The “greatest of all time” debate in football? There isn’t one. It’s Tom Brady.
Hockey? Easy, it’s Wayne Gretzky.
In the NBA, there’s certainly a conversation to be had: Michael Jordan or LeBron James?
But in NASCAR, the picture is murkier, despite strong opinions throughout the fan base and the garage.
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“It’s a toss-up between five guys,” Kyle Busch said. “It’s always up for debate. In other sports, you can kind of say one guy is a GOAT. But ours is hard to pick.”
As Busch suspected, there were indeed five drivers who received at least one first-place vote from our 26-member panel during the selection process for The Athletic’s 75 Greatest NASCAR Cup Series Drivers voting. (If you missed previous installments, here’s Nos. 75-51, Nos. 50-26 and Nos. 25-6.)
Here’s how the numbers shook out, with the case for and against each person to be No. 1.
5. Jeff Gordon
Years active: 1992-2016
Cup Series wins: 93
Championships: Four (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001)
Number of first-place votes (out of 26): Two
Lowest panel ranking: 6
The case for Gordon
“If he stays healthy and with the right team, Jeff Gordon can probably accomplish more than Richard Petty and I ever thought about accomplishing.”
That’s a Dale Earnhardt Sr. quote from the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press in 1995, a year when Gordon won seven races and beat Earnhardt for the championship in just his third season.
But that was only the start of a breathtaking five-year run that saw Gordon win three more titles and a total of 47 races — all by the age of 28. That legendary late-90s romp saw Gordon get double-digit wins for three straight seasons, including his astounding 13-win campaign in 1998. Since then, only two drivers have reached 10 wins in a year (Jimmie Johnson in 2007 and Kyle Larson in 2021).
Gordon added a fourth championship in 2001 and then had nine more seasons in which he won multiple races.
His resume includes a whopping 17 crown-jewel victories: three Daytona 500s, six Southern 500s, five Brickyard 400s and three Coca-Cola 600s.
And though this isn’t a factor in how his greatness is viewed, Gordon’s mainstream-friendly image helped push NASCAR into acceptance from the corporate world.
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The case against Gordon
Gordon’s GOAT argument has a Jimmie Johnson problem. The driver Gordon hand-picked out of obscurity to drive the No. 48 car at Hendrick Motorsports ended up surpassing him in the eyes of many observers.
Using the driver comparison tool on Racing-Reference.info, the numbers tell the story: The teammates competed in 515 races together and were largely viewed to have similar equipment, but Johnson finished higher than Gordon 56 percent of the time. During their overlap of full-time seasons, Johnson won 76 races to Gordon’s 35 — and six titles to Gordon’s zero.
Gordon arguably should have been the champion in 2007 (a year in which he had 30 top-10 finishes) and easily would have done so under the former points system. But Johnson snatched that title away after winning four straight races in the Chase, which gave more weight to his supporters in the GOAT debate.
Johnson might have taken some championships away, but Gordon said his teammate also forced him to raise his competitive level.
“I thought I had things figured out and then Jimmie Johnson comes along and starts beating me on a regular basis,” Gordon said in 2019. “It forced me to look within myself and go, ‘OK, what am I not doing? What more can I do?’
“He elevated my game. And that, to me, is when a driver’s performance on track leaves a legacy behind to other performers or athletes around the track.”
4. Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Years active: 1975-2001
Cup Series wins: 76
Championships: Seven (1980, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994)
Number of first-place votes (out of 26): Three
Lowest panel ranking: 10
The case for Earnhardt
For years, Denny Hamlin thought the NASCAR GOAT was Jimmie Johnson.
“Racing with him, I think he’s the best there ever was,” Hamlin said in 2013. “He’s racing against competition that is tougher than this sport’s ever seen.”
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But during the offseason, when compiling a Twitter ranking of the top drivers of all time, Hamlin put a different name atop his list: Dale Earnhardt. Why?
“Generally speaking, he got the most out of the car he had, right from the get-go,” Hamlin said. “I hate I never got to race against him, but just from what you saw as a fan and now someone who is in the sport, it was just amazing the moves he made.”
