Stewart has chance to join elite list of title winners

With 17 races -- including the Race to the Chase -- remaining this season, it may be somewhat premature to start speculating, but by winning the 2009 championship, Tony Stewart would have an opportunity to join six other drivers a very exclusive club. To date, only Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Ned Jarrett, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte have won championships for different owners.

Flock

Baker

Flock was hired to drive Ted Chester's Black Phantom Oldsmobiles early in 1951 and wound up winning seven times, placing him third behind Herb Thomas and brother Fonty Flock in the season standings. Switching to Hudsons the next season, Flock scored eight victories, including a stretch in June, July and August where he won seven races in 10 starts. That was more than enough to earn him the 1952 championship.

Racing monkey "Jocko Flocko" got more attention in 1953 than Flock's record, as he won just once. And at the end of the season, Chester shut down his racing operation, leaving Flock looking for work in 1954. He drove an Oldsmobile at Daytona that winter equipped with the first two-way radio system and dominated the race, but NASCAR officials disqualified him for an unapproved carburetor. Frustrated, Flock decided to leave racing behind and open a gas station in Atlanta, but that venture failed.

So Flock came to Daytona in 1955, helmet in hand, hoping for a break. And he found it in one of Carl Keikhaefer's immaculately prepared Chryslers. He led all 39 laps on the Daytona beach course, then went on to reel off 17 more victories and a total of 18 poles in capturing his second Cup title. But the pressure of working for a demanding taskmaster like Keikhaefer was more than Flock could take. Sick with ulcers, Flock quit the team early in 1956. He drove only a part-time schedule for the remainder of his career, and was kicked out of the sport by Bill France for helping to organize a driver's union in 1965.

If Stewart is able to complete what he's started so far this season, the driver most similar might be Baker, who was listed as car owner for the second of his two championships. Driving for a variety of owners in 1955, Baker finished second to Flock, prompting Keikhaefer to hire him for the 1956 campaign.

Over the next two seasons, Baker would win 24 races, 18 poles and score 61 top-five finishes to become the first driver to win back-to-back championships. When Keikhaefer suddenly closed up his shop after the 1956 season, Hugh Babb's Chevrolet-backed operation came calling.

Baker won four times with Babb as owner, and when the Automobile Manufacturers Association voted to pull the plug on factory support in June, the team was reorganized under Baker's leadership. He won six more times, including the season finale at Greensboro, to easily capture the crown. How dominant was Baker's 1957 season? In 40 races, he finished outside of the top 10 twice.

Jarrett

Pearson

Earnhardt

Labonte

Jarrett added his name to the list when he won the 1961 title in a Chevrolet for B.G. Holloway and the 1965 championship driving Fords for Bondy Long. Jarrett won only once in 1961 -- on the dirt half-mile at Birmingham -- but he was amazingly consistent that season, recording 23 top-fives and 34 top-10s. Six wins the following season gave Jarrett a third-place finish in the points. He then moved on to Charles Robinson's Ford team for 1963.

Long took over the operation in 1964, and with James Hylton as crew chief, Jarrett's fortunes rose quickly. He won 14 times that season, finishing a distant second to Richard Petty. But the next season, Jarrett parlayed 13 victories into his second Cup championship. One year later, Jarrett walked away from the driver's seat at 33.

After fielding his own cars for much of the early portion of his career, Pearson first began driving Pontiacs for Cotton Owens midway through the 1962 season, and the following year, became the full-time driver when the team switched to Chrysler products. With eight wins, Pearson finished third in the 1964 standings, but his breakout season came two years later when he won 15 of 42 starts and the 1966 championship.

When Fred Lorenzen suddenly walked away from the sport early in 1967, Holman-Moody hired Pearson as his replacement. And starting in 1968, Pearson won 27 times over the next two seasons to capture consecutive Cup titles. Coincidentally, 1969 would be the last season in which Pearson would run what could be considered a full schedule.

One season after winning rookie of the year honors for Rod Osterlund, Earnhardt brought home the 1980 championship trophy by posting five wins and 24 top-10 finishes in a 31-race season.

When Osterlund sold his operation to J.D. Stacy in the middle of the 1981 season, Earnhardt went to Richard Childress, where he finished out the year. He then drove two seasons in Fords for Bud Moore before returning to Childress in 1984.

Earnhardt and Childress combined for championships in 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994.

Labonte's is the most recent driver to accomplish the feat, as his championships came 12 years apart in Chevrolets for two different teams.

In 1984, he won at Riverside and Bristol to capture the crown for Billy Hagan. In 1996, he won at North Wilkesboro and Charlotte in Rick Hendrick-owned equipment. In between, Labonte drove Fords for Junior Johnson, Oldsmobiles for Richard Jackson and returned to Hagan before settling down at Hendrick, beginning in 1994. Since then, Labonte has added Toyotas and Dodges to his impressive resume.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.