Jimmie Johnson isn't NASCAR's first dominator

Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team are spoiling Cup Series racing for some fans.

“It’s getting to where it’s not much exciting to watch,” Joe Burden, a NASCAR follower for 50 years, said this week. “Because if Jimmie doesn’t have bad luck, it seems he wins most of the time.

“No slam on him, because he’s obviously a great driver and has a terrific, smart team leader in Chad Knaus and a dandy pit crew.

“In winning, Johnson is just doing his job. But in doing it so well, he’s making things pretty predictable.”

Burden, 75, is a Sears retiree who now works as assistant manager in the pro shop at Mallard Head Golf Club in Mooresville, N.C.

His opinion about Johnson’s winning way is shared by quite a few of the course’s golfers, especially the seniors, who often “talk racing” while having beverages after playing 18 holes.

“Maybe our memories are fading,” Burden said after Johnson won Sunday at Las Vegas for his second straight victory in three races this season. “Maybe it has been like this before in NASCAR.”

Well, yes, boys, it has.

Johnson, 34, winner of a record four straight driving championships starting in 2006, is the present-day dominator and is favored to win again this Sunday in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Before him the role of ruling for stretches in stock car racing variously was held by Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Billy Wade.

Predictable?

That was the 1967 season when Petty won a stunning 10 straight while scoring an incredible 27 triumphs in 48 starts.

Included in the streak of 10 straight checkered flags was King Richard’s only victory in the storied Southern 500 on Labor Day at Darlington Raceway.

I covered that race 43 years ago as a member of The Charlotte Observer’s sports staff.

I remember a friend and fellow writer, the late Joe Whitlock, saying to Petty, “Damn, Richard, are you going to win them all!?”

Petty, who had just won for the 21st time in 40 starts to that point in '67, grinned through the grime that covered his face.

With a mock, quizzical look he replied, “What are you talking about? I’ve lost 19.”

Petty’s sensational streak began on Aug. 12, ’67 in a 100-miler at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. The Darlington win was the midpoint. The final victory in the stretch came on Oct. 1 in a 250-mile race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Buddy Baker’s victory in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first of his career, snipped the Petty string. Petty was swept into a crash on the 41st of the race’s 334 laps and his car sustained heavy sheet metal damage.

“It wouldn’t run after that,” said Petty, who finished 18th. “It felt like there was a parachute hanging off the car.”

Both Petty and Allison won five straight in 1971,

The other drivers listed earlier put together streaks of four straight triumphs, some more than once. Johnson won four in a row in 2007.

While dominating victory streaks understandably are a turn-off for some fans, they’re a turn-on for other followers, including me.

I think there's drama in seeing how long drivers can keep them going.