Week 10: Johnson On Brink Of NASCAR History
Only Mark Martin (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet) stands between Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) and arguably one of the greatest achievements in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history.
Johnson, following his seventh victory of the 2009 season at Phoenix International Raceway, carries a 108-point lead into Sunday’s Ford 400 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The lead isn’t insurmountable — Martin still can deny Johnson a record fourth consecutive championship — but all the leader has to do is finish 25th or better to lock up the title.
Johnson, seemingly coasting to the championship before a 38th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway gave fresh hopes to his pursuers, proved at Phoenix that his Lone Star State “hiccup” wasn’t a momentum buster. He rolled over the opposition (Martin finished fourth) by leading a whopping 238 of 312 laps to win the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 for the third consecutive year.
The 34-year-old El Cajon, Calif. competitor also scored his fourth Chase victory for the third time, prompting team owner Rick Hendrick to remark, “Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and Jimmie have just been unbelievable. To watch them, I said this earlier today, I’m just glad I don’t have to race against them.”
Ironically, Hendrick does. Martin ranks second in the standings; four-time champion Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) is third. Gordon will be eliminated when Johnson signs in for Sunday’s race.
Johnson knows there is no certain thing in NASCAR. He’s not ready to celebrate anything.
“We need to show up, blinders on, focused, (in) qualifying trim, get all that we can,” he said. “We just can’t coast. We can’t chill out. We have to stay focused and keep our heads down on the job at hand.”
Mark Martin’s Down But Definitely Not Yet Out
Mark Martin may trail Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson by 108 points entering Sunday’s Ford 400 finale but it’s not in his DNA to go down without putting every ounce of his skill and determination into the fight.
And who knows — witness the recent Indianapolis Colts-New England Patriots game — what could happen.
If anyone can stage a comeback, it’s the veteran Martin who, on nine occasions, has gained more than 108 points on Johnson. It happened most recently two weeks ago in Texas, when Martin’s fourth-place finish coupled with Johnson’s accident-troubled 38th, resulted in a net gain of 111 points.
Regardless of how matters shake out, “I’m pretty proud of what we’ve done this season,” said Martin, only the second NASCAR Sprint Cup driver past the age of 50 to win five times in a season.
Loop Data Says: Johnson Superb, But So Are Chase Rivals
Jimmie Johnson continues to out-do himself.
Two years ago, in 2007, Johnson had a Chase for the ages, winning four consecutive races during one remarkable stretch. In that Chase, he averaged a Driver Rating of 114.1.
But one year later, he eclipsed that mark. In 2008, he won three races and went into the final race with a robust 141-point lead. That Chase, he bested 2007, posting a Driver Rating of 116.2.
Now this year, he’s even stronger. Johnson’s Driver Rating over the first nine Chase races is 117.2. If that stays true this weekend at Homestead, it will be the highest Chase Driver Rating since the inception of Loop Data in 2005.
Statistically, this has been a landmark Chase. Here are a few key Loop Data categories, and how 2009 compares to past seasons:
Average Running Position: In a testament to how stout this year’s Chase field was, the top two Average Running Position figures since 2005 are from the 2009 Chase – and neither are Johnson’s. They belong to Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. Over the first nine races, Martin has an Average Running Position of 7.9 and Gordon has an 8.1. The top season-ending Average Running Position belongs to Tony Stewart, which had an 8.5 in 2005. With solid Homestead races, both Martin and Gordon can eclipse that mark.
Fastest Laps Run: Like Driver Rating, Johnson’s name is peppered all over this category. Also like the Driver Rating, he has crushed previous benchmarks in 2009. In the first nine Chase races, Johnson has 547 Fastest Laps Run. That’s the highest number in the past five Chases, by a wide margin. The previous high for Fastest Laps Run in a Chase was also by Johnson, last season. In 2008, he had 379. In other words, Johnson has turned the fastest laps 168 more times in nine races than he did in 10 races last season.
Laps in the top 15: This is the rare category where Johnson doesn’t already hold the lead. In fact, if the season ended today, his Chase Laps in the Top 15 (2,356) number would rank 21st. A lot of that has to do with his Texas race, where he ran just two laps among the top 15. The 2009 leader in the category is Mark Martin, with 2,563. With a strong Homestead race, he can take the overall lead now held by Johnson’s 2006 mark of 2,773. If Martin runs 210 of Sunday’s 267 laps among the top 15, he’ll tie Johnson
Top 35 Owner Points Picture
There’s one spot up for grabs this week — 35th place –- and with it goes a guaranteed starting position in the 2010 Daytona 500.
The No. 34 team owned by Teresa Earnhardt currently ranks 35th with 2,667 points. The only team with a shot at taking the position is the No. 82 of Dietrich Mateschitz.
