I get so sick of all the conspiracy theorists out there. Im not a Gordon fan by any strech of the imgination(my sons middle name is Dale if that tells you anything lol!) but gimmie a break! If you think that NASCAR is rigged and whoever wins is who THEY want to win then why are you watching it?

 

 

There will always be people out there that want to complain.

Look at the numbers:

 

Jeff Gordon 482 starts and 77 wind.

Dale Earnhardt 766 starts and 76 wins.

 

When Gordon gets to 766 starts how many wins do you think he will have. Plus, I believe that the overall talent Gordon has to face is far superior to the overall talent Earnhardt had to face through most of his career.

 

I have to give the nod to Gordon.

Here are some other numbers for you:

 

Earnhardt's 76 wins earned him 7 championships. Gordon's 77 wins have earned him 4. Talent is not just finishing a race first, but consistantly being in the top finishers. That is why the Cup championship does not go to the person with the most wins, but the person who earns the most overall points throughout the season. Sometimes this is the same person, sometimes it is not.

Look at the numbers:

 

Jeff Gordon 482 starts and 77 wind.

Dale Earnhardt 766 starts and 76 wins.

 

When Gordon gets to 766 starts how many wins do you think he will have. Plus, I believe that the overall talent Gordon has to face is far superior to the overall talent Earnhardt had to face through most of his career.

 

I have to give the nod to Gordon.

Put Earnhardt in the equiptment Gordon has drove for his whole career and Big E wouldve probably been going after Pettys record or at least Pearsons mark anyway. Im not slighting Gordon Im just saying that Earnhardt drove some junk cars the first 5 or 6 years of his career before he got hooked up with Childress.

Put Earnhardt in the equiptment Gordon has drove for his whole career and Big E wouldve probably been going after Pettys record or at least Pearsons mark anyway. Im not slighting Gordon Im just saying that Earnhardt drove some junk cars the first 5 or 6 years of his career before he got hooked up with Childress.

 

 

Do you honestly think that he would be close to Petty's record if he would have had been with Childress his entire career?

Do you honestly think that he would be close to Petty's record if he would have had been with Childress his entire career?

 

I don't think that he would.

 

Still, Earnhardt, like Petty, won 7 championships. With less race wins. Like True Blue and Gold said in their post. Consistency was Earnhardts way of winning those championships. Petty had more race wins and dominated in his time. Gordon is winning races, but, until this season, hasn't been all that consistent.

If I am not mistaken I think some of Petty's early wins that counted was when they would run more than one time a week!! Someone can maybe research that.

 

I don't think Petty's record can ever be eclipsed. I just don't think it is modern day comprable.

Do you honestly think that he would be close to Petty's record if he would have had been with Childress his entire career?

Maybe not Petty but definitley Pearsons mark of 105 would have been reachable.

Here are some other numbers for you:

 

Earnhardt's 76 wins earned him 7 championships. Gordon's 77 wins have earned him 4. Talent is not just finishing a race first, but consistantly being in the top finishers. That is why the Cup championship does not go to the person with the most wins, but the person who earns the most overall points throughout the season. Sometimes this is the same person, sometimes it is not.

 

I don't know if this is correct, but didn't Gordon have an incredible lead in points prior to the first chase for the championship, when only the top 10 were eligible? Could the change in format have an impact on the eventual number of Championships Gordong finishes with? Have a dominating early season, but not being able to coast to the finish and having a bad, or unlucky chase could be a scenario this year if Gordon continues to stay on a roll.

I don't know if this is correct, but didn't Gordon have an incredible lead in points prior to the first chase for the championship, when only the top 10 were eligible? Could the change in format have an impact on the eventual number of Championships Gordong finishes with? Have a dominating early season, but not being able to coast to the finish and having a bad, or unlucky chase could be a scenario this year if Gordon continues to stay on a roll.

 

He had the lead...I am not sure about the point total. However, before the format change, there were several examples of drivers leading the points with 10 races left to go that did not win the championship. As you said, circumstance (or bad luck) can hit you early or it can hit you late.

 

But it brings up a good point. As things evolve over time, how can we compare different generations of drivers? An analogy...at our school, the our all time leading scorer of our girls basketball team scored over 2000 points. This was before the institution of the three point shot. So, making the comparision to players today is difficult.

 

Someone once calculated that, in the first "chase" that had the rules not changed, Gordon would have won by 20 points or so. I never did hear of anyone going back and using the "chase" rules to figure how many championships that Dale Earnhardt (or others) would have won, though.

 

It is like someone said about Richard Petty and his 200 wins mark. That was in an era when they had multiple races in the same week. You just can't make solid comparisons in different eras.

 

This probably makes me sound like I am anti-Gordon. I am not. He is not who I want to win a race, but he IS one of NASCAR's best drivers of all time.

I love seeing Gordon win and the temper tantrums from the E fans start. Cracks me up.

I love seeing Gordon win and the temper tantrums from the E fans start. Cracks me up.

 

 

:thumb: :thumb:

 

77 and counting!

I don't know if this is correct, but didn't Gordon have an incredible lead in points prior to the first chase for the championship, when only the top 10 were eligible? Could the change in format have an impact on the eventual number of Championships Gordong finishes with? Have a dominating early season, but not being able to coast to the finish and having a bad, or unlucky chase could be a scenario this year if Gordon continues to stay on a roll.

 

You are right about the change in format. The first year the chase was instituted, had the system stayed the same as the previous years, Gordon would have been the champion.

 

I think this is where NASCAR loses some of it's credibility. The NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB have maintained how they choose a champion for decades. They may have changed the # of teams that make the playoffs, but the format has stayed the same. You can compare champions of yesterday to those of today, but you can't compare the winners of this chase format to the winners of past Cup titles. And if Gordon wins four titles under this current system, you can't even truthfully compare them to his first four titles (or 5, as I believe he should have) that were won under the old system.