Jeff Gordon risked far more than Jimmie Johnson as the Florida sun gave way to night in NASCAR’s season finale Sunday. He stuck his Chevrolet’s nose into thickets of cars. He diced three-wide in the turns. He did all a driver could, but it wasn’t enough.
Johnson didn’t have to be better at Homestead-Miami Speedway to clinch his second consecutive Nextel Cup championship. He didn’t even have to be particularly good, given the way he routed his competitors in recent weeks. Johnson simply needed to avoid calamity. He did that and more, finishing seventh to become the first driver in a decade to claim back-to-back NASCAR titles. Gordon, who ushered Johnson into the sport six years ago, was the last to do so, in 1997and 1998. Liz Clarke, WashingtonPost.com
Is this the Jimmie Johnson era?
The question, posed three days before Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, was directed toward teammate Jeff Gordon but Johnson, sitting nearby, admits the question “caught me off guard.”
“What more can you do?” Gordon said after finishing fourth to score his series-record 30th top-10 finish of the season.
He then answered his own question, while Johnson celebrated and Matt Kenseth relished his race win.
“We probably should have got a lot more aggressive sooner,” Gordon said of strategy and the car’s setup. Roanoke.com
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