by Ryan McGee

The time has come to ask a very serious question. A question that will no doubt be painful for many of you to read and will no doubt leave my inbox jammed with more hate mail than The Dixie Chicks'.

Is Jeff Gordon the greatest NASCAR driver of all time?

Now before you start hurling Budweiser cans at me, let's break this down. I mean, the guy did just win his third Daytona 500. And he pulled it off the same way he did the two previous times — by driving his Pepsi-drinking butt off.

A fact that seemed to sneak by everyone on Sunday afternoon was that the victory wasn't just his third in the Great American Race. It was his 70th career Cup win. 70!

NASCAR has been sanctioning stock car races since 1949. Over that time, thousands of men and women have slipped behind the wheel to take their cuts at visiting Victory Lane.

It takes more than 300 phone book-type pages of the "NASCAR Encyclopedia" to list them all, most of which are tied with me on the career Cup wins list with 0. Of all those racers, only six have managed to win more races than Jeff Gordon.

What makes his numbers even more stunning is when you consider the era that he has posted them in. Petty, Pearson, Allison and Yarborough won the vast majority of their races during the 1960's and 70's, a time when only the top five teams were legitimate contenders. For example, in 1974 those four combined to win 29 of the 30 races run. Waltrip and Earnhardt started winning as parity began to take over in the '80's.

But the vast majority of Earnhardt and Gordon's numbers have come during the sport's most competitive era. Since 1990, an average of 13 different drivers have won at least one Cup race each season. And in the last five years, we have average 16 visitors to Victory Lane. Over those same five years, Gordon has won 21 times.

Gordon made his Cup debut at the end of the 1992 season. He went winless in his first full season of 1993. But in the 371 races since, he has averaged 6.4 wins per season. Five times, he has won six or more races in a single year. The two previous years that he got things started with a win in the Daytona 500 — 1997 and '99 — he went on to win 10 and seven races, respectively. Which means that if Gordon puts forth an average effort in 2005, he may very well (grab your Maalox, Earnhardt fans) move into the top five in career wins by November. And with a little luck, he could be in the top three by the end of next season.

Is 100 wins possible? Possible, yes. Likely, no.

Regardless, it is the frequency of his success that bends the mind. His career winning percentage is among all the time greats, trailing only two guys from the 1950's and The Silver Fox.

"But Ryan", you are likely saying to your PC screen, "Greatness is measured in championships!" OK, fine. He holds up nicely in that department as well.

The six drivers that sit ahead of Gord-o on the all-time wins list share 24 NASCAR Cup titles between them. Gordon has won more big shiny Cups than all but two.

How close has Gordon come to drafting even tighter behind The King and The Intimidator's coveted seven spot? He's more in the ballpark than you might think. He lost the '95 title to teammate Terry Labonte by only 37 points and ended last season only 16 points behind champ Kurt Busch.

"But dude," you are now thinking aloud, "True legends are born on the sport's biggest stages!" OK, fine. Here are a few big stage stats for you:

• 4 Brickyard 400 wins
• 5 Southern 500 wins (including four straight from 1995-98)
• 3 Daytona 500 wins
• 1997 Winston Million (winning 3 of the sport's 4 "crown-jewel" races)
• 3 All-Star Challenge wins
• 2 Budweiser Shootout wins

He also owns 52 career pole positions, good for seventh all-time, and is the all-time NASCAR road course king with eight wins to a four-pack of guys behind him with six each. And with his Daytona 500 win on Sunday, he is now second all-time in restrictor plate victories with eight to Dale Earnhardt's 11 (Earnhardt Jr. has seven plate wins).

Gordon owns trophies from 18 at the 22 tracks on this year's Nextel Cup schedule, lacking only Homestead, Chicago, Phoenix and Texas. At 17 of those 18, he has earned more than one win and christened three of those facilities — California, Indianapolis, Kansas — by winning the inaugural Cup event at each. In addition, he won five times at now-defunct tracks, once at North Wilkesboro and four times at Rockingham.

So, before you I have laid down the evidence, along with enough numbers to spin out Stephen Hawking. What has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt is this — as D.W. likes to say — the great ones have eras. And the history of NASCAR can be written by tracing those eras. By my count, there are four — Lee Petty (1949-60), Richard Petty (1961-84), Dale Earnhardt (1985-95) and Jeff Gordon (1996-present).

Is Jeff Gordon the greatest ever? It is a question that we will be able to answer only after he decides to hang up his helmet for good, allowing us to take in all of his career numbers as one lump sum. When we do that, we may or may not finally know the answer for sure.

But he's pretty damn close.

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Ryan McGee is the managing editor at NASCAR Images and Senior Producer of NASCAR Nation on SPEED Channel. He can be reached at his e-mail address: rmcgee@foxsports.com.