[h=2]In RACER Magazine: The Magnificent Seven[/h] Tom Jensen

For Jimmie Johnson, the most dominant driver of NASCAR's current era, a seventh championship wasn't an "if," it was a "when." It duly came in the 2016 finale.

Kyle Busch, the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, stood on pit road at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his visage a mixture of shock and disbelief. Busch had come into last November's season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 as one of four drivers with a shot at winning the '16 title, something he wanted very, very badly.
At various points in the race, Busch, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards and Team Penske ace Joey Logano each looked as if they would take home NASCAR's biggest prize. Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson, the fourth contender, started dead last and ran behind all three of the others for the vast majority of the race.
But when the final green waved with three laps to go, Johnson made a perfect restart to take the lead for the first time all race long. He thrust the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead and held on to win his seventh Cup championship, tying him with Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt as the holders of NASCAR's most sacrosanct record.
All Busch could do was shake his head. "Johnson was nowhere all night long – couldn't keep up with us, really," said Busch. "We were the third-best car, I felt, and I never even saw him in my mirror. He just came out of nowhere at the end and did what he needed to do; he was Superman and won the championship."
Three-time series champ and NASCAR Hall of Fame member Darrell Waltrip was equally amazed, though considerably less distraught. "Johnson's the coolest driver out there," says Waltrip. "He's the guy who sits on a hot stove and pees ice water."
That much the NASCAR community agrees on, even if the language isn't always quite so colorful...
Johnson's seventh championship naturally raises questions about how he, Earnhardt and Petty match up. But comparing the relative merits of drivers from three different eras of racing can be a total fool's errand, especially since two of the three never raced in a playoff format like Johnson has. There's simply no way of knowing who's best.
But among his contemporaries, Johnson's numbers are simply astonishing. There's no other way to state it.
Kyle Busch, the 2015 champ, has won 8.92 percent of his Cup starts. Kevin Harvick, the '14 title holder, has a 6.10 percent win rate. Johnson's career winning percentage is 14.73.
Johnson leads active drivers with 80 race victories; Busch is second with 38.
The recently retired Tony Stewart, regarded as one of the best drivers of this or any other generation, won 49 Cup races in 619 starts. The bottom line? Stewart made 76 more starts than Johnson is currently at, but won 31 fewer races.
Or take Johnson's former teammate, Jeff Gordon, who won 93 races, third all-time behind only Petty and David Pearson. From 1993-2001, Gordon won four Cup titles and 58 races (19.8 percent). From 2002, when Johnson joined Hendrick, until his retirement, Gordon won no titles and just 35 races (6.84 percent).
Last, but not least, in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which began in 2004, Johnson has won 29 races. His closest competitors, Harvick and Kurt Busch, have each won 11.
So how has Johnson managed to put a stranglehold on the competition? Starting with the obvious, Johnson drives for the best team in NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, and he's been teamed from the start with crew chief Chad Knaus, unquestionably the best of his generation.
But there's a lot more to it than that, starting with Johnson's personality. There are really two Jimmie Johnsons...
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