RacingWire – Babe Ruth. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Mohamed Ali Jimmie Johnson??? Red Auerbach's Boston Celtics. John Wooden's UCLA Bruins. Casey Stengel's New York Yankees. Chad Knaus' No. 48 Lowe's Sprint Cup Team?

Is it about time that we start talking about Jimmie Johnson and the Lowe's team in the same breath as the greatest athletes and teams of all time.

Four championships in a row. It doesn't happen often. The Celtics reeled off eight in a row ending in 1966. The UCLA Bruins won seven National basketball championships beginning in 1967. The Yankees won five straight from '49 – '53 and four in a row from '36 – '39. In the NHL, the Montreal Canadians have won five straight while the New York Islanders have won four straight. Rod Laver won the the Grand Slam in tennis twice, the last time in 1969. Four in a row has never happened in the NFL and no golfer, even Tiger, has won golf's grand slam.

The last non-motorsports “four-peat” was the New York Islanders with their last Stanley Cup in 1983.

It's hard to compare greatness from one sport to another yet it's one of the most debated topics among sports fans.

While there is no definitive yard stick, suffice it to say that what Johnson and his Hendricks teammates have done is nothing short of remarkable.

Even if you limit the examination of his accomplishments to others in the world of motorsport there is no comparison. Sure Earnhardt and Petty have more Cups but they never dominated quite like Johnson has. Michael Schumacher won five straight World Championships with Ferrari but as dominant as he was, you can't compare the competition in F1 to that in Sprint Cup. Schumacher at best had five other cars capable of beating him while in Sprint Cup there are 15-20 championship caliber teams.

IndyCar, even lumping all the different series configurations together, has never produced anything close to a dominant team like the 48. Penske and Ganassi are the closest and they fall short by a country mile.

Now let's look at Jimmie Johnson's numbers. He's been in Cup full time since 2002. He has never finished worse than fifth in points. That's not a typo folks, that's fifth or better in nine straight seasons.

Johnson has finished in the top ten in six out of every ten races and he finishes in the top five 40% of the time. He has 47 wins in 290 starts. That's one win in every seven starts.

Sure, Johnson isn't the most compelling media personality. Yes, he's very business-like. Maybe that's why he's so darn good.

He also has arguably the best team in the history of NASCAR behind him. Not only is Hendrick Motorsports going to win its ninth championship this year, they are going to finish 1-2-3 which is a first.

Is Jimmie Johnson and the Lowe's team the best in Sprint Cup History? How about the best in racing history? I think time may bear this to be true.

One thing is hard to argue... I can't find a better team over a ten year span in the history of racing. All of the motorsports halls of fame better starting making room for Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and Rick Hendrick. These three men have made their mark on racing history... and they have only just begun.