Richard Petty: Still King of NASCAR at 75 | Photos

Richard Petty gives a tour of the Petty Museum days before his 75th birthday. He will climb atop of one of the team haulers Saturday night as he always does, finding solitude in the roar of 43 engines churning along Daytona's super-speedway . The moonlit skies will cast an iconic silhouette of a tall, slim man wearing sunglasses, a cowboy hat, long ... (more)

[TexasRaider]

Richard Petty will ALWAYS be the King. Earnhart Sr might've dethroned him, but his life wasn't long enough. Jimmie Johnson will NEVER be the king...same for his daddy Jeff Gordon

[hatchet]

TexasRaider wrote:

Richard Petty will ALWAYS be the King. Earnhart Sr might've dethroned him, but his life wasn't long enough. Jimmie Johnson will NEVER be the king...same for his daddy Jeff Gordon

And certainly not Dale Joonyer.

[TexasRaider]

hatchet wrote:

<quoted text>And certainly not Dale Joonyer.

Oh no..He shouldn't even be considered

[duh huh]

TexasRaider wrote:

Richard Petty will ALWAYS be the King. Earnhart Sr might've dethroned him, but his life wasn't long enough. Jimmie Johnson will NEVER be the king...same for his daddy Jeff Gordon

Jimmie has done something the King or Earnhardt Sr. couldn't do. Win 5 consecutive titles. Jimmie will not only pass them both (he should have been racing for his 7th title this year if it weren't for that blown tire in '05) but will retire as the GOAT!!! JJ won his 5th title in almost half the races as King Petty, ima.

[TexasRaider]

duh huh wrote:

<quoted text>Jimmie has done something the King or Earnhardt Sr. couldn't do. Win 5 consecutive titles. Jimmie will not only pass them both (he should have been racing for his 7th title this year if it weren't for that blown tire in '05) but will retire as the GOAT!!! JJ won his 5th title in almost half the races as King Petty, ima.

If you really stop and think about it, neither the King nor the Intemidator had the benifit of the chase. Jimmie would not have won five straight titles if it wasn't for the chase. I know good and well that there was one year nobody would've caught Kyle Busch had it not been for the chase format.

[duh huh]

TexasRaider wrote:

<quoted text>
If you really stop and think about it, neither the King nor the Intemidator had the benifit of the chase. Jimmie would not have won five straight titles if it wasn't for the chase. I know good and well that there was one year nobody would've caught Kyle Busch had it not been for the chase format.

If they had a Chase and better competition for that matter than I highly doubt they would have won 7 titles each. How is the Chase a benefit? How is it a benefit when ANY of the 10-12 drivers in the Chase can win the championship. Jimmie was and still is the best Nascar driver (most wins & titles since he began) and has earned those 5 straight championships cuz I can tell you nobody else will win more than 2 consecutive titles while there is a Chase. I can tell you that much. Stewart, maybe, but it's hard enough to win 1 championships and the DRIVERS will tell you that.

[TexasRaider]

duh huh wrote:

<quoted text>If they had a Chase and better competition for that matter than I highly doubt they would have won 7 titles each. How is the Chase a benefit? How is it a benefit when ANY of the 10-12 drivers in the Chase can win the championship. Jimmie was and still is the best Nascar driver (most wins & titles since he began) and has earned those 5 straight championships cuz I can tell you nobody else will win more than 2 consecutive titles while there is a Chase. I can tell you that much. Stewart, maybe, but it's hard enough to win 1 championships and the DRIVERS will tell you that.

