HAMPTON, Ga. -- It's the Fastest to 50 Club, and Sprint Cup drivers experience only a very narrow window to attempt joining the exclusive group.

Once in, future success at the same amazing rate is not guaranteed. Just ask Jeff Gordon. He reached the 50-win plateau faster than anyone in the history of NASCAR, needing just 232 Cup starts to get there.

And it's not like he's been a slouch since -- but after 50 victories in his first 232 starts, he's added a mere 32 in his last 352 for a total of 82 that currently has him ranked sixth on the all-time list. After Gordon, the drivers who reached 50 victories in their careers the next fastest are Darrell Waltrip (84 career wins, reached No. 50 in 278 races) and David Pearson (105 wins, reached No. 50 in 293 races).

Despite the fact that 32 race victories makes for a nice career in most record books, there was talk back in the day when Gordon reached 50 so quickly that he might be the one driver to make some sort of run at Richard Petty's record 200 race wins, or at least become the first guy since Pearson to top 100. Such talk has ceased as Gordon's victory production tailed off in recent seasons.

"I can tell you that I probably felt the same way about it then as I do now," Gordon said of reaching 50 wins at age 29 in 2000. "It was just [being] overwhelmed and in disbelief that I won 50 races. Just like I do now with 82, I can't believe it; it just blows me away.

"We went on an incredible streak there where we were winning 10-plus races every year [for three in a row from 1996 through '98], or seven-plus (for five in a row from 1995 through '99). They came in a hurry. It is hard to really put it in perspective and appreciate it at that moment when you are going through it like we did then. I can tell you I appreciate it a whole lot more now today than I ever have."

What stirred the talk of the Fastest to 50 Club on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway was the fact that four-time defending Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is on the verge of joining. He won race No. 49 -- his second in a row in this season that is only three races old heading into Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 -- last week at Las Vegas.

As good as the 34-year-old Johnson has been in his career, he's behind the Gordon Curve when it comes to breaking into the 50-win crowd. With 294 starts already behind him, Johnson will have to hustle, in fact, to get there quicker than another Johnson -- Hall of Famer Junior Johnson -- did during his driving career. It took Junior Johnson 303 starts to crack 50, and he promptly retired as a driver just 10 races later.

That's not likely to happen with Jimmie Johnson.

"I cannot say it enough that I definitely never dreamed of being in this position," the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet said. "To be here and living this is pretty damn cool, and weird, and amazing."

Johnson said he figures he is far from finished not only because of the confidence he has in himself as a driver, but because of the belief he has in his entire team, which is headed up by demanding crew chief Chad Knaus.

“

There is no way when you're putting that many wins together that you can fully appreciate how important it is ...

”

-- JEFF GORDON

"I'm very proud of what I've done as a driver and very proud of what we've done as a team and how we've worked together over the years," Johnson said. "The success we've had isn't because of any one person. It's because of teamwork and lots of people and lots of hours and it's just an accumulation of things.

"To have so much go right for us in [294] starts -- well, not necessarily go right for us because I feel we've created a lot of where we're at today -- but to have so many people working in the right direction and have their career paths peaking at the same point collectively as a group is pretty cool."

Gordon experienced the same feeling once. It now seems long ago -- and he recalls thinking then that it had to eventually come to an end. Such hot streaks always do.

"It is hard to win, let alone go and click off 50 in a short period of time. We did it in a very short period of time," Gordon said. "There was a point where we were winning every fifth race -- that was our stat [that everyone kept talking about]. I knew that was going to come to a halt at some point.

"But, man, when you have a team like that, it just seemed like everything was going our way and we were just having a lot of fun going to Victory Lane and celebrating. There is no way when you're putting that many wins together that you can fully appreciate how important it is and how meaningful it is and what it means in the history of our sport as I do today, now that I am not winning quite as much."

So Gordon's message to Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, is simple. Enjoy it. Nothing lasts forever, even when it seems like it might.

In winning at Las Vegas, Johnson out-dueled Gordon toward the end. Whenever they're both running up front these days -- or anyone else is running up front with Johnson, for that matter -- it seems Johnson nearly always prevails.

"It doesn't happen often in sports," Johnson admitted. "And that's why we've been fortunate to be in this position. I'm very proud of what we've done and I continue to say that I feel we have a lot more to prove and a lot more that we can still do as a race team.

"We are fairly young as a whole. I would say coming into the middle part of our careers and I think there is a lot of racing left in all of us."

Maybe so, but the rest of the field is determined not to let it get any easier for Johnson and the 48 team. Gordon said he knows from experience that eventually folks start hitting that bull's-eye that is always on your back when you're the undisputed best.

"When you win that much, it ticks everybody else off and they all have to work harder and they all get fired up to go out there and try to knock that guy off," Gordon said. "You can't blame those guys for wanting to dominate and that's great. But you can't blame the others for wanting to keep them from winning as well. That's a whole part of sports in general.