Johnson’s domination pales in comparison to heyday of the ‘King’

By Steve Waid

Thursday, November 05, 2009

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Jimmie Johnson has been NASCAR’s most dominant driver the past three seasons, and he can add an exclamation point to that domination if he wins a fourth consecutive championship.

Johnson, with the help of his Hendrick Motorsports team, has established himself as this era’s dominant driver, someone whose performances boggle the mind.
But no matter how impressive his record, Johnson’s feats this year can’t compare to Richard Petty’s achievements in 1967.

Admittedly, in 1967, there was no Chase. The season consisted of 49 races as opposed to 36. The point system was complicated (to say the least). Among other things, drivers were rewarded for the number of laps they completed.

For a driver to win the championship he had to compete in the majority of the races, complete as many laps possible and, of course, win as often as he could.

Given there was no Chase, he couldn’t rely on simply being among the top 12 in points and thus be afforded a chance, over the final 10 races of the season, to be the champion.

In 1967, Petty fashioned the best season in NASCAR’s history.

That year, he entered 48 of 49 races. He won 27 of them. He finished in the top five 38 times and compiled 40 top-10 finishes.

But what is most astonishing is that he won 10 consecutive races, an achievement that will never be equaled.

On June 18, 1967, at Rockingham, after winning his 11th race in just 24 starts, Petty moved into the points lead for the first time. He would never give it up.

By the 37th race of the season on Aug. 12, at the quarter-mile oval at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., Petty had won 17 times.

He won that race and then won the next nine. The victories came at Columbia, S,C., Savannah, Ga., Darlington, Hickory, N.C., Richmond, Beltsville, Md., Hillsboro, N.C., Martinsville and North Wilkesboro.

Darlington, Richmond and Martinsville are the only tracks in that group to survive to this day, although Richmond International Raceway today bears little resemblance to the half-mile dirt track of that era.

In contrast to the many fans today who say they are tired of seeing Johnson win so often, race fans back then cheered Petty’s victories and dubbed him the “King” of stock-car racing.

But not everyone was pleased. Ford Motor Co. wanted to be the top dog in NASCAR. Entering that season, it produced a new intake manifold and cylinder head system.

Chrysler countered that Ford could not meet NASCAR’s production requirement at that time, which declared that any car or part that was raced must have 500 units available to the public.

In 1967, NASCAR allowed the Ford teams to use their new equipment.

It worked – to a point. While the Fords could qualify well on the superspeedways, and won on them often, they were ultimately no match for the Chrysler teams that chose to compete in the majority of the races, which included the 100-milers on the short tracks that composed most of the schedule.

The scenario was perfect for Petty, whose team, Petty Enterprises, had been a Chrysler beneficiary for decades.

Ford’s top cats gathered at North Wilkesboro, a race in which they had entered all their top teams and drivers in an effort to end Petty’s dominance.

Petty’s 10th and last victory in the streak came at North Wilkesboro on Oct. 1, when exasperated Ford executives, who had done everything to thwart Petty and Chrysler, watched in misery.

Petty did not win again over the final three races of the season. Buddy Baker earned his first career win in the National 500 at Charlotte. Ford got some measure of satisfaction at Rockingham and Weaverville, N.C. A Ford team directed by recently retired Fred Lorenzen hired Bobby Allison as its driver and he won both races.

But the season belonged to Petty. He won the championship with 42,472 points – an astonishing 6,028 more than runnerup James Hylton.