Obviously you don't know enough about Nascar to understand. If what you said about the PreChase days is true about there being no competition in the old days, then Explain to me why Cale Yarborough is the only driver prior to Johnson to win 3 straight. You should've take a good look at the point differentials prior to Nascar giving them the chase points that makes it anybody's championship...In 2006 he was 9 points behind leader Matt Kenseth, so I can say he would've won that one anyways. 2007 he was 430 points down in 6th place. In 2008, Kyle Busch had a 208 point lead over second place Carl Edwards and JJ was 369 behind in 3rd. 2009 he was in 3rd 290 points down. 2010 he was 338 behind the leader in 7th...IN 2003 (the last year without the chase) Matt Kenseth at a 389 point lead over second place Dale Jr. For Good measure I'll go back to 2001 when Jeff Gordon's point lead at the end of the season was 349 and 342 when the Chase would've started. 2002 was a pretty competitive year as Sterling Marlin's point lead was only 91 when the chase would've started

So think Jimmie is the king all you want but Nascar "GAVE" him his last 4 championships as far as I'm concerned. However he might've won his first in 2004 under the old Format as Kurt Busch was in 7th place when the chase started and was 296 down.

[duh huh]

Ok, Petty had Yarborough, Earnhardt Sr. had Gordon, and Jimmie has Stewart...and 10 other drivers to compete for the championship. Nascar didn't give Jimmie anything. He went after it like everybody else and wanted it more. Everybody has a shot @ winning the title, now. It's much harder to win a championship because of the Chase format and the level of competition. Like I said he would have been racing for his 7th championship already. He'll get to 7 cuz the pressure to win 5 in a row was far much greater than getting to 7. He will get there and pass em' both within 5 years.

[Sorry Charlie]

TexasRaider wrote:

<quoted text>
If you really stop and think about it, neither the King nor the Intemidator had the benifit of the chase. Jimmie would not have won five straight titles if it wasn't for the chase. I know good and well that there was one year nobody would've caught Kyle Busch had it not been for the chase format.

You're talking 2008 when Kyle had 8 wins and seemed to be dominating the season... he choked so bad during the chase that even under the old point system he would have only ended up 3rd in points, 252 points back.

Final UNOFFICAL Classic Driver Points Standings [after Homestead race 36 of 36]:
1)#99-Carl Edwards 5236 [9 wins]
2)#48-Jimmie Johnson 5220 -16 [7 wins]
3)#18-Kyle Busch 4984 -252 [8 wins]
4)#16-Greg Biffle 4747 -489 [2 wins]
5)#31-Jeff Burton 4709 -527 [2 wins]
6)#29-Kevin Harvick 4691 -545
7)#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 4605 -631 [1 win]
8)#24-Jeff Gordon 4537 - 699
9)#20-Tony Stewart 4487 -749 [1 win]
10)#07-Clint Bowyer 4487 - 749 [1 win]
11)#11-Denny Hamlin 4439 -797 [1 win]
12)#17-Matt Kenseth 4316 -920
13)#6-David Ragan 4299 -937
14)#9-Kasey Kahne 4085 -1151 [2 wins]
(11-16-2008)

UNOFFICIAL Final Chase Driver Points Standings [after Homestead race 36 of 36]:
1)#48-Jimmie Johnson 6684 [7 wins]
2)#99-Carl Edwards 6615 -69 [9 wins]
3)#16-Greg Biffle 6467 -217 [2 wins]
4)#29-Kevin Harvick 6408 -276
5)#07-Clint Bowyer 6381 -303 [1 win]
6)#31-Jeff Burton 6335 -349 [2 wins]
7)#24-Jeff Gordon 6316 -368
8)#11-Denny Hamlin 6214 -470 [1 win]
9)#20-Tony Stewart 6202 -482 [1 win]
10)#18-Kyle Busch 6186 -488 [8 wins]
Top-10 go to NYC and the Banquet
11)#17-Matt Kenseth 6184 -500
12)#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6127 -557 [1 win]
(11-16-2008)

[duh huh]

DAMN!!! That shows how much T-Raid knew about Lil Busch "running" away with it. The bottom line is the Chase is all around better for the fans and drivers. Nobody wants to see a driver with 1 win all year and win the championship and be claimed the best driver that year.

