Top 5 Nextel Cup drivers

Had dinner with a couple of colleagues on Thursday night in New Hampshire, and as it often does, the discussion turned to the Nextel Cup Series. (When in Rome...)

We started arguing about who are the top-5 drivers in the series.

Understanding that in a lot of ways it's a subjective argument, we tried to hammer out a few criteria for the discussion. It's not about who is the best driver under Nextel Cup conditions (i.e., 500 miles over 4 1/2 hours on cookie-cutter tracks), and it's not about who is or isn't the best quote in the garage area.

It's more a feel thing -- under any circumstances, who's the best? You've got 5 laps you've got to get out of a driver in heavy traffic -- think: lining up 7th for a green-white-checker restart at Richmond. Who do you want in your car?

Here's my top-5 list:

1. Tony Stewart. Won in everything from open-wheel Indy cars to heavy and boxy Cup cars. Excels on road courses -- which is a great testing ground for sheer driver ability -- and still hops into modifieds, sprint and dirt cars on rare occasions. When motivated to do so, he's fantastic.

2. Jeff Gordon. He's a 4-time champion whose been with both incredibly dominant teams and mediocre teams at Hendrick Motorsports. He's won on short tracks, superspeedways, mile and a half cookie-cutters, road courses and everything else. He's even had a chance to test out an F1 car. Hard to believe he can't compete in anything.

3. Robby Gordon. Anyone who can race across the desert, where if you break down you could be stranded for the 2 days it takes you to repair your machine, you're quality. Indy cars, Baja trucks, Cup and Busch cars -- not only can Gordon drive anything, he can drive it like a man possessed.

4. Juan Pablo Montoya. Win at Monaco tops the resume, quite possibly the most difficult
racetrack to win on anywhere in the world. Montoya has also displayed his driving ability against stock car drivers with road course wins in Busch and Cup competition in middle-of-the-road Ganassi equipment. He almost makes it look too easy sometimes, particularly when he's in Victory Lane and acts bothered by any attention.

5. Kyle Busch. Admittedly, this is a hard one to explain. It's as much "feel" as anything, and maybe I'm just playing the role of NASCAR lackey with this one, given how much he's been in the news. Loves short-track Super Late Model racing, which is of significance -- drivers afraid of getting in the battle, of throwing a few elbows, don't want to beat and bang for a few hundred laps. He's grown up in Cup cars, and won on short tracks and superspeedways.

Some guys I thought long and hard about, but just couldn't put them in the top-5, for whatever reason: Matt Kenseth (too much of a points racer), Ryan Newman (great qualifier, struggled since NASCAR's tire change took fuel mileage equation away), Kurt Busch (not enough oomph), Denny Hamlin (way too soon) and Kevin Harvick (cooled his hard-charging ways).