Rusty Wallace was a short track legend in the Cup series, a near lock to be in the top 3 if the track was under 1 mile in length for the better part of 2 decades. Elliott was a threat on every superspeedway for nearly 3 decades. Mark Martin was a threat to win at EVERY type of track, once winning 4 weekends in a row in the Cup series at Watkins Glen, Michigan, Bristol, and Darlington. I still think Kyle Busch is a better driver than any of these guys, all things considered. The hardest part to separate in your tiers is drivers from different eras, as we really don't know how much of a difference top-tier equipment made 50 years ago.
For me, the top tier of drivers based on pure driving talent would be Dale Sr, David Pearson, and Tony Stewart. Kyle Busch could also be in this category.
I could easily hear arguments for Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, and Mark Martin. I think all of them would be in various 1A or 1B tiers just under the drivers at the very top of the talent pool. Some of these guys had better results, more championships, or better overall career statistics, but I don't think all of it was based on driving ability, or ability to get the absolute most out of their car.
If you put every driver in their absolute prime into identical equipment (high horsepower, low aero, softer tires that fall off), and ran multiple 15-race seasons at Daytona, Rockingham, Bristol, Wilkesboro, Martinsville, Talladega, Sears Point (full course), Charlotte, Dover, Pocono, Michigan, New Hampshire, Indy, Darlington, and Homestead (old Atlanta, basically), I think Dale Sr, David Pearson, Tony Stewart, and Kyle Busch would score more points than the other drivers on this list in more seasons than not. The dogfight for 5th probably comes down to a scrap between Gordon, Jimmie, Martin, Rusty, and Darrell Waltrip in most seasons.
