Is Jimmy Johnson, current and – apparently – future NASCAR Cup Champion real Cup champion?  One like Petty, or Earnhardt?  Or even the man that would, were they counting the same way they did then, be a six-time champion this year: Gordon?
   
No.  Jimmy Johnson is a plastic creature, the epitome of the “racer” in the environment of NASCAR: a mile and a half tri-oval owned by Bruton Smith.
   
There was a time when winning the Championship counted for something.  That was the time during which Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt won seven each.
   
Were NASCAR still interested in Champions, they’d be about to give Jeff Gordon his sixth. 
   
But, they’re not interested in Champions.
   
They’re interested in ratings.
   
Oddly, their ratings are falling and they don’t know why.
   
It’s because the whole thing is hokum.
   
Champions earn their status.  They do not have it handed to them on a televised silver platter, as has Johnson this year and last.  David Pearson was a winner.  Richard Petty was a Champion.  There is, moreover, a reason that Daryl Waltrip only won the Championship once.  It’s because he wasn’t good enough.
   
Neither is Johnson.
   
But that doesn’t matter, anymore.