Jerry Bonkowski: Johnson, Martin Need to Run Their Race And Forget Everything Else

This is it, the weekend that Jimmie Johnson makes NASCAR history by becoming the first driver to win four consecutive championships.

Or not.

It’s hard to think Johnson won’t clinch his fourth Sprint Cup title in a row. After all, he does have a 108-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin. All Johnson has to do is finish 25th or better and title No. 4 is totally his.

Martin, meanwhile, appears headed toward the fifth runner-up finish of his career, one of the most heartbreaking legacies in the sport. Martin is every bit a champion as Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and others, except for the fact he’s never won a Cup championship.

But as I said earlier in the week, and I’ll say it again, while I still think JJ will win the championship in Sunday’s season finale at Homestead, it only takes one mistake to suddenly knock him from the fore and allow Martin to come from the aft.

In other words, Martin can rally if Johnson runs into trouble early in the race either via a crash, like he did at Texas two weeks ago, finishing 38th, or mechanical failure, which is very unlikely given that he’s in Hendrick Motorsports equipment, the top of the line ride in the sport.

Well, maybe for everyone at HMS except for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is mired in 24th place and will finish this season with his worst-ever single season Cup performance.

Texas was a wakeup call of sorts to Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus. There they were, rolling along, with a comfortable 184-point lead and boom, bam, bada-bing: what was once a very pleasurable lead suddenly was chopped by 111 points in one fell swoop.

That same kind of thing is theoretically possible Sunday at Homestead, although not likely. Still, if there was ever a time for non-Johnson fans to unite and pull for Martin for the upset, this will be the weekend for it.

Admittedly, the odds are still long for the 50-year-old Martin to come back from such a huge deficit. But he did it two weeks ago – and he didn’t have to do much, other than to finish well in the race, which he did.

Suddenly, poof, Johnson’s comfortable lead was trimmed to a decent, but much more concerning lead.

BIG difference that.

Of course, when the Cup drivers have their pre-race meeting with NASCAR officials, they’ll once again be told to be careful about how they race around Johnson, Martin, and to a lesser extent, Gordon and Kurt Busch. They’ll likely be warned by NASCAR president Mike Helton or race director David Hoots to not do something stupid that could jeopardize Johnson or Martin, Gordon or Busch.

They’ll likely be told to “give ‘em plenty of room” and to not “interfere with history.”

But if a tire lets go on another driver’s car and he suddenly turns into Johnson as a result of the momentum, like Sam Hornish did at Texas, is it really any fault of the driver whose tire blew? Or what if a driver had mechanical failure and somehow a wayward piece of debris falls off his car and damages Johnson’s car, ultimately affecting the outcome of the championship.

Would that driver really go down in annals as truly interfering with history? Of course not. Fate happens, and if it’s Johnson’s time to win No. 4, it is. If not, fate will ultimately dictate otherwise.

Everyone else and their cars is exactly the thing Johnson and Martin have to be most alert for Sunday. They don’t have to worry about each other. They just have to worry about running their own race and maintaining the style that they’ve displayed getting to the point where they’re at now.

If something extraordinary happens that does affect the outcome of the race – and the championship – so be it. Johnson and Martin will have done all they can do and have controlled all they can control. If something out of their control ultimately decides the championship, so be it.