If he Wins at Martinsville, There’ll be no Stopping Johnson For Fourth Title
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Five races left. Five weeks until Jimmie Johnson is officially crowned Sprint Cup king for a record fourth consecutive year.
Which, by the way, would tie Johnson with teammate Jeff Gordon for second-most championships by a driver in NASCAR history (Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt share the record with seven titles each).
What, coming into Martinsville, which is his most successful track, you think I’m going to pick against Johnson? You’ve got another thing coming if you do.
Frankly, although I really thought this year’s Chase would be a wild and drawn-out affair, something that wouldn’t be decided until the closing laps of the season finale at Homestead next month, Johnson’s three wins in the first five Chase races – something he hasn’t done en route to his three previous championships – tells me this Chase is over, done, fini, concluded, ended.
Period.
The way I see it, Johnson will leave Martinsville late Sunday afternoon with his fourth win of the Chase, and will increase his lead over the rest of the field to probably something like 175 points – with four races left at that point.
At that point, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion not so much about if Johnson will win his fourth straight title, but more so when he’ll win it. I’m totally convinced that he’s going to put cream on top of the cake in this go-round unlike the last three Chases, where he actually didn’t clinch the title until Homestead.
After Martinsville, we have Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. If Johnson does well at Talladega and Texas – especially if he wins yet again – I say he locks the title up for sure at Phoenix, leaving Homestead to be a lame duck season finale.
Heck, if he does that, Johnson might as well take the Homestead race off at that point. I mean, what would he gain from competing in an event that is meaningless for him at that point, and after he’s already iced the championship?
But, I digress.
For all the miraculous things Johnson has done in the previous three Chases, this one is shaping up to be the greatest effort ever on his part. With three triumphs in the first five races, I’m not going to be surprised to see him pull off three, maybe four more wins, in the final five.
He’s running that good. His team is that good. His crew chief, as we already know, is that good. And Johnson? He’s too damn good not to win it again!
While such an achievement would be quite heady for Johnson, it would drive yet another nail into the Chase for the Sprint Cup format. If Johnson can win this thing so easy, essentially sailing away from the rest of the competition like he’s done so far in the first five races, it will give even more fans tired of watching Johnson’s overt supremacy a reason to turn their TVs off, knowing their own driver doesn’t have a chance.
Sooner or later, NASCAR is going to have to revisit the Chase format and figure out what it can do to make things more even, and less in favor of Johnson. Sure, he’s doing everything he needs to do to win, but the only people it’s fun for any more is the No. 48 team.
Mark my word, the Chase format will be revamped eventually … like probably four years from now, after Johnson wins his eighth consecutive title and becomes the undisputed winner of the most championships in NASCAR history.
As for this week’s race pick, there’s no way I’m picking anyone other than Johnson. By the way, in the first five weeks, I’ve picked three winners, one runner-up and a ninth-place finish. Heck, with those stats, maybe I have a chance of beating Johnson for the Cup.
Posted by Jerry Bonkowski on 10/22 at 09:15 PMFor as much as NASCAR tries to keep the playing field even; this year, more than any other, the funding of a team shows in the performance of a team. It’s easy to see there is a large difference in the “have” and the “have nots” in NASCAR today. It transcends all the levels of the sport.
I don’t know how the chase format could be altered to make it more “even” for the others, unless Rick is forced to give money to the other teams, or a cap is put in place on what each team can spend.
The way I see it, JJ will keep winning championships until the “No more than eight” rule is employed.
-Taglia
Barring a complete overhaul of the Chase points system, I think we’re going to have to just sit back and accept that we’re in the Jimmie Johnson Era of NASCAR.
Taglia, hand-in-hand with the funding issue, I think what it comes down to is that R&D;at Hendrick is light years beyond everyone else. I also think that Chad Knaus is bar none the best crew chief out there, and I can’t help but think that, watching JJ run 1-2 MPH faster than every other car every week, he’s found something in the new car that no one else has. And I don’t mean that in a conspiracy theory kind of way like most people do i.e. “Jimmie Johnson is so dominant that he must be cheating”. I just think that he’s found some sort of optimal setup for this car and no one else has figured it out yet. A few weeks back, Jeff Gordon sounded exasperated when he was talking about how he drove his heart out and had pretty much the same setup as the 48, but he just couldn’t keep up with him.
It’s pretty much become the Annual Jimmie Johnson Chase for the Sprint Cup.
