New Book Tackles NASCAR's Greatest Debates

EDITORS NOTE: When you start talking about Richard Petty's rightful place in NASCAR history vs. Dale Earnhardt vs. Jeff Gordon, you're going to get in an argument.

In his first book, Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates, recently published by John Wiley & Sons Inc., motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski tackles these questions and provides his unique viewpoint. Prior to joining FanHouse over a year ago as an editor, Jerry Bonkowski was National NASCAR Columnist for Yahoo! Sports and ESPN.com and wrote for USA Today.

Here are several excerpts from Bonkowski's book, which is available at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other book stores, as well as online at Amazon.com.

WHO'S THE GREATEST NASCAR DRIVER EVER?

This debate always gets passionate fans going, with typically mild-mannered individuals turning into raving, obsessed fanatics if someone dares to challenge the superiority of the guy they so proudly call "their" driver. Think of a 140-pound, Woody Allen-looking dweeb who lives and breathes Kasey Kahne suddenly getting a surge of testosterone, puffing out his chest while forgetting common sense, and stupidly trying to take on a hulking, 300-pound redneck who takes great offense if you say anything bad about Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Then watch the punched-out Woody Allen-esque fan suddenly wind up doing a frightening, almost cartoonlike barrel roll through the air like the great Rusty Wallace did more than a few times during his career at places like Talladega Superspeedway.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys, and make sure you teach 'em never to diss Dale Junior -- but I digress.

In more than 60 years of racing, NASCAR has had more than its share of greats, most notably being The King, Richard Petty, and the equally colorfully nicknamed The Intimidator, the late Dale Earnhardt.

Both Petty and Earnhardt share a record that will most likely never be broken in Cup racing, each having won seven championships. Even Jeff Gordon, a guy who is just as talented as Petty and Earnhardt, will probably never make it to seven titles in the years of racing he has remaining. Say what you want about Gordon but if a gifted driver like him can't tie or break the joint Petty-Earnhardt mark, it's doubtful that anyone else will ever do so. Remember, Gordon has now gone eight seasons since his last championship in 2001.

Of the other drivers besides Gordon who are currently active, Jimmie Johnson -- who has tied Gordon's total Sprint Cup wins, taking home trophies in the last four championships (2006 to 2009) -- arguably has a better chance of coming closer to, if not surpassing, the Petty-Earnhardt mark. Johnson is four years younger than Gordon; he turns 35 in September 2010 while Gordon will be 39 that August. Since 2002, his first full year in Sprint Cup racing, Johnson has earned 47 wins to Gordon's 24, including 29 in his championship-winning reign (compared to Gordon's 9 that season).

Some folks can make a case for drivers like David Pearson (105 wins), Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip (both with 84 wins), Cale Yarborough (83 wins) and even Gordon (82 wins heading into 2010) as being the best of the best. (Sorry, and I know their fans will take offense, but guys like Sterling Marlin and Derrike Cope simply just don't make the cut when picking NASCAR's numero uno.)

For my money, there are really only two drivers who can be considered for the title of NASCAR's best driver ever: Petty and Earnhardt. You can make all the counterarguments you want, but their respective numbers and careers don't lie.

Of Petty's 200 wins, 126 came on tracks that are no longer part of the modern-day NASCAR scene. Most prominent are his 15 wins each, the most at any track he ever raced on, at the now-shut North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina and at the still-active Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Petty's other great track closed at the end of 2002, but not before The King earned 11 career wins at North Carolina Speedway, more commonly known as Rockingham or simply "The Rock."

Petty also was the king of short and intermediate tracks that had much shorter tenures on the NASCAR schedule and are no longer part of the Cup slate: Nashville, Tennessee (9 wins); Maryville, Tennessee, and Greenville, South Carolina (6 wins each); Riverside, California, South Boston, Virginia, and Hickory, North Carolina (5 wins each); and Weaverville and Winston-Salem, North Carolina (4 wins each).

A large reason for Petty's incredible success was that he had the best organization on the Cup level pretty much from 1962 until 1979, when he earned the last of his seven championships. As the saying goes, The King got while the gettin' was good.

Petty retired at the age of 55, having competed in 1,184 Cup and Grand National (the predecessor to Cup) competitions, ending with a winning percentage of 16.9 percent -- the fourth highest in NASCAR history and by far the highest percentage of the sport's most successful drivers.

By the time Petty hung up his driver's suit for good at the end of the 1992 season, his retirement was long overdue. He spent the last eight seasons of his illustrious career failing to reach victory lane even once, averaged less than two top-five finishes per year and had just one top-10 season finish (eighth in 1987) in that final eight-year stretch of his 35-year racing career.

