Mark never got to have a season to himself, he was always unlucky enough to be caught up by his competitors.

@@nascarfanatic2425and would make Jeff Gordon a 7/8 time champion and undoubtedly the best driver of nascar all time. Buttttt chase gimmicks

Because Bill Elliott and Dale sr and Jeff Gordon were dominating better than Rusty

@@andysee6996 that’s why only one championship you noticed even in this conversation Darrell Waltrip wasn’t mentioned

@@nascarfanatic2425 and even if NASCAR wanted to emphasize winning more, easy you literally just award significantly more bonus points to the winner instead of all of the other contrived stuff.

Mark also had a great 98 but Gordon was untouchable that year

​@@dang5553 Maybe so, but even if that were true, you’re realistically only talking about a one or maybe two car difference. You still get a pretty good idea of how well someone did in a season based on their average finish alone. That’s why the Latford Winston Cup format was the most fair championship crowning format in NASCAR.

​@@BlandSpagetti Especially with Mark Martin. It’s definitely a tough pill to swallow when you lose a championship by virtue of a questionable penalty, another one because the Pepsi 400 restarted on the last lap of the race resulting in getting caught up in a big wreck not of your own doing, or losing a championship because of a weird mechanical issue at Talladega.

It certainly could’ve happened, but I think that even if Kurt never had that incident, it still would’ve been a tall task. Kurt Busch was struggling in his championship follow-up season.