That’s really the crux of the pro-Earnhardt argument: His otherworldly talent and the mystique that surrounded it, like his mythical ability to “see the air” at superspeedways. Otherwise, the pure numbers aren’t there the way they stack up for others on NASCAR’s Mount Rushmore.
Earnhardt is tied with Johnson and Richard Petty with seven championships, but it was his skill level, car control, grit and “Intimidator” persona that captured the public’s imagination.
Sure, he won three Southern 500s and three Coca-Cola 600s, plus the Brickyard 400 and, famously, the 1998 Daytona 500. But some of Earnhardt’s most notable moments were jaw-droppers like the 1987 “Pass in the Grass” at the All-Star Race or his final victory in 2000, when he went from 18th to first in the last four laps at Talladega.
Upon his death in 2001 — an accident that served as a catalyst for the NASCAR safety revolution — Bill France Jr. declared: “NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever.”
The case against Earnhardt
Earnhardt has the fewest wins among the drivers in GOAT consideration and also has the lowest winning percentage (11.2% percent, which ranks No. 18 all time).
That won’t sit well with Earnhardt supporters, just as it didn’t when Richard Petty made some controversial remarks to that effect in June 2001.
“He really didn’t win that many races,” Petty said. “He wasn’t that dominant of a driver. He was an exciting driver to watch, whether he was running 10th or 13th or leading the race.
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“The races he ran against Cale Yarborough or Bobby Allison or Darrell (Waltrip), he was just OK. He was not a standout when you came to that part of it, but he met the criteria the fans wanted in excitement. They could bond to him.”
There are a couple things to unpack there. One, let’s look at the assertion he wasn’t dominant in races against the Yarborough/Allison/Waltrip trio and use Racing Reference’s comparison tool again.
In the 191 races he ran against Yarborough, they had almost an even split (Yarborough had a 96-95 edge). But Yarborough won 25 races during that time to Earnhardt’s 19. In the 286 races he ran against Allison, the leader of the Alabama Gang held a 149-133 advantage and they had the same number of wins (33).
But there was a much bigger overlap with Waltrip (656 races), and Earnhardt had a sizable margin there (383-273). He also won 72 of his career races during that time, while Waltrip had 68 wins.
That said, those comparisons might not have mattered if Earnhardt won an eighth championship and stood alone at the top. After all, his career was incomplete; he was 49 at the time of his Daytona 500 accident, but also coming off a season in which he had a second-place finish in the point standings.
3. David Pearson
Years active: 1960-1986
Cup Series wins: 105
Championships: Three (1966, 1968, 1969)
Number of first-place votes (out of 26): Six
Lowest panel ranking: 9
The case for Pearson
Pearson being placed at No. 3 on this list might stir surprise among many readers. After all, this is a man who was voted “Driver of the Century” in 1999 by Sports Illustrated’s panel of 40 NASCAR experts (which included many former Cup champions) and was named as the greatest driver ever by Sporting News in 2011.
Among those who have most often made a case for Pearson over the years: Petty himself.
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“In my estimation, David Pearson is the greatest driver ever in the history of NASCAR,” Petty said in 1973. “I have the greatest respect of his opinions and decisions out there on a racetrack.”
One of the stats frequently brought up in a pro-Pearson argument: He and Petty finished 1-2 in 63 races; of those, Pearson won 33 times.
Decades later, Pearson’s numbers remain hard to fully grasp. He ran portions of 27 seasons, but never a full campaign; heck, he only started at least two-thirds of scheduled races nine times. His winning percentage (18.3 percent) is third on the all-time list, with only Herb Thomas and Tim Flock ahead of him. Among the five drivers in the GOAT debate, Pearson is also tops in top-five and top-10 percentage.
The “Silver Fox” won the 1976 Daytona 500 in one of the all-time great finishes — limping to the finish line after a last-lap crash with Petty. He also won three Coca-Cola 600s at Charlotte (where he once recorded a stunning 11 straight poles) and three Southern 500s at Darlington (where he remains the all-time wins leader at the track supposedly “Too Tough To Tame”).