Earnhardt, in contrast, competed in fewer than half the races Petty did -- 676, to be exact. He won 76, which made him fifth on NASCAR's all-time list. His overall winning percentage is 11.2 percent, which may seem paltry at first. But Earnhardt also competed more often -- and overall was more successful -- on bigger, longer, and faster tracks than Petty did during his career.

The King earned 10 career wins at Daytona International Speedway while Earnhardt had only 3 (including just one Daytona 500 to Petty's 6), but Earnhardt was more successful overall when it came to racing at places acknowledged by most experts as some of the toughest tracks in the sport: Talladega (10 wins to Petty's 2), Atlanta (9 to 6), Bristol (9 to 3) and Darlington (9 to 3).

Earnhardt was killed in February 2001 on the final lap of the season-opening Daytona 500, less than two and a half months before he would have turned 50 years old. Even though many (who were obviously not Earnhardt fans) considered him washed-up at that point, having won his last championship in 1994, let's not forget that Earnhardt still finished second to champ Bobby Labonte in 2000. This unquestionably proved that there was still a lot of high-powered fuel left in Earnhardt's tank -- and he definitely still had what it took to be successful at the highest level of stock-car racing.

Just prior to his fatal crash, Earnhardt told reporters he planned to race for at least another two or three years while also guiding and shepherding the career of an up-and-coming driver: his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Although the elder Earnhardt would most likely never approach the success he enjoyed during the early part of his career, he might have added another six or more wins to his overall total, had it not been for his tragic wreck and resulting death. Given what he did in 2000, he obviously had enough left in him to win an eighth championship, which could have put him above Petty once and for all in most championships.

Although the elder Earnhardt would most likely never approach the success he enjoyed during the early part of his career, he might have added another six or more wins to his overall total, had it not been for his tragic wreck and resulting death.
There's no disputing how good Petty was in his day. But he was the big fish in the little pond, competing with teams that usually were not as well-funded or did not have the same type of win-capable equipment that Petty and the fabled blue-and-white No. 43 STP Dodge-cum-Pontiac had.

Earnhardt, in contrast, didn't earn his fearsome nickname The Intimidator by happenstance or by having bad breath. Just his looming close in a rearview mirror was often enough to strike fear in a competitor, causing that opponent to get nervous and even rattled enough to allow Earnhardt to get by, either by choice or by Earnhardt's weapon of choice: the bumper on his menacingly all-black No. 3 Chevrolet. Earnhardt's bumper wasn't called "the chrome horn" for nothing; either you moved or he'd move you, plain and simple.

What's more, Earnhardt competed in an era when NASCAR had much greater parity and more popularity than in Petty's days. It was tougher for Earnhardt to win races and championships than it was for Petty, which made those wins and championships much more meaningful overall than Petty's.

The bottom line is that Earnhardt was the greatest driver NASCAR has ever seen. He may not have won as many races as Petty or Pearson, Allison, Yarborough and Waltrip -- and eventually he lost his fifth-place title on the all- time wins list to Gordon -- but he raced in a much more competitive and pressure-filled era than Petty did.

Don't believe me? In the 16 years (1976 to 1992) that they went head-to-head in Cup competition, Earnhardt won his first five Cup championships and 53 races. In that same period, Petty won just one championship and 20 races. 'Nuff said.

WHY DO I HATE DALE EARNHARDT JR. SO MUCH? (I REALLY DON'T)

Let's make this very clear from the start: regardless of how this question is posed, I unequivocally do not hate Dale Earnhardt Jr., not as a driver nor as a human being. In fact, I give him credit for being NASCAR's most popular driver for the better part of the last decade.

But for some reason, many die-hards within Earnhardt's huge fan base have taken to calling me a Junior-hater and worse because of some of the critical things I've written or said about him over the years. It's become nothing short of a running joke, and I seem to be the punch line or the butt of the joke.

Some of the questions from my readers and listeners border on the fringe of lunacy: do I have a long-simmering beef with him that has clouded my judgment? Did he steal my girlfriend? Did he stiff me for a dinner or bar bill? Do I have such a fragile ego that I get an almost orgasmic rush if I blast Earnhardt? Don't I understand how much he must still hurt at the tragic loss of his father, Dale Earnhardt? The answers to these questions are: no, no, no, no, and yes. Let me explain.

