Head2Head: The leader of the Hendrick bunch?

Jeff Gordon is the best driver of his generation: four championships, 81 victories, 233 top-fives, 316 top-10s. In 1998, he won an amazing 13 of 33 races, which included 26 top-five finishes. He trails only Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson and Richard Petty in career victories.

But since Jimmie Johnson has been his Hendrick teammate beginning at the tail end of the 2001 season, Gordon's numbers aren't nearly that gaudy. And when compared side-by-side, you might be surprised to learn that Johnson, four years younger, actually surpasses Gordon in several categories.

According to Duane Cross' calculations, over the last 218 races, Johnson has 10 more wins than Gordon, six more top-10 finishes and his average finish is more than one position per race better than his mentor. Oh, and Gordon hasn't won a championship since Johnson became a full-time Cup driver.

So will Johnson achieve 81 victories? It's highly unlikely, only because he didn't have a full-time ride until he turned 26 -- or about the same time Gordon was notching his 40th win. So Jeff had a pretty nice head start.

With his four-race winning streak giving him a total of 10 victories this season, Johnson's year is comparable to some of Gordon's best. During a three-year span from 1996 to 1998, Gordon averaged more than 10 wins a season.

Unfortunately, with the exception of 2007, Gordon hasn't come close to those totals since. His wins, top-fives, top-10s and average finishes have been declining steadily over the past decade.

But Johnson's star remains on the rise. With one race remaining, his top-five and top-10 finishes equal his career bests -- set in 2004, when he wound up second in the standings to Kurt Busch -- and his average finish is only slightly lower than it was last season, when he captured his first championship.

What's even more amazing is to look at the consistency of his equipment. His five worst finishes of the season came as a result of incidents on the track, not mechanical failures, and he hasn't finished worse than 21st since Bristol.

So who's the real No. 1 at Hendrick Motorsports? If you were starting a new team from scratch and had to choose between the two, Jimmie Johnson's numbers -- and his age -- give him the edge.

Congratulations in advance to Jimmie Johnson as he wins his second consecutive points championship. But all this talk about Johnson being the top dog in the Hendrick stable is laughable.

Jeff Gordon is, and always will be, the top driver at Hendrick Motorsports.

Johnson has 33 wins and two titles in his first six full seasons in the Cup Series, which on paper sounds fantastic until you look across the garage. Gordon in his first six seasons had 42 wins and three titles. Let's keep in mind that came in fewer races as the Cup Series didn't go to 36 events until 2001, Johnson's debut in the series.

But that was the past and we are talking about the present.

This season, Gordon has 29 top-10 finishes. Wrap your mind around that for just a second -- 29 top-10 finishes in 35 races. That is an astounding 82.9 percent of races the No. 24 was one of the 10 best cars. Top-five finishes are just as impressive, 20 of them or 57.1 percent.

Compare that to Johnson, who also has 20 top-fives but 23 top-10s on the season. More importantly, Gordon finishes the race. This season, Gordon has just one DNF, a crash at Charlotte -- Johnson, four DNFs, all crashes.

Now it's true Johnson has more wins than Gordon, not only this season, but over the last six years 33-23. Johnson has been impressive his entire Cup career, but it's not like Gordon is some scrub like another Jeff I could name. Twenty-three wins is nothing to shake a stick at. In fact, it ranks second to Johnson among all drivers in that time frame.

Look, I'm not trying to bash Jimmie Johnson; the guy is a stud and will go down as one of the best drivers in Cup Series history. What the 48 team has been able to do in such a short amount of time is remarkable.

What I am saying though, is let's not pass the torch at Hendrick quite so soon. Gordon is sixth on the all-time wins list at 81 and proved in his 15th Cup season at 37 years of age that the man still has it -- and in a big way. He dominated the regular season and went into the Chase with more than a 300 point lead on Johnson.

Let's give it some time before we force Gordon to collect social security and crown Jimmie the King of Hendrick.