NASCAR Cup Series: Does Jimmie Johnson get the respect he deserves?

Does seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson get the respect that he deserves for what he has accomplished throughout his career?

Since he started competing in the NASCAR Cup Series in the 2001 season, Jimmie Johnson has only ever driven for Hendrick Motorsports, and he has only ever driven the #48 Chevrolet. In 616 career starts, he has cemented himself as one of the sport’s legends.

Johnson is one of three seven-time Cup Series champions along with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, and his 83 career Cup Series victories rank in a sixth place tie on the all-time wins list. He needs only one win to shoot into a tie for fourth on that last.

But 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick recently stated that he believes Johnson is “one of the most disrespected great drivers” that the sport has ever seen. You can read all of what Harvick had to say here.

Does Johnson get the respect that he deserves?

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When discussions of who the greatest NASCAR driver of all-time is come up, Johnson’s resume should make him a factor, especially considering no driver in Cup Series history has won more championships than he has.

Yet he rarely is.

In fact, to use just one of many examples, in a recent bracket-style poll that we conducted on our Facebook page to determine the NASCAR “GOAT”, Johnson barely got into the round of 4 (defeated Cale Yarborough 53% to 47% in the round of 8), and when he did, he got blown out by Earnhardt (78% to 22%), who earned fewer victories in more races (76 victories in 676 races) than Johnson has (83 victories in 616 races).

It is really quite clear; Johnson does not get the respect that he deserves.

Johnson is even on a career-long 60-race win drought at this very moment, and he could afford to go 123 more races without earning another victory before his career win percentage would dip below that of Earnhardt (11.24%), and Johnson has driven in arguably the sport’s most competitive era.

In addition, Johnson won his seven championships in an 11-year span whereas Petty won his in a 16-year span and Earnhardt won his in a 15-year span. Johnson’s streak of five consecutive championships is also an all-time record, and no other drivers aside of Petty and Earnhardt have even won four championships throughout their entire Cup Series careers.

Many critics will point to the fact that without the playoffs, Johnson would have only won three championships compared to “real” seven-time champions Petty and Earnhardt. But this argument is a double-edged sword.

The fact that four of Johnson’s seven championships have been won as a result of his success in the playoffs goes to show that he knows how to win when it counts. It illustrates the fact that he performs at his best in clutch situations.

Arguing that these four of Johnson’s seven championships don’t mean as much as his other three, or even that they mean nothing at all, is like arguing that Tom Brady should be judged only by his regular season success when it comes to determining who the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks of all-time are. It’s like arguing that the Super Bowls won by Brady in seasons during which the New England Patriots did not have the best record in the NFL don’t mean as much as the others.

So yes, Harvick, who is no stranger to sharing his opinion on various matters about NASCAR, is right once again. Johnson gets nowhere near the amount of respect that he deserves when you consider everything that he has accomplished over the course of his career in the sport.

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Do you believe that Jimmie Johnson gets the respect that he deserves for what he has been able to accomplish over the course of his NASCAR Cup Series career, or do you agree with Kevin Harvick that he deserves more respect than he gets?

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