Mateschitz and driver Scott Speed, however, trail by 114 points. Speed, who has a single top five in his rookie season, will at least have to match his best performance of the year (fifth) to overcome the deficit.
How They’ve Performed In The Chase
Driver Driver Rating Pos. Jimmie Johnson 117.2 1 Mark Martin 105.7 2 Juan Pablo Montoya 105.7 6 Jeff Gordon 105.4 3 Denny Hamlin 102.3 8 Tony Stewart 94.2 5 Greg Biffle 86.5 7 Kasey Kahne 84.4 10 Ryan Newman 84.1 9 Carl Edwards 76.6 11 Brian Vickers 68.3 12
Note: Jimmie Johnson has led 33.2% laps.
On The CAM: Rival Crew Chiefs Discuss Driver Therapy On Eve Of Championship Race
Crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson, who call the shots for drivers Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin, respectively, were guests on this week’s NASCAR CAM video teleconference. Their drivers will go head-to-head for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship this Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Q: Mark had said on pit wall after the race (at Phoenix), ‘I’ve gotta dig deeper.’ ... For Alan, can you talk about him saying ‘I gotta dig deeper?’ And to Chad, have you had to help exorcise demons out of the mind of your driver because that’s such a big part of it?
Gustafson: “Yeah, I think we all have things that we’ve got to face and mental blocks that we’ve got to get over. I think the one you’re referencing specifically is Talladega, and that was a place where Mark has made it pretty common knowledge it is not one of his favorite venues, and the racing does not necessarily suit him.
He took a very positive attitude on it and didn’t let it affect him. We’ve done everything we could do. We’ve worked as hard as we can work. He’s driven his tail off every week; the pit crew has practiced and performed from January of last year or December of last year preparing for this.”
Knaus: “I don’t know if you’d call them demons, I guess, but Jimmie and I, we’ve reached a level in our relationship that we’re pretty open with one another and can communicate very well.
So I think that, you know, if there’s something that’s weighing heavy on him, he definitely brings it up and we can discuss it.
It’s not like we have to have a formal sit‑down or anything like that, that I’ve really got to try to talk him off a cliff. It really hasn’t been that way.
We’re in communication constantly, whether it’s via email, text, phone conversation. So I think we have our own therapy sessions, just kind of unwillingly, just kind of flows.
I don’t think it’s something that’s real, real structured or something that I necessarily have to focus on. But if there were things, you know, we would talk about them.”
Joey Logano Nears Raybestos Rookie Of The Year Title
Points remain to be totaled but Joey Logano (No. 20 Home Depot Toyota) is the prohibitive favorite to claim 2009 Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors with only Sunday’s Ford 400 left on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule.
Logano, who grabbed his 25th rookie of the race award at Phoenix, leads rivals Scott Speed (No. 82 Red Bull Toyota) and Max Papis (No. 13 GEICO Toyota) by 36 and 88 points, respectively.
Logano won in mid-summer at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The Connecticut native at age 19 years, five months, 29 days would become the youngest rookie of the year in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Kyle Busch (No. 18 M&Ms Toyota) was age 20 years, six months, 13 days when he won the title in 2005.
Winning the rookie of the year title is a good indication of things to come. NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Richard Petty won the award in 1959; David Pearson was top rookie in 1960.
Since 1979 six Raybestos Rookies of the Year have gone on to win series titles including seven-time champion and Hall of Fame Inductee Dale Earnhardt (1979) and Jeff Gordon (1993).
Etc. & Quotable
Carl Edwards, No. 99 AFLAC Ford: “A Roush Fenway car has won (at Homestead) almost every year that I’ve been doing this at this level. I have real high hopes going in there. We’re just going to go until the last lap and give it a hundred percent with guns blazing. We’re going for the win. Hopefully we’ll get a shot at it.” With three victories, Roush Fenway Racing is suffering its leanest year since 2001 when the team won just twice. The team won 11 races a year ago. Roush Fenway drivers have won six of the past seven races at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Homestead-Miami Speedway is the only active NASCAR Sprint Cup track at which Jeff Gordon has failed to win. Gordon marked Texas Motor Speedway off his to-do list in the spring leaving just the 1.5-mile South Florida speedway in the way of a noteworthy sweep. “A win, you know, is huge, especially at Homestead, because it is the final race. It would be huge for us. We’ve never won there before. I think that everybody feels that way,” said Gordon.
This week’s race marks the eighth consecutive year the season has ended at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Atlanta Motor Speedway hosted the finale from 1987-2000. In 2001, the finale was held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway because of the 9/11 attacks. From 1974 through 1986, the season ended on the West Coast at now-shuttered tracks in Ontario and Riverside, Calif. The last time the season ended on a short track was 1970 at Langley Field Speedway in Virginia.
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