Like a savvy politician or a TV preacher, the younger Earnhardt has unquestionably -- and in the fine fashion of a world-famous virtuoso -- played the media, the advertising world, and his fans like a fiddle. He's larger than life, and having the Earnhardt name and the tragic loss of his father hasn't hurt in developing his legacy.



Yet his fans still can't understand. They just don't get it. They are completely oblivious to his talent level, his career statistics, or anything that shows him as anything less than the greatest driver the sport has ever seen. I've received numerous letters saying this. Many of them act as if Junior is entitled to superstardom and championships just because of his surname and his father.

Because of marketing prowess and the advice of his handlers, Earnhardt has been painted as an all-American boy, the boy-next-door type that any parents would love to have take out their daughter and even marry her.

There are also folks who say that I'm jealous of Junior's fame and fortune. That couldn't be further from the truth. (I admire the millions of dollars and the fame he's received, but that's it. I've never asked him for a handout or a loan and never would.)

The bottom line is this: Junior never has been and never will be the greatest driver in NASCAR history. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Junior is a good driver, but that's as far as I go. He is not a great driver. He's made a career that has been marked by way too many driver errors, too many lapses in judgment, too much arguing with his crew chiefs, and a tendency to let off-track interests and pursuits distract him from his day job. He has built his career simply by believing many of the fawning newspaper and magazine stories that have been written about him, many by writers who were simply trying to curry favor with NASCAR's most famous redhead.

This isn't just me talking. Take an objective look at the course of his career, and you will find that I'm 100 percent correct on all these counts. If Earnhardt truly were as great as his fans believe, we would not have come into 2010 with him still desperately in search of his first Cup championship. We also would not have to look into the NASCAR record book to see that in his first ten Cup seasons (through 2009), he had just three top-five seasons (in which he never finished higher than third, and two other times he was fifth), one top-10 season, and six other seasons in which he finished outside the top 10 (including four times outside the top 15).

And let's not forget 2009, his second year with Hendrick Motorsports. After much outcry from his fans and the media, Junior finally parted ways with longtime crew chief and cousin Tony Eury Jr., who was replaced by Lance McGrew. Team owner Rick Hendrick thought that Junior needed some new blood -- and not a relative's blood, at that -- to direct his career.

Unfortunately, McGrew proved to be worse than Eury in the short run. Instead of leading Earnhardt to victories and a Chase appearance, Earnhardt finished with the worst season (25th) ever in his Cup career.

I can spout statistics and facts until I'm blue in the face, but Earnhardt and his handlers have done such a great job of brainwashing Junior's posse with all his supposed great ability and talent that anything I say simply comes out sounding like sour grapes. It's very frustrating when you try to tell someone that their favorite driver is a cross between a good driver and a poser. I'm just looking at things from an objective standpoint, not through rose-colored glasses.

In terms of statistics, Earnhardt would fall in the same category as Kurt Busch or Matt Kenseth (both have similar overall career stats as Junior). Yet, those two have already won one Cup championship apiece -- whereas Earnhardt is still seeking his first title, a pursuit in which he may never wind up ultimately finding Camelot.

Despite all this, who is the most popular driver in NASCAR? Earnhardt, for reasons that will always remain mysterious to me.

As much as I hate to say it, I predict he'll continue to seek that elusive first Cup crown for many years to come. And though I admit I would like to give his fans something to be proud of if he were to finally win a championship, I also want to be there 10 years or so from now, after he retires, to simply say to all those hoodwinked fans who think their driver deserves to be in the same category as his late father, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson and so many others: "See, I told you so. He was good, but never great."

Will all those fans who called me crazy or a Junior-hater finally believe that I was only preaching the truth and backing it up with facts, not emotion? Wait, we're thinking about the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no-evil Junior Nation here. Nope, it'll never happen; they'll never see what I've been saying all along. And you wonder why I'm so frustrated and hate Junior -- even though I really don't.

WHEN JEFF GORDON RETIRES, WHAT WILL BE HIS LEGACY WITH NASCAR?

For nearly two decades, Jeff Gordon has been the most successful driver in Cup racing. Ever since he ran his first race in the 1992 season finale -- in what many consider one of the most significant changing of the guards in the sport: Richard Petty's last career Cup start and Gordon's first -- the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet has gone on to become one of the greatest stars in the sport's history.

Among some of Gordon's most notable accomplishments: four Winston Cup championships (1995, 1997, 1998, and 2001); more than 80 wins in NASCAR's top division; at least 1 win at every current track on the circuit except for Homestead-Miami Speedway; more than 260 top-five and 350 top-ten finishes in fewer than 600 career starts; more than 20,000 leads in 165,000 laps; nearly 70 career poles; and more than 215,000 miles logged in a Cup race car.

