A 64-driver bracket quite a battle among sport's best

Sometimes you find the coolest stuff dealing with NASCAR's history on the Internet. In this case, it's a tournament featuring the 64 greatest drivers in NASCAR's history, with brackets similar to those of the NCAA basketball tournament.

64-driver bracket

How does Jeff Gordon stack up among the other greatest drivers in an NCAA-style bracket? You decide.

• "On Pit Row" Bracket

It's the brainchild of Charlie Turner and Steve Wronkowicz, hosts of the syndicated radio show On Pit Row. They also have member profile pages in NASCAR.COM's Community section.

According to their site, they took NASCAR's list of the 50 greatest drivers and added 14 current stars to the mix, then instead of seeding the tournament, they randomly sorted the names and came up with the brackets. And surprisingly, with only a few exceptions, it seemed to work very well.

I wound up printing out the brackets and filled in my choices, just to see who would wind up in my Final Four. And to be honest, I could go back tomorrow and revisit the list and probably come up with a completely different set of winners.

One of the regionals was stacked with Lee Petty, Bill Elliott, Junior Johnson, Dale Earnhardt and Ned Jarrett. But the most difficult one might have been the one that included Terry Labonte, Curtis Turner, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Dale Jarrett.

There were four intriguing first-round matchups, the most interesting perhaps being a battle between Kyle Busch and Darrell Waltrip. Talk about your mirror images. Ol' DW's a fan favorite now, but when he first started out, the boos were long and loud for the fellow from Owensboro, Ky.

Wallace, who very easily could have made it deep into the bracket, had the misfortune of being put against Richard Petty right off the bat. The same could be said for modified superstar Richie Evans, who drew Pearson on the same side of the tournament. And Dale Earnhardt Jr. wound up against Yarborough in the first round, not a favorable draw for fans of the No. 88.

The second round had its share of intrigue, with the most difficult choice being between Lee Petty and Elliott. Elliott had a stellar career and is a proven fan favorite, but Petty's numbers -- three Cup championships, 54 victories, an average finishing position of 7.6 -- gave him the edge in my book.

So my Sweet Sixteen wound up being: Lee Petty, Junior Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Ned Jarrett, Darrell Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Tim Flock, Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Herb Thomas, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon and Joe Weatherly. Quite a collection of the old and the new.

In one of the better third-round matchups, Waltrip narrowly edged Jimmie Johnson in a battle of three-time champions, the deciding factors being Waltrip's longevity and win total. But that might not be the case in future tournaments, if Johnson surely continues to add to his victory and championship totals.

Lee Petty and Earnhardt advanced to the Elite Eight from the first region. Waltrip and Roberts made it out of Region 2. It was tempting to take Yarborough over the King in Region 3, but I went with Allison and Petty. And Pearson and Gordon completed the third round.

The Final Four? Second-generation Earnhardt defeats first-generation Petty. Jaws sneaks past Fireball. Richard passes Bobby at the line. And the Silver Fox takes out Wonder Boy in another close one.

And that leaves me with the Intimidator and the King to duke it out in an all-North Carolina championship, although there's a temptation, based on career head-to-head performance, to want to choose Pearson to upset Petty and make it a border clash instead.

Anyway, at the least, it was a fun exercise in comparing NASCAR's stars over generations, and at the most, it may provide a lot of water-cooler conversations. I'd suggest downloading your own brackets and seeing who winds up in your Final Four.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.