Aftermath, Las Vegas: Time To Admit Johnson Is Better Than Gordon

Sunday could have settled a lot.

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson – eight championships between them and likely the two best drivers of this generation – had left the rest of the field behind at Las Vegas and were battling head-to-head.

Johnson won, but it wasn’t straight-up; he had four fresh tires, while Gordon’s crew chief Steve Letarte had called for only two.

As such, fans were deprived of what could have been a key exhibit in eventually settling the “Who’s Better?” debate.

Even last year, before Johnson won his record fourth consecutive championship, it would have seemed premature to suggest Johnson was a better driver than Gordon.

Johnson’s enormous success, many claimed, was due to the genius of crew chief Chad Knaus. And Gordon was one of the all-time greats; in some eyes, the greatest driver ever.

Petty. Earnhardt. Gordon. Pearson. Not in that order, but those were the names in the “best ever” conversation.

Johnson was viewed as just outside that top group. Now, after four straight championships and a fast start toward No. 5, the only people who think Johnson isn’t among the greatest of all time are in denial.

Three weeks into the season, Johnson is already making people in the garage smack themselves in the forehead and forcing fans to cover their eyes.

Not again!

The idea that his team would somehow have been surpassed by another in the offseason turned out to be a fantasy, and drivers can only hope he has peaked too early.

Otherwise, it could be five in a row.

Meanwhile, Gordon has been stuck on his “Drive For Five” since he won his last title in 2001; coincidentally (or not), Johnson’s first full season was 2002.

Statistically, there’s no question who the greater driver is when looking at Johnson and Gordon head-to-head.

The teammates have run 294 races together, according to the site racing-reference.info. And in those 294 races, Johnson has more top-fives, top-10s and a better average finish.

And in the categories that really matter, it’s not even close. Johnson has more than doubled Gordon’s wins in the same period (49-24), has finished ahead of Gordon in the standings every season since his rookie year and has a championship advantage that reads: Johnson 4, Gordon 0.

Johnson has won his championships during the closest, most competitive era of racing in NASCAR history – the last two in years when the cars were virtually all the same.

It certainly sucks for Gordon. If he hadn’t brought Johnson into the sport, JJ may never have gotten his big break and Gordon may have had about 20 more wins and at least two more championships.

Then we’d be talking about whether Gordon could catch Earnhardt and Petty, not whether Gordon is better than the kid he hired.

Gordon himself has said that the “best ever” debate is impossible to settle because of so many different eras and points systems in NASCAR.

But there’s mounting evidence to suggest that in this era, between the two Hendrick champions, the best driver is Johnson.