Jimmie Johnson: The Best Driver Of The Modern Era That No One Talks About

I'm a long time Nascar fan who is growing tired of the way the sport is protrayed and one of the biggest things that bothers me is the protrayl of Jimmie Johnson. I know people say he's vanilla, he's bland, he's not exciting.

Yeah but he's dominant and wins a lot (six races so far this year), and he wins in such a fashion that it's not aggressive and idiotic (yes I'm talkin' about you Kyle Busch), and he wins in both regular season and Chase (again this is about you Kyle), and he doesn't complain much about the car or conditions (like Dale Jr), he simply drives smart, makes his moves and wins, what more can you ask for?

He's now on the brink of three straight Cup Titles, first since Cale Yarborough, and its time we speak of Jimmie in the same sentence as Dale Sr, Cale, Junior Johnson, and of course The King as the greatest to race in a stock car.

Yes Jimmie is that good, yet if you pay attention to ESPN and Fox, you'd think its still all about Dale Jr (who may be popular but is not a great driver, just average), and all that he does off the race track (for he sure doesn't do much on the track), you also hear about Jeff Gordon not winning, but Jeff had his time as a dominate driver and in this era of Chase, Jeff's racing style isn't championship stuff, it just isn't.

And no I'm not a Hendrick apologist, I'm a die hard RCR and Kevin Harvick man, but I felt it needed to be stated that with everything else going in in racing we could be missing out on a legendary driver here.

Think about in other sports teams that won three straight championships, my hometown Chicago Bulls did it twice, the New York Yankees pulled it off earlier in this decade along with the Los Angeles Lakers and it was common knowledge that these were teams for the ages.

So why can't the 48 team be included with the best of all time? Why can't Chad Knaus be considered a great racing mind and manager? Sure it could be considered that Hendrick is the Yankees of racing, they spend the most money, get the best free agents but they win, they also place well, they get their people the best equipment and chance to win and I don't buy into the thought that some of their guys get better stuff than the others.

It's about skill, teamwork, some luck, and knowing your stuff. Jimmie started off bad this year, but they righted that ship and put Kyle and everyone else laps behind with good, clean, winning racing.

I think the sport has had enough of the rough and tumble, aggressive drivers who carry attitude with them like its stitched on their fire suit.

It's time to give Jimmie his due and honor in the sport that he represents so well and dominates like few others.