Gordon's 2007 sets new standard of measurement

Quick, who were the Nextel Cup runners-up in 2004, 2005, and 2006? While most of us will need a moment to think about that before we come up with the names, in the future I doubt many of us will hesitate remembering the 2007 runner-up. After all, in any other year, under the current or past point systems, Jeff Gordon had a season that was easily good enough to win the championship.

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Simply put, Jeff Gordon dominated the season. The numbers don't lie: six victories, 21 top-fives and a Modern Era-record 30 top-10s, plus a 7.3 average finishing position with one mere DNF. The number 24 train kept rolling in the Chase with two wins, six top-fives, nine top-10s and a 5.1 average finishing position.

In the first three editions of the Chase, the average finishes for that year's champions were 8.9 for Kurt Busch in 2004, 8.7 for Tony Stewart in 2005 and 10.8 for Jimmie Johnson last year. On top of that Gordon posted an otherwise record-setting 1,606 Chase points. In the end, though, it was 57 points fewer than Jimmie Johnson's actual record-setting total of 1,663 Chase points and 77 shy of Johnson's final point tally.

After the race, a reflective Jeff Gordon sized up his and his team's season: "You're so appreciative. You work so hard, and you really just never know when it's going to happen again. And that, to me, is the toughest part about this year for me personally. I'm not getting any younger. I put up about as good a numbers as I know how to put up, and it wasn't enough. And that's tough to handle as a competitor." (read more)

Championships have never come easy in NASCAR.

Gordon's undoing this year, in a very real way, was of his own making. The fact is, he's just too good a judge of talent. When Gordon and Rick Hendrick first put Johnson in a Cup car in October 2001, they had high hopes for the kid. In a classic example of "be careful what you wish for," six seasons and two Cup championships later, Gordon's friend, teammate and employee had an out-of-body run of success in the Chase which threatens to relegate Gordon and his 2007 accomplishments to 'also ran' status in the record books.

This is four-time champion Jeff Gordon we're talking about. The Kid. Arguably the most skilled racer on the circuit and a slam dunk nominee for best NASCAR driver ever. If we're not vigilant, his legacy may also fall victim to the vagaries of the Chase.

We got our first taste of this new dynamic in the very first year of the Chase. Gordon had ended the 2004 regular season with a 293-point lead over the second-place driver, but gave up that buffer when the points were reset at the start of the Chase. Ultimately, Gordon wound up third in the championship, a mere 16 points behind the champion, Busch. Again this year, Gordon swapped what would have been a seemingly insurmountable 410-point lead over to Jimmie Johnson in exchange for a 20-point deficit at the start of the Chase, only to fall short at the end once again.

Some would argue that a system that denies what would have been Gordon's fifth and sixth Cup championship is grossly unfair. The truth is, it's not. Every driver and team owner entered the Chase era with their eyes wide open. They knew the rules. They understood their implications. They did the math. They drew up their plans. They made their peace. Then they went racing.

It's up to us to remember that there is no true, one-to-one comparison of Winston Cup era championships and Chase era championships. What it took to win the former is not necessarily what it takes to win the latter. Now more than ever, you have to judge a season in its entirety, not in its finality. For that very reason, the yardstick we use to measure a driver's place in history must change.

Was Gordon's ultra-consistent and record-setting year more significant than Johnson's hot streak at just the right moment? Does losing this year's title to Johnson diminish the impact of Gordon's career on the sport? The answer to both is: it depends.

Moving forward, we're going to have to keep track of, and place a value on, new categories of regular-season, season-long and Chase-specific accomplishments. Then we'll have to weigh those accomplishments against the values we place on the accomplishments of others in eras past. There will never be a specific formula for this (though someone will certainly try to come up with one) -- too much is open to interpretation. What it will do, though, is give us all plenty to discover, discuss and debate in the years ahead.

Change is the self-perpetuating beauty of all sports. NASCAR is no exception. We just have to remember to measure it as carefully and faithfully as we know how.

By the way, the 2004, 2005 and 2006 runners-up were Johnson, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, respectively.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.