With another win Sunday that widened his lead in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup title chase, Jimmie Johnson already has been crowned champion by some racing pundits even though there are four races left in the season.
“Anyone who says Johnson hasn’t locked it up is crazy,” read one headline after Johnson dominated at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for his sixth win of the year.
There’s no question that Johnson has the skill, the car, the crew chief (Chad Knaus) and the team (Hendrick Motorsports) to cruise through the remainder of the schedule and earn his third consecutive title—something that’s been done only once before, by Cale Yarborough, and that was 30 years ago.
And it might well be that Greg Biffle, now 149 points behind Johnson, and Jeff Burton, 152 points back, will simply play second fiddle to Johnson no matter how well they finish at the final races in Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami.
But with four races?
Johnson knows as well as anyone that in auto racing, anything can happen.
One of a thousand parts on a NASCAR stock car can fail without warning, especially tires. An early crash with one or more of the 42 other cars on the track could quickly end Johnson’s day and tighten the Chase for the Cup playoff.
When the Chase opened Sept. 14 in New Hampshire, Busch was considered nearly bulletproof. He had eight wins in the regular season, the powerhouse team of Joe Gibbs Racing behind him, and an aggressive, confident driving style.
What Busch and no one else saw coming was a broken sway bar part left him 34th at New Hampshire, and then a broken engine a week later that left him last at Dover, Del.
Two mechanical failures in two weeks on a Gibbs car were considered nearly unthinkable. But it happened and Busch’s title hopes had vanished—after two races.
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