Gordon came to NASCAR after an outstanding career in sprint cars, midgets, and other open-wheel racing, primarily under the auspices of the United States Auto Club. And while he quickly developed a large and loyal fan base, he was met with significant resistance from many longtime NASCAR diehards. For one thing, Gordon was a California native, although he spent much of his formative racing years in Indiana, the hotbed hub of sprint and midget racing. Gordon was therefore looked at by many Southern race fans as an outsider -- a Yankee by some, a slick Californian by others.

Ironically, that perception only became compounded by the fact that Gordon became an almost immediate winner. Paired with crew chief Ray Evernham, he blazed through the Cup ranks, particularly from 1995 through 1999, when he notched three of his four Cup titles and won 47 races, including 13 in 1998 and 10 each in 1996 and 1997. Gordon's fourth title came in 2001, with Evernham prodigy Robbie Loomis at the helm as crew chief. (Evernham had moved on to form his own team and help Dodge return to the sport in 2001.)

With that kind of success, it is easy to see why Gordon might be the subject of hatred from non-Gordon fans. He was taking wins and championships away from other fans' drivers, most notably guys like the late Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Terry and Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd and Mark Martin.

Martin is an especially poignant example, for he finished second to Earnhardt in 1994, fourth to Gordon in 1995, third to Gordon in 1997, and second to Gordon in 1998. Martin fans could make a strong case that if "Wonderboy" (as Gordon was derisively called by some non-fans) hadn't come along, Martin might very well have been able to earn at least one career Cup championship.

During his most successful seasons, Gordon was both cheered and booed. He became the subject of abject criticism and derisiveness. One well-known comedian, Tim Wilson, even recorded a song that became semi-legendary among non-Gordon fans, called "Jeff Gordon's Gay!" That song and others of the same ilk were funny -- even Gordon has good-naturedly laughed at them numerous times over the years -- but only one thing is important: Gordon has been one of the biggest positives the sport has ever seen.

He exuded a clean-cut, all-American-boy image. When first wife, Brooke, filed for divorce, even non-Gordon fans came to Jeff's defense, essentially vilifying the former Miss Winston for doing her man -- and their man, the way they saw it -- wrong.

Gordon has been a perfect example of strong values, a tough but fair competitor, and a clean racer (most of the time). He has never had any off-track incidents that brought him or the sport any ill repute -- something that can't be said of many other athletes in other professional sports. He's practically been the prototype of professionalism and classiness.

Unfortunately, many other athletes have chosen to go in another direction.

As Gordon begins to close in on the end of his long and successful Cup career, something else needs to be pointed out about him. Had it not been for NASCAR's implementation of things like the Chase for the Sprint Cup or the Car of Tomorrow, Gordon would most likely have enjoyed even greater success, even during the waning years of his career.

For example, if the old format had stayed in place and the Chase had never come to be, Gordon would probably have won one to three more Cup championships from 2004 to 2009 (particularly in 2004, as well as 2006 and 2007). Unfortunately, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson wound up taking away three of Gordon's best chances from 2006 to 2009. And had it not been for the extreme difficulty of adapting to the Car of Tomorrow in 2008, Gordon might have added significantly to his total career wins.

Had it not been for NASCAR's implementation of things like the Chase for the Sprint Cup or the Car of Tomorrow, Gordon would most likely have enjoyed even greater success, even during the waning years of his career.
In fact, I believe that Gordon would have had six championships and would have been closing in on 100 career Cup wins by now had it not been for the Chase, the Car of Tomorrow, and, of course, the success of his prodigy, Johnson.

Gordon came onto the NASCAR scene just as its biggest hero, Richard Petty, was calling it a career. Cut from a similar mold as gentleman Richard, Gordon brought class, fierce but clean competitiveness, and an example of how clean living and hard work can lead to success -- just as Petty displayed during his nearly-four-decade racing career.

Gordon became Earnhardt's arch nemesis and rival -- much as Earnhardt had been to Petty during the final 13 years of the King's Cup career -- and when he eventually leaves NASCAR, it will be a much better organization for having had him in its ranks.

When he does ultimately retire from NASCAR -- which given Gordon's new-found second wind to keep racing for several more years could be anywhere between 2015 and 2021 -- Gordon will likely be a unanimous first-ballot inductee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame in much the same fashion as Petty and Earnhardt, the two biggest names in NASCAR history that preceded him. That's true greatness right there -- and Gordon certainly deserves to be in that category, if not a category of his own.

Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates can be purchased online at amazon.com