Ed Hinton, the distinguished NASCAR writer, wrote for ESPN.com in 2009: “He was the best NASCAR driver there ever has been, and probably ever will be, and I am by no means alone in that opinion.”
The case against Pearson
In the general public, Pearson may have been his own worst enemy in the GOAT conversation. During interviews given later in life, he lamented not being more outgoing and media-savvy.
As Hinton described it in a 2003 column, “Petty abides today as a living legend and Pearson has faded in the public memory, his name somehow buried beneath those of drivers with less success but more public appeal: Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and the late Dale Earnhardt.”
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In that same column, Hinton quoted Pearson as saying he “hid from the media” during his career.
“Richard did it the right way. I hurt myself,” Pearson said.
That said, it’s doubtful our panel — consisting of drivers, crew chiefs, team owners and other industry experts — would be swayed by which driver is more famous. In truth, it comes down to the numbers.
Yes, Pearson had a slight edge over Petty when they competed against each other — but Petty had 95 more wins than Pearson.
Yes, Pearson usually won the championship when he ran most of a season, raising the question if he could have won more; but Petty actually did run those races and ended up with four more titles.
Ultimately, some voters had different criteria for determining what makes someone the best: Is it the pure talent, the actual numbers or somewhere in between?
2. Jimmie Johnson
Years active: 2001-present
Cup Series wins: 83
Championships: Seven (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016)
Number of first-place votes (out of 26): Nine
Lowest panel ranking: 7
The case for Johnson
Winning seven championships in the most difficult, competitive era in NASCAR history? Jimmie Johnson did that.
But what makes Johnson’s achievements even more impressive was his relentless excellence at a time when everyone knew he and the No. 48 team were the ones to beat. They wore the target on their backs year after year, took the best shots from elite drivers and teams and still managed to triumph anyway.
It seems impossible to imagine now, but Johnson won five consecutive championships. Five! Only one other driver in NASCAR history has even won three straight.
“Seven gets talked about a lot, but that five-in-a-row thing doesn’t get talked about enough, in my opinion,” Chase Elliott said. “I know the format was different (with playoffs versus a full season) and makes it a little more possible to do, but that’s still a tall order.”
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“He won five in a row. That’s crazy,” Kyle Larson added.
Take any of Johnson’s championships and look at the quality of drivers he was up against. We randomly picked 2009, when he won his fourth straight title.
That year, the drivers immediately behind Johnson in points were all eventual Hall of Famers: Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart.
And that was a year when Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all finished outside the top 10 in points — which only further speaks to the competition level of the field.
In this era, Johnson was competing against drivers who started racing as children and had to swim their way through an ocean of others with similar dreams. The talent pool was unquestionably deeper than NASCAR saw in the 1970s or 80s.
“I’m probably biased because I got to compete with him, but just the quality of competition in his era was much more difficult,” Larson said.
It wasn’t just the championships, but the wins. His crown-jewel resume alone would be enough to be considered an all-timer: Two Daytona 500s, four Brickyard 400s, four Coca-Cola 600s and two Southern 500s.
Johnson also won the All-Star Race four times and is the all-time wins leader at Dover (11), Charlotte (8), Texas (7) and Fontana (6). He might have come up slightly short of being No. 1 on this list, but Johnson was the best of his time.
The case against Johnson
This argument has been used so many times by Johnson detractors, it’s practically cliche: Johnson won all his championships (and 81 of his 83 races) with crew chief Chad Knaus atop the pit box.
Even in the midst of winning five straight titles, people questioned whether Johnson could ever be successful without Knaus. The sentiment was, “Yeah, Jimmie won again. But can he do it with another crew chief?”
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When the chance arrived for everyone to finally see the answer, Johnson was 43 years old. His split with Knaus came after a winless season — the first of Johnson’s career — and he closed his full-time career with two more disappointing years.
It also didn’t help that in Johnson’s final season, he failed to win with crew chief Cliff Daniels and their group of crew members who went on to win 10 races and the Cup Series title the following year with Larson.
Now, after two fruitless years trying IndyCar, Johnson is coming back for a partial schedule in the Cup Series as a co-owner of the rebranded Legacy Motor Club. But not everyone is excited to see it.
