I was going to stay out of the argument but i couldn't resist. My personal opinon is gordon and petty is a close second. I have a hard time buying the earnhardt argument. the argument i always hear is that petty had too many chances to win 200. well if thats the case than gordon is the best because he has the most poles in the modern era of NASCAR and 4 wins away from becoming the winningest driver in the modern era. he has more daytona 500s than earnhardt and more brickyards than anyone in NASCAR history. The only argument that was decent towards earnhardt was that he won 7 titles. But all of those were pre chase era. if not for that gordon is a 6 time champion.
my list:
1.gordon
2.petty
3.pearson
4.earnhardt