Reviewing NASCAR's five most dominant campaigns

During the last 17 races of the 1998 season, Jeff Gordon collected nine wins -- and 16 top-five finishes -- to secure his third title. George Tiedemann/SI

The New England Patriots will pursue perfection this weekend in the Super Bowl, attempting to become the first NFL team in history to finish 19-0. And while it's hard to imagine anyone in NASCAR winning 19 races in a row -- let alone all 36 -- that type of overwhelming, season-long dominance isn't just limited to pro football.

So during a week when NASCAR news often takes a back seat to the NFL's showcase event, let's take a look at five historically dominating performances that would give New England's record-breaking campaign a run for its money:

1. Richard Petty's 27-win season, 1967

While setting the all-time record for wins in a season, NASCAR's King earned his nickname during arguably the most dominating single year of his Cup career. Collecting 40 Top 10 finishes over 48 races, Petty won an astounding 56 percent of the time, sweeping races at modern-day NASCAR tracks like Darlington and Richmond.

But far more impressive was Petty's mark for consecutive victories: If you thought Jimmie Johnson winning four races in a row was spectacular, how about Petty winning 10 straight during a trip across the short tracks of the Southeast?

Starting with a dominating victory in Winston-Salem, N.C., which saw Petty lead all 250 laps at Bowman-Gray stadium, NASCAR's all-time victory leader sped through a streak that lasted from mid-August through early October. Along the way, Petty led 1,781 of 2,931 laps -- an impressive 61 percent clip -- while staving off the mechanical failure bug which doomed more than half of the starting fields throughout NASCAR's early days.

When all was said and done, Petty won the title by a mind-boggling 6,028 points over James Hylton. And though NASCAR operated under a different points system at the time, the record stands as the largest winning margin in the championship's 59-year history.

2. David Pearson's 11 wins in 18 starts, 1973

As NASCAR's Silver Fox -- ranking second on the all-time win list with 105 trophies -- slid into his second season with the famed Wood Brothers No. 21, his legacy was already intact. With two Cup titles already to his credit, Pearson partnered with the Woods and cut back his schedule, selectively choosing the races they wanted to run (not unlike Mark Martin's 2007 Cup campaign).

Well, Pearson and the Woods sure knew how to pick 'em. After two mechanical failures to start off the season at Riverside and Daytona, Pearson responded to win 11 times in his final 16 starts of the season. Whether it was the challenging 2.66-mile superspeedway of Talladega or the .625-mile short track of Martinsville, the team had 'em covered.

So dominant was the No. 21 car that Pearson finished second in laps led (2,658), despite running 10 fewer races than everyone else. If you take away the four DNFs Pearson had over the course of the year, his average finish in the races he completed was an astounding 1.3 -- that's far better than even Jimmie Johnson's 5.0 average finish during the 2007 Chase.

3. Jeff Gordon's 13-win season, 1998

After Gordon squeaked by at the end of 1997 -- winning his second title by just 14 points over Dale Jarrett -- many thought the 1998 season would present a prime opportunity to unseat NASCAR's newest young talent. That hope gained steam after Gordon started the year with a 16th-place finish in the Daytona 500. But that's when the No. 24 team, led by Ray Evernham, turned on the jets and left the rest of their competition eating dust.

It took awhile for Gordon to regain the point lead, finally taking control for good after winning at the road course in Sonoma, Calif., in June. From there, however, that was all she wrote: Gordon's second half became one of the most dominant on record.

Over the final 17 races of the season, Gordon won nine times, collecting 16 Top 5 finishes and never placing lower than seventh. By the end of the year, his point lead grew to 364 over Martin and 709 over third-place Jarrett, giving him his third title and putting him in a league of his own.

The experience proved most disappointing for Martin, whose seven victories produced enough points to win the title outright in almost any other year. Unfortunately, for Martin, Gordon's dominance came at exactly the wrong time.

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