Cale's three consecutive titles elusive feat to match

Only one driver has ever won three consecutive championships in NASCAR's premier series: Cale Yarborough. However, Jimmie Johnson is in a position to match Yarborough's feat with another title in 2008.

History shows that it will take a combination of factors for Johnson to have a reasonable chance.

Johnson has shown the ability. With Hendrick Motorsports, the equipment is there. And there is a certain amount of luck that must fall your way. But most of all, Johnson must maintain the consistency he's shown over the past five seasons.

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Even though NASCAR's point system has evolved over the years, putting together consistent finishes remains the key factor in winning the championship, and even more so with the Chase format.

And the odds against Johnson aren't as long as you might believe. No fewer than 10 other drivers have had the opportunity to put together a string of three consecutive championship seasons -- and in at least six cases, came very close to doing what Yarborough did from 1976-78.

In fact, it could have happened twice in the first decade of NASCAR. Herb Thomas and Buck Baker are perfect examples. And in both cases, it was Tim Flock and Lee Petty who spoiled things.

Thomas won championships in 1951 and 1953, and finished second to Flock in 1952 and Petty in 1954.

In '52, both Thomas and Flock wound up with eight victories, but Thomas sat out the season-opener in West Palm Beach, which Flock won. Even though Thomas won four of the last six races, Flock had the final edge in top-10 finishes (25 to 22), just enough to earn the championship.

Thomas won 12 races to Petty's seven in 1954. But Petty was more consistent, posting 32 top-10s to Thomas' 27. In addition, Petty was running at the finish 31 times to Thomas' 24.

Baker was the first driver to win back-to-back titles, doing it in 1956 and 1957. He also finished second to Flock in 1955 and Petty in 1958. However, Baker's runner-up finishes weren't very close. Flock scored 18 victories in '55, compared to Baker's three. And in addition to seven wins in '58, Petty had an amazing 43 top-10s in 50 races, easily eclipsing Baker's three wins and 35 top-10s.

Petty would go on to win another title in 1959, but finish a distant sixth in the points to Rex White in 1960.

If Joe Weatherly had run a full schedule in 1961, there's no doubt he could have been a serious contender for the championship that season. He won nine races and posted 18 top-10s, but Bud Moore's team only competed in 25 of the 52 races. Instead, the title went to Ned Jarrett, who won only once but had 34 top-10s in 46 starts.

Weatherly went on to capture championships in 1962 and 1963, but was killed at Riverside early in the 1964 season.

A limited schedule also affected David Pearson's ability to win three consecutive titles. Pearson's three championships -- 1966, 1968 and 1969 -- came in the three seasons in which he ran a majority of the races. He only competed in 14 races in 1965 (mainly because of the Chrysler Hemi ban). In 1967, he drove 10 races for Cotton Owens and 12 more for Holman-Moody, finishing a distant seventh in the standings. And in 1970, he made just 19 starts.

It's hard to imagine that Richard Petty never won three consecutive titles, since he was champion in 1971 and 1972, and then again in 1974 and 1975. But looking back at his 1970 and 1973 seasons, the King was very close to claiming six in a row.

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In 1970, Petty had 18 victories to Bobby Isaac's 11, but a serious accident at Darlington (which ultimately resulted in NASCAR making window nets mandatory for the following season) left him with a shoulder injury and caused him to miss six races. Isaac wound up with seven more top-10 finishes than Petty, even though Petty led 5,007 laps to Isaac's 3,188.

Benny Parson's 1973 championship was the epitome of consistency. He won only one race all season to Petty's six, but had 21 top-10 finishes. In addition, Parsons completed more laps than Petty, which was included in the points system that season. And Parsons' average finish that year was 10.1, compared to Petty's 10.9.

Petty also finished second in 1976 and 1977, but was a distant runner-up to Cale Yarborough both times. Of course, Petty was the reason why Yarborough never really had a good chance for four consecutive titles (ninth to Petty in 1975 and fourth to Petty in 1979).

Darrell Waltrip was a defending two-time NASCAR champion by the time 1983 rolled around. At one point during the season, he trailed by as much as 234 points before putting on a furious rally to close to within 47 points of Bobby Allison following the final race. Waltrip had four more top-five finishes than Allison, but Allison's average finish was 7.0 compared to Waltrip's 7.7.

Dale Earnhardt is the only driver to win back-to-back titles on three separate occasions, doing it in 1986-87, 1990-91 and 1993-94. He had a miserable 1992, winning only one race and finishing 12th in the standings -- the only time in an 18-year stretch where he was out of the top 10.

But he came very close in both 1989 and 1995 to winning three titles in a row. In '89, he came within 13 points of catching Rusty Wallace with a win in the season finale. And six years later, Jeff Gordon was able to hold off the Intimidator by 34 points, despite Earnhardt's win in the last race of the year.

Gordon might have put together a string of four championships had things gone differently in 1996. As defending champion in 1995, Gordon won 10 races in '96 -- and had the same number of top-fives and top-10s as eventual champ Terry Labonte, whose only wins came at North Wilkesboro and Charlotte. But Labonte was more consistent over the entire season, with an average finish of 8.2 to Gordon's 9.5. Gordon then went on to win titles in 1997 and 1998, but would finish sixth in the points in 1999.

If not for a tire issue at Homestead in 2005, it's quite possible we could already be referring to Johnson as a defending three-time champion. He was only 52 points behind Tony Stewart heading into the season finale. However, Johnson crashed and finished 40th, leaving him in fifth place overall. That came one season after Johnson posted back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2003 and 2004.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.