That question is as old as NASCAR itself. Recently, however, it has again become a subject of discussion.
First, ESPN celebrated its return to NASCAR coverage by polling experts to identify the top 20 drivers in NASCAR history. And NASCAR itself is debating how to select its inaugural inductees when the NASCAR Hall of Fame opens in Charlotte, N.C., in the spring of 2010.
But while these might be the glory days for NASCAR, only two members of the driving cast assembled for last Sunday's Sharp Aquos 500 at California Speedway - Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart - figure prominently in any discussion of the sport's greatest drivers.
Only three drivers are mentioned as NASCAR's greatest ever - Petty, fellow seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt and David Pearson.
Petty is NASCAR's all-time leader in most statistical categories, including wins (200), starts (1,185), and poles (126). Those records are virtually untouchable if for no other reason than the NASCAR season is shorter now than it was in Petty's prime.
Pearson is a distant second on the all-time wins (105) and poles (111) lists although he started approximately half the number of races as Petty. In head-to-head matches with Petty, Pearson came close to breaking even - although he seldom ran a full season.
Although Earnhardt is only seventh on NASCAR's list with 76 race wins, the way he drove en route to his seven championships made him a legend.
Behind the front-running three are the likes of four-time champion and present points leader Gordon, who is the active leader with 79 race wins; three-time champion Cale Yarborough; 84-race winner Bobby Allison, and Junior Johnson, who might be the best driver never to win a championship.
Included in the third echelon are three-time champion Darrell Waltrip, who is tied for third on the all-time victory list with 84; pioneer Curtis Turner; two-time champion Stewart, and Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, whose brilliant career was cut short by a fatal accident.
Over the years, Petty has maintained that he is not the greatest driver in stock car racing history - although he has not identified who that might be.
Last week, Ricky Rudd, who will made his 900th career start Sunday as No. 2 on that all-time list to Petty, said Yarborough had skills that made him special as a driver.
"No one I ever saw could push a car harder than Cale," said Rudd, who indicated that success today in NASCAR is as much a byproduct of the engineer as it is the driver.
"I don't know if the drivers were better before than they are today," said Rudd, who is retiring at the end of this season. "But I don't think the driver is as important as they once were.
"Today, the setup and the aerodynamics are as important as driving the car. If the car isn't right, there will be enough ones that are for a driver to make up the difference by himself."
"It was certainly simpler back when," Petty said recently. "We didn't have power steering. We did have shock absorber specialists and aero packages. What changes we made, we did from trial and error. We didn't ever know what wind tunnels were about."
Several years ago, the late Herb Thomas, who won NASCAR titles in 1951 and 1953, said it was impossible to compare today's drivers with ones who were there at the birth of NASCAR.
"It's unfair to everyone," said Thomas. "Our cars were so bad and many of the tracks we raced on were rutted dirt tracks. You had to be strong to muscle the cars around those tracks.
"At the same time, I don't know if I'd been comfortable racing at the speeds they're running today. You just don't know."
NASCAR's Top 10 Drivers
Rnk - ESPN's - Bill Center's
1 - Dale Earnhardt - David Pearson
2 - Richard Petty - Richard Petty
3 - David Pearson - Cale Yarborough
4 - Bobby Allison - Dale Earnhardt
5 - Jeff Gordon - Jeff Gordon
6 - Junior Johnson - Bobby Allison
7 - Cale Yarborough - Junior Johnson
8 - Darrell Waltrip - Curtis Turner
9 - Glen Roberts - Darrell Waltrip
10 - Curtis Turner - Tony Stewart
