Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Best Driver in NASCAR? It's Easy to Figure Out

Who is it? We'll wait until the end to show you. But I have to ask you, who else has won 38 races out of 249 starts, and also has 98 top five finishes and 152 top ten finishes?

Who also has 18 poles out of his 249 starts? Who also has never finished worse than 5th in the points standings since he started driving all the races in Cup?

This driver's ability to cultivate wins astounds me. He has a fantastic crew chief as well, about as nerdy as Mr. Spock on Star Trek, but the combination has produced fantastic results.

This driver also lacks, or so it would seem, in personality. He is one of those "I want to thank my sponsor" kind of guys in interviews. He never seems to have a hair out of place, and never says the wrong thing on camera. In other words, he's a sponsor's dream.

This driver overcomes adversity at all costs. He never sounds tired or overly frustrated on the radio during the longest of races. I know. I spent a lot of time listening to his radio during Sunday's Talladega race, and he had more reasons than I have the space to list here to be frustrated. His crew chief kept him in line very well.

Who am I talking about? Of course it's Jimmie Johnson. Since his first Cup race in 2001, he's managed to win 38 times and has 2 championships. He never gives up, as was evident on Sunday during the Talladega race. He salvaged a 9th place finish after losing a lap early. He is the current points leader in Cup, and appears to be on his way to a 3rd consecutive championship. What he lacks in on camera personality, he makes up for on the track.

Performance is what counts, and Jimmie Johnson has proven that he's one of the best.

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