[TexasRaider]

duh huh wrote:

DAMN!!! That shows how much T-Raid knew about Lil Busch "running" away with it. The bottom line is the Chase is all around better for the fans and drivers. Nobody wants to see a driver with 1 win all year and win the championship and be claimed the best driver that year.

Yeah that one should've gone to Carl Edwards, but still your lil jimmie would not have won that one.

[TexasRaider]

Sorry Charlie wrote:

<quoted text>
You're talking 2008 when Kyle had 8 wins and seemed to be dominating the season... he choked so bad during the chase that even under the old point system he would have only ended up 3rd in points, 252 points back.
)

My main point was Jimmie Johnson would not have won and your reminder kind of ticks me off reminding me that Carl Edwards should have already won his first championship

[duhduh2]

Richard was a great driver, but his son KYle needs to go to speech classes. he stammers, stutters and talks to much!!!!.

[Ford Man]

What if? What If" WHAT IF?
That's all we can say because of the stupid chase system. Yeah Carl Edwards got screwed out of his first one because of the chase...Nascar couldn't accept the fact that Matt Kenseth won the championship with only 1 victory in 2003 because nobody could beat his average finish, so they decided that they needed a playoff format so they came up with the chase and screwed their own beloved little Jimmie out of his first in favor of Kurt Busch. Then whe neither Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr (the biggest names at the time) couldn't make it in 2005, they decided that they needed a wild card. Then I can't remember the year but both Matt Kenseth & Kyle Busch failed to make the chase but had more wins than several drivers that did so the wild card spots became based on wins which makes better sense to me and Wins count for tiebreakers in standings and I respect Tony Stewart's championship last year being determined by that even though it was over my man Carl Edwards.

My opinion on the Chase as a whole is that if they are gonna do it, then just the drivers in it need to be racing in it.

[Sorry Charlie]

Ford Man wrote:

What if? What If" WHAT IF?
That's all we can say because of the stupid chase system. Yeah Carl Edwards got screwed out of his first one because of the chase...Nascar couldn't accept the fact that Matt Kenseth won the championship with only 1 victory in 2003 because nobody could beat his average finish, so they decided that they needed a playoff format so they came up with the chase and screwed their own beloved little Jimmie out of his first in favor of Kurt Busch. Then whe neither Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr (the biggest names at the time) couldn't make it in 2005, they decided that they needed a wild card. Then I can't remember the year but both Matt Kenseth & Kyle Busch failed to make the chase but had more wins than several drivers that did so the wild card spots became based on wins which makes better sense to me and Wins count for tiebreakers in standings and I respect Tony Stewart's championship last year being determined by that even though it was over my man Carl Edwards.
My opinion on the Chase as a whole is that if they are gonna do it, then just the drivers in it need to be racing in it.

It was actually Tony who missed the chase then won three races in the chase which caused NASCAR to change it to 12 chasers instead of 10. After Kyle missed the chase with 4 wins then Jamie Mac missing with 3 wins they made the change to make p11 and p12 wildcard spots.

[TexasRaider]

Sorry Charlie wrote:

<quoted text>
It was actually Tony who missed the chase then won three races in the chase which caused NASCAR to change it to 12 chasers instead of 10. After Kyle missed the chase with 4 wins then Jamie Mac missing with 3 wins they made the change to make p11 and p12 wildcard spots.

You're right about that...I agree with Ford man thought about if they're gonna have the chase format, then only the drivers racing for the championship need to be in it.

[Sorry Charlie]

TexasRaider wrote:

<quoted text>
You're right about that...I agree with Ford man thought about if they're gonna have the chase format, then only the drivers racing for the championship need to be in it.

Now that would be down right boring with only 12 cars on the track. Also, don't think sponsors would go for that.

I like the idea of the 12 chasers but after each race the driver in last place in points is out of the chase. Process of elimation. Down to the last race with only 3 drivers going for the championship.