Jimmie Johnson Wins Fourth Consecutive NASCAR Title

Jimmie Johnson won the 2009 Sprint Cup on Sunday. The Jimmie Johnson win marks the fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Title that the #48 car has taken home, placing him among the elite drivers in the history of NASCAR. It's an accomplishment that has no rivals in the world of NASCAR, as only one other driver has even been able to win three consecutive titles during the history of NASCAR. It's a way to cement Jimmie Johnson as one of the best drivers in the history of the sport, and sets up the possibility that the young driver could do it again in 2010 if all of the cards fall right for the #48 team again.

This accomplishment could place Jimmie Johnson as one of the most dominant drivers to ever sit behind a wheel on the NASCAR circuit. Cale Yarborough was the only other racer to ever have three consecutive cup titles, and he registered that accomplishment way back in 1969. Since then the sport has seen a lot of parity, with Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon really setting the bar for what a driver could do over their careers. None of those drivers were able to accomplish the three-peat though, and that puts Jimmie Johnson into a class of his own with this fourth consecutive NASCAR Championship.

On the all time list of most titles won by a driver, Jimmie Johnson now sits in a tie for third with Jeff Gordon. They both have four NASCAR titles, with Jeff Gordon last taking home the trophy in 2001. Way ahead of both of these drivers is Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty tied with seven total NASCAR titles during their careers. They are the bar against which every future driver is going to be measured, and of course Jimmie Johnson is now being compared to them with his latest NASCAR Championship. He deserves to be in their class, but not everyone is willing to put him in the same group as those legends.

The 2009 NASCAR season was 36 races long, and as such has seemed to lose a little bit of its luster due to just having too many races on the schedule. The new formatting in the points also has some people arguing about the validity of Johnson's four consecutive titles, but I think that the results really speak for themselves. Every is racing on even ground right now, and it is up to the driver and his team to elevate their car above everyone else. Jimmie Johnson and the #48 team has now done that for four consecutive years, and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any of the best NASCAR racers of all time.

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JJ Clinches NASCAR Title