small point penalty, which during the regular season meant little.
Glad to know I’m not the only one that thinks petty is overrated
1. Jimmie
2. Dale
3. Petty
4. Gordon
5. Pearson
6. Yarborough
7. Waltrip
8. Kyle Busch
9. Allison
10. Harvick
Honorable Mentions: the labontes, wallice, mark martin, Ned Jarrett, and Stewart
It is hard to put anyone ahead of the King, David Pearson, and the Intimidator, but Jeff Gordon has to be in the discussion. He made the 90's miserable for me as a fan because he won every other week it felt like (I was a Ford fan). What he and Mr. H, Ray Evernham and the Rainbow Warriors accomplished is historical.
I feel like you are forgetting something about Jimmie he had an almost career ending crash and was never the same afterwards you need to include stuff like that imo however i still think jimmie is better than jeff richard and dale
Yeah and he was even still competitive in his final year prolly would’ve won Darlington if he didn’t wreck at the end of stage 1. Had a shot at winning dega if Ricky wasn’t doing Ricky things. Top 5 in the points before Covid. Still had competitive runs at places like Kentucky and Daytona rc and also went out with a top 5 finish highest out of any driver not in contention for the title. Even in some of his part time gigs he’s still driving it up to the top 10 at Daytona and Indy
Petty at 6th is waaaaay too low imo. Like I get if some don't want to put him at number 1 but 6th? Ehhh. I think people forget just how good he was and it goes beyond just the 200 number. He still has four titles alone in the modern era, and that was after he absolutely dominated the previous era.
Honestly, lets just say that if they still used the Winston cup system, Gordon would have 7 titles, then, he has 3rd place llace in total career wins, in an era where the cars were getting to the point where they were pretty equal across the board. He's gotta be in the top 3.
For me Pearson is #1 over Petty. Pearson didn't have the funds to run as many races as petty. If funds were they likely would have ended about 150 wins each
U gotta have ned in top 10
Gordon was my favorite driver. So, since he is exactly right to put him as #1. As Gordon is still the only driver to retire at the top of his game
The only difference in Gordon and Earnhardt careers is Gordon has a Ryan Newman more wins.
Jeff Gordon is the GOAT! He is #1. Who else did more for the sport? He brought it mainstream. He won multiple races on all types of tracks multiple championships would have won more championships if not for the stupid playoff formula. Was Gordon the 1st to pull a million from merchandising?
1st off not having Stewart in the Top 10 is RIDICULOUS. 3 Titles and 49 wins..not to mention he won each title in a different points format!! 2nd. Your logic for Godron being ahead of Dale is off. Dale didn't fall off because just because Gordon came in...Dale was in his early and mid 40's. That's about the time MOST guys retire.