“It’s not over ‘til it’s over.”
“If it happened to them, it can happen to him.”
“After all, there are still five races to go, anything can happen.”
Sprint Cup Fans surely try to find some rhyme or reason in these notions as they let out a collective sigh of frustration unless they are die-hard Jimmie Johnson fans, because the quirks and quakes of what happened in Charlotte would appear to have put Jimmie Johnson in the driver’s seat to capture his fourth championship lengthening his points lead from easily in reach over Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya to the kind of lead where it would almost surely require something to go wrong with the #48 car for the competition to tighten up. Other top chase contenders can run their best races but few teams are capable of producing the kind of consistency the Lowes Chevrolet achieves.
Here’s how the standings look now with the points each chaser needs to make up on Johnson and how much they lost after completing the NASCAR Banking 500.
1- Jimmie Johnson, 5923 points
2- Mark Martin, 5833 points, (-90) lost 78 points
3- Jeff Gordon, 5788 points, (-135) lost 20 points
4- Tony Stewart, 5768 points, (-155) lost 71 points
5- Kurt Busch, 5746 points, (-177) lost 56 points
6- Juan Pablo Montoya, 5728, (-195) lost 137 points
Cruel, Jeff Gordon did what chasers need to do and finished in the top 5, but a 4th position put him 20 points further behind. Finishing outside the top 10 is lethal. Mark Martin finished in 17th going from easy striking distance to needing to gain some substantial margin over Johnson to get back in the fight. Could Mark Martin gain more than 18 points a race in the last five races? Winning races cures a lot of ills.
Coming up are two tracks notorious for scrambling teams’ fortunes, Martinsville and Talladega; however, who owns Martinsville? Jimmie Johnson won five out the last six races at Martinsville. What does he do with all those grandfather clocks? Teams almost need Johnson to slip as much as they need their drivers to do well for the last five races. Bigger margins have been overcome, but who dominates October and November the way Jimmie Johnson does. While much many have focused on the initial NASCAR Hall-of-Fame induction, think of where a 4th consecutive championship would put Johnson in the history of the sport. Only two drivers would have more championships, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. Only one driver would be his equal, Jeff Gordon, but no one has won four in a row. As Dale Earnhardt was known as the “Intimidator” one has to ask, who’s intimidated now?
With five out of the last six victories at Martinsville belonging to him plus an earlier victory there from October, 2004, DOES HE REALLY NEED ANOTHER GRANDFATHER CLOCK? The rest of the field would be happy if he’d just settle for a couple Martinsville big bright red hot dogs dripping with coleslaw.
“If it happened to them, it can happen to him.”
“After all, there are still five races to go, anything can happen.”
Sprint Cup Fans surely try to find some rhyme or reason in these notions as they let out a collective sigh of frustration unless they are die-hard Jimmie Johnson fans, because the quirks and quakes of what happened in Charlotte would appear to have put Jimmie Johnson in the driver’s seat to capture his fourth championship lengthening his points lead from easily in reach over Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya to the kind of lead where it would almost surely require something to go wrong with the #48 car for the competition to tighten up. Other top chase contenders can run their best races but few teams are capable of producing the kind of consistency the Lowes Chevrolet achieves.
Here’s how the standings look now with the points each chaser needs to make up on Johnson and how much they lost after completing the NASCAR Banking 500.
1- Jimmie Johnson, 5923 points
2- Mark Martin, 5833 points, (-90) lost 78 points
3- Jeff Gordon, 5788 points, (-135) lost 20 points
4- Tony Stewart, 5768 points, (-155) lost 71 points
5- Kurt Busch, 5746 points, (-177) lost 56 points
6- Juan Pablo Montoya, 5728, (-195) lost 137 points
Cruel, Jeff Gordon did what chasers need to do and finished in the top 5, but a 4th position put him 20 points further behind. Finishing outside the top 10 is lethal. Mark Martin finished in 17th going from easy striking distance to needing to gain some substantial margin over Johnson to get back in the fight. Could Mark Martin gain more than 18 points a race in the last five races? Winning races cures a lot of ills.
Coming up are two tracks notorious for scrambling teams’ fortunes, Martinsville and Talladega; however, who owns Martinsville? Jimmie Johnson won five out the last six races at Martinsville. What does he do with all those grandfather clocks? Teams almost need Johnson to slip as much as they need their drivers to do well for the last five races. Bigger margins have been overcome, but who dominates October and November the way Jimmie Johnson does. While much many have focused on the initial NASCAR Hall-of-Fame induction, think of where a 4th consecutive championship would put Johnson in the history of the sport. Only two drivers would have more championships, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. Only one driver would be his equal, Jeff Gordon, but no one has won four in a row. As Dale Earnhardt was known as the “Intimidator” one has to ask, who’s intimidated now?
With five out of the last six victories at Martinsville belonging to him plus an earlier victory there from October, 2004, DOES HE REALLY NEED ANOTHER GRANDFATHER CLOCK? The rest of the field would be happy if he’d just settle for a couple Martinsville big bright red hot dogs dripping with coleslaw.
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