NHRA drivers Johns Force (Left) and Robert Hight (Right) attended the NASCAR event at Homestead this past weekend. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

There aren’t many. Pearson, for example, never went to the hospital as a result of an injury sustained in a race during an era when fatalities were still common. There was a reason for that. First, Pearson was as brave as the day is long but wasn’t a daredevil. Second, he was always confidant he could make up ground if needed, so he didn’t push the issue unless it was necessary. Above all, he rarely made mistakes.

Car owner Owens used to blame a young Pearson for tearing up his factory-backed Dodges in the mid-1960’s before Pearson moved to the Fords of Holman-Moody. But the cantankerous Owens is about the only one with such complaints.

Where are Jimmie Johnson’s weaknesses? In the current era, the fields are so deep with talented drivers and well prepared cars, a driver can’t consistently win races or titles – much less four in a row – while carrying major weaknesses.

Johnson’s record at the plate races, where he has won twice including one Daytona 500, is relatively weak compared to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who has won six plate races in the same span. Although he won a pole at Watkins Glen this summer, Johnson is still not quite at home on a road course. One could argue that road courses are the ultimate test of driving skill in a stock car. One could make the same argument about qualifying on any type of track.

All this aside, the four straight championships pretty much dispatch Johnson’s peers when it comes to talent, if only because his rivals have all had the same chance to win under the Chase format, including his Hendrick teammates. As for teammates, he’s tied Gordon for total titles and is ahead of Gordon’s winning percentage – or any other active driver.

After the 2009 season, it’s only gotten tougher to compare Johnson to his predecessors, particularly Pearson. I’d say when Johnson wins a race on a road course, I’ll be ready to put him on the same plane as Pearson. In fact, if NASCAR is looking for an antidote to Johnson, officials should consider adding a road course to the Chase schedule!

Quote of the week: John Force had this to say about keeping up with younger drivers. “I used to spend two hours a day in bars. Now I spend two hours a day in the gym.” (Thanks and a tip of the cap to Thomas Pope of the Fayetteville Observer.)

Quick hits: Remember the days when stock car drivers used to save their paybacks for when they really needed them? In this approach, somewhere in the next race or two the offended driver took a position from an adversary when he needed it without bothering to be polite or intentionally banged doors on the way past as a reminder. By avoiding issues with NASCAR officials, a driver didn’t “pay back” himself by getting penalized, but still delivered a message to the other driver – not the fans. …By concentrating on the title at Homestead by trying to stay out of trouble, Jimmie Johnson demonstrated that no driver can survive for long in NASCAR’s top series by balloon-footing. Other drivers will quickly take advantage of it, as happened at Homestead when competitors invariably forced the issue with a not-so-racy Johnson. For those who think drivers are cruising the first 300 miles, it just ain’t so. Track position matters when you come down the pit road in the first 100 miles as much as the final 100.

For those who look at Indy car drivers as handicapped when they cross over to NASCAR vehicles and the Sprint Cup, Robby Gordon, a three-time race winner and John Andretti, a two-time race winner, came to NASCAR from Indy cars. Juan Pablo Montoya is, after all, a former Indy car driver. One of the biggest cradles for Indy car drivers: off-road racing, which is where Jimmie Johnson got his start.

See ya! …At the races.

Jonathan Ingram has been writing full-time about the world’s major motor racing series and events since 1983 for newspapers, magazines and web sites.

John can be reached at jingram@racintoday.com

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel