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NASCAR’s Last Dynasty

Cale Yarborough’s record of three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships stood for more than 30 years, until Jimmie Johnson won not three, not four but an absurd five consecutive titles from 2006 to 2010.

Johnson added two additional titles in 2013 and 2016 to become just the third seven-time Cup champion, and with seven titles in an 11-year span, Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 team put together one of the greatest dynasties in NASCAR history.

And for as long as the current championship format in place, it’s the last dynasty we’ll ever see.

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A cursory examination of North American sports shows that success is ultimately what sells. The most popular NFL, NBA and MLB teams are usually the ones that have a rich history of winning, and they also have the star power that sells to a general audience.

The NBA experienced its ratings peak in the midst of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. Shohei Ohtani has revolutionized baseball and has brought a tremendous following to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Look at what Caitlin Clark, Tony Hawk, Michael Phelps, Serena Williams and Usain Bolt have done for their respective sports. Fans gravitate toward the most impressive athletes, and just one super star that blossoms into a household name is enough to draw casual fans to a sport they wouldn’t watch otherwise.

NASCAR experienced the same phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. helped propel NASCAR to a national spotlight it had never seen before. Johnson’s dominance directly followed that era, but during his time as the new face of NASCAR, he never achieved the notoriety that captivated general audiences in a way that the stars before him did.

For as much of a role success plays in attracting fans and viewers, it’s only one part of the equation. Personality and marketability are the other side of the coin, and Johnson wasn’t flashy on or off the track. He showed up and, to his credit, did his job better than all of his competitors, week in and week out.

In that sense, Johnson’s heyday was NASCAR’s equivalent of the San Antonio Spurs dynasty — a team that followed the fundamentals and racked up the hardware while flying well below under the national radar.

What also fizzled interest during Johnson’s dominant run is that he didn’t have that rival matching him every step of the way. What made Gordon vs. Earnhardt compelling is that the two were foils, the yin and the yang that represented polar opposites. Earnhardt was the tough, grizzled veteran from the South, while Gordon was the young, clean-cut California kid who took all of the veterans to the cleaners during his prime.

Most fans fell on one side of the aisle or the other, and emotions ran high. For every fan that tuned in hoping that Gordon would win the race, there were just as many, if not more, that tuned in hoping that he would crash out.

Love and hate are what compel fans; indifference is what weakens passion.

With Johnson cruising to the championship every fall, the half-decade started to feel copy-and-paste. Johnson didn’t have the appeal that made him a household name or a fan favorite like trailblazers in other sports of the same time period, but he wasn’t a villain that fans loved to hate — like Kyle Busch — either. Plenty of fans disliked him because of his constant winning, but it was more out of indifference than pure contempt. For as great as he was, Johnson’s prime didn’t move the needle on a national scale.

What has followed in the 15 years since his five-peat is whiplash. The underlying reasons for implementing the elimination format in 2014 won’t see the light of day, but with three rounds of eliminations and a champion decided by the 36th race in November, it was clear from the format’s inception that it served as a dynasty killer.

A driver would have to navigate three sets of three-race seasons before defeating three championship hopefuls in the final race in order to claim the title. With a title that can be won or lost on crashes, mechanical failures, poor pit stops or even a bad restart, it would be difficult for a single team and driver to establish a dynastic run, let alone win five-straight titles in a format heavily influenced by chance.

And sure enough, not a single driver has been able to establish their own era or rise above the rest of the competition. Johnson’s five-in-a-row remains the most recent time a driver has scored back-to-back Cup titles, and eight different drivers have won a championship in the 11 years of the elimination format. Busch and Joey Logano are the only drivers to have hoisted the trophy multiple times.

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That level of parity is great, right? Well, yes and no. Eight champions in 11 years means that more drivers have had their time in the sun to establish themselves as stars of the sport, but on the flip side, sports grow stale when everyone takes a turn at winning. Underdogs that consistently win are no longer underdogs, for example. NASCAR, like all sports, needs winners as much as it needs losers.

No driver will reach the dominant heights that Johnson did under the current rules, yet accomplishing what Johnson did is precisely how a sport like NASCAR generates stars with national reach, even if he didn’t become one himself. And while the elimination format freshens the names out front and opens up the championship to teams that would be well out of the running otherwise, no one is able to stand out and become that Richard Petty, Earnhardt or Gordon that NASCAR desperately needs.

Is it possible for that star, for that personality to shine through and become a household name that puts NASCAR back on the map? Maybe yes, maybe no, but it’s all for naught when the current rules artificially cap today’s drivers from reaching the same heights as their predecessors.

Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.

Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.


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CCColorado

Appreciate the deep dive into the subject of dynasties.
Brian and his stupid, gotta be like all the stick and ball sports, playoffs has lots of unintended consequences.
The Nextgen car just compounded things as well.
In trying to control costs , so more owners participate, we have shoehorned the sport into this tiny box, almost a spec racing series now. I say let’s let the crew chiefs “ have at it boys” , ditch the playoffs , or certainly rethink the format, and let more companies make parts for the cars other than the “ approved, wink wink.. family businesses “ .
Chad was just so GOOD at reading the rule book better then the rest. Wink, wink….

ArkyBass

Well done Stephen Stumpf. The dynasty type runs done by the great teams with good drivers were very entertaining and part of my NASCAR fandom. As you mention…maybe good or bad, that the quest for parity will most likely prevent these dynasty runs from happening.