“I hate that he’s coming back,” Hamlin said in a teaser episode for his new podcast. “Just because as the guy I put on this pedestal of unbeatable, super talented — he was the guy.
“He’s got such a strong legacy and a strong resume. I hate tainting what I’m going to think about him if he comes in and struggles, which is the most likely scenario.”
1. Richard Petty
Years active: 1958-1992
Cup Series wins: 200
Championships: Seven (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979)
Number of first-place votes (out of 26): Six
Lowest panel ranking: 5
The case for Petty
The King stays The King.
For all the GOAT talk, for all the arguments made for drivers with lesser stats and far fewer trophies, our panelists ended up giving Richard Petty the highest average.
He didn’t receive the most first-place votes; Johnson did. Petty tied with Pearson, fittingly, for the second-most No. 1 selections.
But Petty’s average was consistently high enough to put him in the top spot, which indicated panelists had fewer questions about where he belonged than others on the list — even the other seven-time champions.
Petty was the only driver on the list who was a unanimous selection for the top five.
Some of the King’s NASCAR records include:
- Most wins (200)
- Most poles (123)
- Most Daytona 500 wins (seven)
- Most consecutive wins (10)
- Most wins in a season (27)
- Most championships (tie, seven)
“The consistency Petty has is remarkable, and the good equipment helps, but there’s something else,” Benny Parsons told the Greenville (S.C.) News in 1972. “… He knows everything there is to possibly know in racing. That’s why he’s so great. He deserves everything he wins.”
And none other than A.J. Foyt has called Petty “the greatest stock car driver ever.”
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Petty and NASCAR will be intertwined forever. His sunglasses, mustache and cowboy hat are as iconic as the race cars themselves. And he embraced his role as a living legend, long ago setting the standard for fan-friendliness and being an ambassador for auto racing as a whole.
The case against Petty
Remember that Sports Illustrated panel — consisting of some of the biggest names in NASCAR history — that voted Pearson as “Driver of the Century” in 1999?
Petty was not second on that list. Earnhardt was.
“It was a little surprising (Earnhardt was second),” Pearson told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal after the list was revealed. “I thought Richard would be a close second. But I think people realize that he always had better equipment than I did.”
Quality of equipment is hard to measure in racing, but it absolutely matters when determining a driver’s talent level. If anything, Petty’s cars were viewed as too good at times: Of course he won, he has the best stuff.
Then there are arguments about the quality of the field Petty ran against before the Modern Era (when there were 50-60 races in a season).
We pulled a random one as an example: The 1967 Macon 300, which ran on a Tuesday at a track called Middle Georgia Raceway. Petty won the race by five laps and, of the drivers in the 24-car field, only three others went on to make the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Bobby Allison, Wendell Scott and Buddy Baker).
In that sense, it’s easy to view some of Petty’s wins as a fraction of what victories meant a decade or two later.
Of course, even if you took 94 wins away from Petty — which is more than the career totals of every driver in history except for Pearson — he’d still be No. 1 on the all-time wins list.
Finally, let’s revisit that Sports Illustrated panel one more time. The voting came at a time when Petty had only been out of the car for seven years and memories of his late-career plummet were much fresher.
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He won his final championship at age 42 and then raced another 13 years without finishing top-three in points. And after his last victory in 1984 (which came as a 47-year-old), Petty ran eight winless seasons.
“Many of his earlier years — prior to 1980 — was 90 percent of his success,” Kyle Busch said. “But he still raced into the 90s. So like there was 12 or 13 years there where you could argue success wasn’t great.”
Indeed, Petty won 190 of his 200 races prior to 1980. And having seen those later seasons, it’s entirely possible the panelists at the time would feel differently about Petty’s greatness.
But now, with much more distance from those years and an understanding of how much a driver’s performance can decline after his mid-40s, it was easier for our panelists to take a step back and look at the entirety of Petty’s career.
The Athletic‘s Jordan Bianchi contributed to this story.
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(Top illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: RacingOne, Lane Stewart, FocusOnSport, James Gilbert / Getty Images)
